Lands At Detroit

George Rogers Clark Papers, 1771-, Volume 8, By George Rogers Clark:

Flotilla Got Past The Guards

Heights (or Plains) Of Abraham And Quebec City  Illustrated on Map (Partial Section - Map Source LOC)

From The Plains of Abraham:

"As it came level with the batteries of Sillery and Samos, the flotilla had reached its crucial danger point. The French had posts passed without incident, but at the second a guard sighted the leading boats and immediately challenged them."

"Invisible in the dark hour before the dawn, his sharp Qui vive? came as an unwelcome shock. A quick-witted officer of the Fraser Highlanders, Captain Donald McDonald, who in his time had served the Jacobite cause in France and spoke the language perfectly, answered in a low voice, "La France!" The sentry was insistent:  "A quel regiment," he demanded--"De la Reine," McDonald ventured, knowing that part of this battalion was with Bougainville. The sentry, apparently satisfied, did not ask for the password."

"A little further on, under the Samos battery, another sentry repeated the challenge and he could just be seen running down to the water within pistol shot. What are you speaking so quietly for, he wanted to know. Provision boats, replied McDonald. Don't make noise or the English will hear us. Again the sentry let them pass."

Ruled By France

Under the lily and the rose: A Short History Of Canada For Children:

Source - Une Petite Canadienne

Quebec is a long distance from Versailles. In the days of which I write it seemed far, so very far away, and oft-times the settlers longed for the sunny land of France which the older people still  remembered. The colony had fallen on evil days. Sickness and want had left their impress. Even the Governor was quite as helpless as the people, for they were still largely dependent on France for support. There were no factories either in Quebec, Three Rivers, or Montreal, and when the crops were poor the inhabitants were reduced to starvation.

Old Notre Dame Church On Place d'Armes

Montreal and Vicinity ...,  By N. M. Hinshelwood:

McGill University

Montreal and Vicinity ...,  By N. M. Hinshelwood:

"McGill University derives a splendid revenue from the many magnificent gifts and bequests that have from time to time supplemented the original legacy of James McGill. Although the charter was granted in 1821, it was not until 1829 that the university was formally opened."

St. Clair's Proposed Detroit Project

The St. Clair Papers...,  By Arthur St. Clair:

"Congress had appointed commissioners to repair to Fort Pitt to treat with the Indians, and induce them to a neutrality during our contest with Great Britain.  [The commissioners] requested that I would accompany them and act as their secretary during the negotiations...".  "...in the course of time [I] formed the project of a volunteer expedition to surprise Detroit...".

"The commissioners strongly recommended the measure to Congress; but after a delay of many weeks, it was disapproved, and the reason assigned was that General Arnold was before Quebec, and the fall of that place was counted on as certain, and Detroit, as a dependency, must fall with it, and would be included in the capitulation."

"The true reason I suppose to have been the scarcity of ammunition."

"But Arnold's expedition ended in disaster."

Prisoner Held In Quebec

For background information, see earlier post.

NARRATIVE

OF

MR. JOHN DODGE

DURING HIS CAPTIVITY

AT DETROIT

 The story of the rescue of a prisoner from the Indians, related in his Narrative, is contained in the report of the Virginia Council of June 16, 1779. Sometimes at liberty, engaged in trading, and sometimes confined in jail as a rebel, he remained in Detroit and Mackinac till May, 1778, when he was sent down to Quebec, at which place he arrived on the first day of June.

In the reports of rebel prisoners at Quebec in June and July, 1778, are three entries referring to Dodge as follows: "John Dodge, 24 years old, from Connecticut, a trader settled at Detroit for seven years, sent down by Lieutenant Governor Hamilton. His commercial effects at Detroit. Taken up on suspicion of having been in arms with the rebels." He remained in Quebec until the ninth day of the following October when he escaped, going first to Boston and subsequently to General Washington. Dodge does not state where or when he met Washington, but as the General was in attendance at Congress from December 21, 1778, until some time in the following January, he probably met him at Philadelphia. Dodge says he visited Congress "having some matters relating to Canada worthy their hearing." This related to the "certain expedition" referred to by Washington in his letter of December 29th, a proposition to invade Canada. Dodge was at Fort Pitt in the early part of January, 1779, and from that port wrote a letter to John Montour. There is no record of Dodge's appearance before Congress, but he wrote a letter on the subject, to Congress... .

