Talk:Laura Secord
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James Secord and the Battle of Queenston Heights
The section entitled "War of 1812" contains some dubious or misleading information.
While Sarah Ann Curzon's 1887 biography states that James enrolled as a Sergeant in the 1st Lincoln in June 1812,[1] more recent sources such as Ruth McKenzie and Peggy Dymond Leavey indicate that James was with Isaac Swayze's Provincial Artillery Drivers during the Battle of Queenston Heights. According to McKenzie and Leavey, James had been a captain in the 1st Lincoln before the war but had resigned his commission. He reenlisted as a sergeant when the war began, but was assigned to the Provincial Artillery Drivers, also known as the Car Brigade.[2][3] This unit was responsible for moving field guns and ammunition during military engagements.[4]
Sergeant James Secord appears on a nominal return of the Provincial Artillery Drivers prepared by Captain Isaac Swayze after the war. James was one of several that Swayze recorded were taken "out of different regiments of the militia and served from three to six months as drivers."[5]
This apocryphal story first appears in Emma Currie's 1900 biography of Laura Secord[6] and was repeated in the bombastic and not always accurate speech that George Bryce gave to the Canadian Club in 1907.[7] Neither Currie or Bryce, however, indicate their source. The story does not appear in Leavey or McKenzie, nor is it referred to in any of the petitions submitted by James or Laura after the war, or in the two accounts that Laura wrote. This lack of documentary evidence strongly suggests that the story is simply not true.
Multiple sources record that Isaac Brock was leading elements of the 49th Regiment of Foot when he was killed in the early hours of October 13th.[4][8][9] George Jarvis, a gentleman volunteer with the 49th Foot, witnessed Brock's death:
This is collaborated by the account of Lieutenant John Beverley Robinson who was with the 3rd York during a second attempt to dislodge the Americans:
Brock's aide-de-camp, Captain Glegg, recorded that Brock was "at the head of a small body of regular troops," and that the general's "body was immediately carried into a house at Queenston."[10] This strongly suggests that it was soldiers of the 49th who did the carrying.
"May have been a later embellishment" is quite the understatement. This anecdote also made its first appearance in Currie's biography. She attributed the story to Laura's grandson but did not question its authenticity. McKenzie, however, wrote that the "story does not ring true,"[2], while Leavey called it "a colourful story, but hardly true."[3]
Laura didn't learn that James was wounded until hours after Major General Sheaffe's successful counterattack. The Americans had surrendered and the British were in control of the battlefield. In her 1853 account Laura wrote:
In her 1861 account she added that she got James home "with the assistance of a gentleman."[2]
Both Leavey and McKenzie record that Captain Wool had returned to the American side of the river before the counterattack.[2][3] Despite having been wounded early in the battle, Wool led the attack that overran the British artillery position halfway up Queenston Heights, and later repulsed the attempts by Brock and Lieutenant Colonel John Macdonell to retake the battery. Once American reinforcements arrived, Wool was ordered back across the Niagara River to have his wounds treated.[9][11]
The following is proposed as a replacement:
It is also proposed that the section be renamed "Battle of Queenston Heights."
Griffin's Sword (talk) 18:02, 25 January 2025 (UTC)
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- ↑ Library and Archives Canada. War of 1812: Upper Canada Nominal Rolls and Paylists, RG 9 1B7 (Microform T-10380 p. 135–137).
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