Talk:Laura Secord

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A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

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James Secord and the Battle of Queenston Heights

The section entitled "War of 1812" contains some dubious or misleading information.

James Secord served in the 1st Lincoln Militia under Isaac Brock when the War of 1812 broke out.

While Sarah Ann Curzon's 1887 biography states that James enrolled as a Sergeant in the 1st Lincoln in June 1812, 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. This unit was responsible for moving field guns and ammunition during military engagements.

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."

He was among those who helped carry away Brock's body after Brock was killed in the first attack of the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812.

This apocryphal story first appears in Emma Currie's 1900 biography of Laura Secord and was repeated in the bombastic and not always accurate speech that George Bryce gave to the Canadian Club in 1907. 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. George Jarvis, a gentleman volunteer with the 49th Foot, witnessed Brock's death:

... placing himself at the head of the light company of the 49th, he led the way up the mountain at double quick time in the very teeth of a sharp fire from the enemy's riflemen... our gallant General fell on his left side, within a few feet of where I stood.

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 was proceeding up the right of the mountain to attack them in flank when he received a ball in his breast. Several of the 49th assembled around him. One poor fellow was severely wounded by a cannon ball and fell across the General. They succeeded, however, in conveying his body to Queenston."

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." This strongly suggests that it was soldiers of the 49th who did the carrying.

James himself was severely wounded in the leg and shoulder during the battle. Laura heard of his predicament and rushed to his side. Some sources suggest that she found three American soldiers preparing to beat him to death with their gunstocks. She begged them to save her husband's life, reportedly offering her own in return, when American Captain John E. Wool happened upon the situation and reprimanded the soldiers. This story may have been a later embellishment and may have originated with her grandson, James B. Secord. When the Secords arrived home, they found that the house had been looted in Laura's absence.

"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,", while Leavey called it "a colourful story, but hardly true."

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:

I shall commence at the battle of Queenston, where I was at the time the cannon balls were flying around me in every direction. I left the place during the engagement. After the battle I returned to Queenston, and then found that my husband had been wounded; my house plundered and property destroyed.

In her 1861 account she added that she got James home "with the assistance of a gentleman."

Both Leavey and McKenzie record that Captain Wool had returned to the American side of the river before the counterattack. 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.

The following is proposed as a replacement:

When the United States declared war against Britain in June 1812, James enlisted in the 1st Lincoln Regiment of Militia as an sergeant. He had previously been a captain in the 1st Lincoln but had resigned his commission before 1812. James was attached to Isaac Swayze's troop of Provincial Royal Artillery Drivers, also known as the "Car Brigade." This unit was responsible for moving field guns and ammunition during military engagements.

On October 13, 1812, the Americans crossed the Niagara River and landed near Queenston. Laura and her five children took shelter in a farmhouse about a mile inland, while James mustered with the militia. During the ensuing Battle of Queenston Heights, James was shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the knee. When the guns fell silent, Laura returned to the village to discover that American soldiers had ransacked her house. She received word that James had been wounded and headed for the battlefield. With "the assistance of a gentleman" Laura brought James to their home and treated his injuries. Once James was well enough to be moved, Laura took her husband and children to St. Davids where they spent the winter living with James's relatives.

An early biographer of Laura Secord, Emma A. Currie, related a story, attributed to James and Laura's grandson, that Laura encountered three American soldiers intending to club her wounded husband to death with their muskets. An American officer, Captain John E. Wool, intervened, sent the three back across the river under guard, and ordered his men to carry James to his house in Queenston. This story has been dismissed by later biographers as the Americans had surrendered well before Laura arrived on the battlefield, while Captain Wool had been ordered back across the river hours earlier to have have his wounds treated.

It is also proposed that the section be renamed "Battle of Queenston Heights."

Griffin's Sword (talk) 18:02, 25 January 2025 (UTC)