John Dodge - Last Name In Excerpt Of List Of POWS

On Board The Sloop Charlotte

Journal of J. L., of Quebec, merchant,  By John Lees, Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Michigan:

Ship On Great Lakes (Sloop?)

See an extracted newspaper account of the supposed attack on the Sloop Charlotte.

William Dummer Powell, First Judge At Detroit

Source

William Dummer Powell

From the blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society:

The Diary of Ann Powell, 1789...describes a trip down the Saint Lawrence River, 11 May-June 1789, with her brother William Dummer Powell and his family. The Powells were United Empire Loyalists... . 

Early History Of Amherstburg

Source

"We see therefore that in 1784 settlement of the Malden township first began, in a somewhat irregular manner. The settlers were not exactly squatters, they had the consent of the Indians, the recognition of the Lientenant-Governor of Detroit, and, apparently, the approval of the Governor of Quebec. Their settlement was to be known as Fredericksburg, whether after Sir Frederick Haldimand or after Frederick, the son of George III, cannot be stated."


A Land Board was established as another step taken to organize the area:

There Was No Sign

From The Plains of Abraham by Brian Connell:

"Of the French there was no sign."

"...Montcalm...thought that the British had attacked the French provision convoy... . Wearily the French stood to arms again, but as dawn broke, they could see no threatening movement in front of them. .... Breathing a sigh of relief, Montcalm, convinced that the bulk of the British army was still east of Quebec, retired to his command post in the village of Beauport for a cup of hot tea."

Detroit's Last French Commandant

Plat Map Of Detroit Circa 1708

A military expedition by Belestre was mentioned in the Journal of J. L., of Quebec, merchant,  By John Lees...

"Settlers took shelter at the time descent was made on the German Flatts in the beginning of the last War, by a party from Canada, under the command of *Captain Billeter."

*"Billeter--Francois Marie Picote de Bellestre was the last French Commandant at Detroit.  He died at Quebec about May 20, 1793.  At that time he was member of the legislative council of Lower Canada."

Death Of Wolfe

Source

The Death Of Wolfe On The Plains Of Abraham, Quebec

"Wolfe's first line consisted of 3,111 men. The amount of ground they had to cover only permitted them to be drawn up two deep, the files a yard apart, with forty yards or more between the battalions, surely the thinnest "red line" in the history of the British army." Quote taken from The Plains of Abraham.

Fighting On Their Own Terms

From The Plains of Abraham by Brian Connell:

According to the field state on the morning of September 13th, Wolfe had with him, when all the men had reached the top of the cliff, 4,828 combatants of all ranks.

Wolfe relied on one factor to tip the balance of the day--his men were all regulars, including the two battalions of the Royal Americans, who had been drilled up to his exacting standards. For the first time in the course of the war in North America they were in a position to fight on their own terms--in the open field, where their superb, mechanical discipline and massed fire power would tell to the utmost.

The area in between (Buttes a Neveu ridge and Quebec), mostly green pasture with a few cornfields, studded here and there with clumps of bushes derived its name from Abraham Martin, a pilot who had owned part of the land in the early years of the colony, and was called the Plains of Abraham.

The pictures below (of French-Indian era reenactors) were originally published here.

Memoir of Jean Baptiste Faribault

Memoir of Jean Baptiste Faribault:

Bartholomew Faribault, the father of the subject of this memoir...was so prominent, that he received from the government the important appointment of Military Secretary to the French army in Canada, then under the command of Montcalm. He came to Canada, entered upon his duties, and continued to discharge them until the 12th September, 1759, the day which witnessed the defeat of the French under the walls of Quebec, by the British forces commanded by the gallant General Wolfe... .

Source - Eastern North America, 1763

Jean Baptiste Faribault was born in Berthier, Canada, in 1774, one of 10 children, 4 of whom reached adulthood.

It was only by the combined influence and persuasion of his kindred and friends, that he was prevented from encountering the hardships and dangers of a sailor's life, for which he had early manifested a decided inclination. While thus thwarted, and still uncertain as to his future mode of life, an incident occurred which but for the strong remonstrances of his friends, would have resulted in his entering upon a military career. 

Faribault went to work for the Northwest Fur Company, traveling to Montreal and then to Michilimackinac (Mackinac).

Mackinac Island In The Distance

The station or trading post to which young Faribault was assigned was...not very far from the present site of the city of Chicago. That region being under the jurisdiction of the United States, it was a necessary preliminary that a license to trade be obtained from the proper authorities (from Governor Harrison of the Northwest Territory). Faribault was promoted to a post on the Des Moines river.  He narrowly escaped assassination... .

During the third year of his residence at Little Rapids [yet another post], Mr. Faribault married a widow, the daughter [some sources say widow] of a Mr. Hanse, who had been previously Superintendent of Indian Affairs. This event precluded any idea of Mr. F.'s return to Canada.

The combined force of militia and Indians, upon their arrival at Prairie du Chien, made preparations to attack the American post. Mrs. F. supposed her husband to have proceeded to Mackinac, and had no idea that he was a prisoner in the hands of the attacking party.

The wife of Jean Baptiste Faribault died at Mendota June 19, 1847.

Faribault's son-in-law was Major [Stern H.] Fowler, the husband of daughter Emily.  Mr. Faribault died 20 August 1860 at his daughter's house.

United States Census, 1860

name:  Isan B Fauland [sic]

residence: , Rice, Minnesota

ward: Township Of Fanbault [sic]

age: 85 years

estimated birth year: 1775

birthplace: Canada E

gender:  Male

See de Salaberry post in War of 1812 for related information.

The Evolution Of Belle Isle

From Legends of Le Détroit:

The missionaries, indignant at this exhibition of idolatry, broke the statue in a thousand pieces and in its place erected a cross, at whose foot they affixed the coat of arms of France with this:

Taking the largest fragment of the broken idol the missionaries...towed it to the deepest part of the river so that it should be heard of no more. But the tradition says that after the fathers were far away a band of Indians coming to offer their homage to the deity found only its mutilated remains. Each took a fragment which he placed in his canoe as a fetish and it guided them to where the Spirit of the Manitou had taken refuge under the deep sombre shadow of Belle Isle.

 He bade them bring every fragment of his broken image and to strew them on the banks of his abode. They obeyed his order and behold each stone was converted into a rattlesnake, which should be as a sentinel... .

The Tugboat Hunter blog has a post with a view of the river from Belle Isle.

Two Canoes Bound For Detroit

From the Journal of J. L., of Quebec, merchant:

John Lees' Journal

Journal of J. L., of Quebec, merchant,  By John Lees, Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Michigan

An excerpt from the Journal:

"The passengers came all ashore at the long Wharff and were conducted by Captain Hall to one Collonel Ingarsols a good Tavern in Kings Street which leads down to the Kings Wharf."

Quebec's Wolfe's Cove

Text below is from The Plains of Abraham:

"Landslides over the two hundred years since have changed the configuration of the cliffs at what is now known as Wolfe's Cove and even obscured the exact point up which the British force climbed."

Source

"They were about a hundred yards of the Quebec side of Vergor's tents. The ever-resourceful Captain McDonald misled the first sentry they found by telling him that he had been sent with a large force to take over the post and to call off the guard. The tented encampment was rushed. The picket, after a scattered volley from those awake, fled into a cornfield towards town. Vergor, who had momentarily stood his ground, was shot in the heel and captured. Not a man of the "forlorn hope" was hurt."

The Strength Of New France

From The Plains of Abraham by Brian Connell, a book about the French-Indian War:

"Strategically, French America occupied a position of almost impregnable strength."
"New France was more than Canada. It stretched more than three thousand miles from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi."

Source Of An Early Map Ca. 1664 (McGill University)- Virginia And Florida Were Included

My In Deeds blog included another early map in a post entitled McGill University's Map Collection Online, remembering that Michigan was once part of Canada.