James Fitzgibbon Manuscript, Glenbow Archives (M-9718-58
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James FitzGibbon manuscript, Glenbow Archives (M-9718-58) Return to list of other FitzGibbon family papers at Glenbow: www.glenbow.org/collections/search/findingAids/archhtm/moodieg.cfm#series4 First Narrative [1 Top half of the page missing] of future good fortune. When Ireland was threatened [words missing] France in 1796, the People of the South of Ireland [words missing] and my Father to show his loyalty enrolled his name and [word missing] name of my Eldest Brother and mine, although I was not then 16. In twelve months afterwards I drilled the Knight of Glin’s Corps of dismounted Cavalry being the only one in it capable, and on an augmentation being made to the Corps of one Serjeant [Sargent] and twenty men, the Knight sent to my Father’s House the Arms and Appointments for the Serjeant [Sargent] and conferred the appointment upon me. In 1798 the first Lieut. of the Corps obtained a Company in the Tarbert Fencibles, then raising by Sir Edward Leplie, and he prevailed upon me to enlist with him having promised he would have me appointed pay Serjeant [Sargent] of his Company. In 1799 leave was given to the Men of the Regiment, then stationed in Poole in Dorsetshire, to Volunteer into certain Regiments of the line forming part of the Army intended for the invasion of North Holland, and I [2 To half of the page missing] [Words missing, lines ends with] isolated from [word missing] [Words missing, lines ends with] ed in disarming three of them when others [Words missing, lines ends with] only from behind a Sandhill came in my rear, [Words missing] by me, and seize and dragged me off with them – none of my own men having followed me in advancing as I had no doubt they would have done. By Virtue of the Convention which permitted our Army to leave Holland unmolested, I was with all the British prisoners taken during the Campaign, sent back to England in January following. In March 1801, the 49 th was embarked at Spit Head, as Marines, on Board the Fleet intended for the Baltic. The Grenadier Company to which I belonged embarked in the Monarch 74. At Copenhagen this ship had 210 Men killed and wounded before the Great Trekoner Battery, being the greatest number ever before known to be killed and wounded on Board a British Ship of War. After the ratification of Peace in 1802 the 49 th was sent to Quebec,* {see the slip attached to this page}* where the landing Col. Brock appointed me Serjeant [Sargent] Major: and in September of the year following he *I desire to add here, what did not occur to me when writing this narrative, namely, that after embarking for Quebec in June 1806, and having no longer any hope of obtaining a promotion by the casualties of War, I resolved to try for it by acquiring a more than ordinary share of Military knowledge, and by using it with untiring zeal and industry - I was on the soop of the ship in Deal Roads, and taking a farewell view of England, when I made this resolve, and immediately went below to the Serjeant [Sargent] Major and obtained a loan of the rules and regulations for the Field exercise of His Majesty’s Forces, and I studied it daily, when the weather permitted, in the boat which hung over the stern of the ship, and I made myself master of all the movements before we reach Quebec. I had reason afterwards to know that Col. Brock discovered my proceeding, and on the landing of the Regiment he transferred Serjeant [Sargent] Major to the office of Quarter Master Serjeant [Sargent] then vacant, for which he was better qualified, and appointed me Serjeant [Sargent] Major. I was then in my 22 nd Year.* 3 recommended me for the Adjutantcy [Adjutancy] about to become vacant by the resignation of Lieut. Lewis who resigned to Adjutantcy [Adjutancy] only, but as no vacant Lieutenantcy [Lieutenancy] occurred for more than two years afterwards the resignation could not be accepted and I could only act as Adjutant until February 1806, when Col. Brock obtained an Ensigncy for me, and in December of the same year I succeeded to the Adjutantcy [Adjutancy]. In 1812, when the American Government declared War against Great Britain, I prayed of Col. Vincent, who then commanded the Regiment, in Montreal, to let me resign the Adjutantcy [Adjutancy] only, and take the Command of a Company of one of the absent Captains, and he complied, and in a week I was, by Order of Sir George Prevost, placed at the head of a Company. I took this step in the hope that during the War I might be employed as a partisan which as Adjutant, I could not be. In a few days after I was entrusted with the charge of 44 Batteaux laden with Military Stores for Kingston to be conveyed from Montreal over the Rapids of the Saint Lawrence, have the American Frontier close upon my left hand for more than 100 miles. This duty was most successfully accomplished. In January 1813 I was sent from Kingston with Forty five Sleighs with Stores round Lake Ontario to the Niagara Frontier, and on my arrival there I was detached with the Company to the shores of Lake Erie, to the most distant Post on the Right of the army on the Niagara Frontier. In April being withdrawn to the Niagara River, below Fort Erie, and the navigation being then open, a Lieutenant of the American navy with a Party came upon one of the Islands in the River to shoot, when I managed to gain the Island in a Batteau with 12 men, unobserved, and captured them (4) in number Six, being the Lieut. two Friends of his, and three Seamen. It was very trifling affair, but we being then all on the defensive and our means very slender, any successful act of aggression on our part, gave much animation to our men, and it was much talked of. After the Americans captured Fort George on the 27 th May 1813, our whole Force retreated from the Frontier and retired on Burlington Heights, at the head of Lake Ontario, followed by the Americans. On the evening of the 5 th June L. Col (Sir John) Harvey now counselled Major General Vincent to turn upon the enemy at Stony Creek and attack them in their Camp. This was done on the following morning before day and both their Generals, Chandler and Winder, were taken prisoners with 7 other officers and 116 men and two Field Pieces, which we brought back with us to Burlington Heights. The Enemy in the course of that day fell back from Stony Creek and I was much surprised that we were not immediately pushed forward by waggons and in every possible way to harass their retreat. But we were not for two days after, when we advanced a few miles only to the Forty mile Creek. This suggested to me the idea of praying to be employed in advance with a small Force to be moved about solely at my own discretion. I therefore on the 12 applied to Lt. Col. Harvey, he being Deputy Adjutant General, to have me so employed, and his first expression was, “most cheerfully. I have been looking around me for an officer to send in the advance but I did not think of you. Come to me in one hour with a written plan of your intended operations and I will be then ready to propose you to the General.” We did so and I marched at ten that night with 50 men, having during the day made up the Company’s accounts and transferred them (5) to another officer – Selected my 50 Men from the several companies – and purchased a quantity of Fustian to make Shell Jackets, so that in one hour I could show fifty Red Coats at one point, and in another hour could exhibit 50 Gray Coats at another point. I purchased also three Cow Bells one for each of my Serjeants, [Sargents] to be used at night in the woods, near that enemy to guide us, when the Bugle, Whistle, or Word of Command might give an alarm which the Bells would not; Cows, with Bells hung to their necks, being everywhere found near and on the Farms. For nine days I interrupted the communication between Fort George and Fort Erie, both being in the hands of the Enemy. On the 21 st June I pursued a troop of mounted men, Volunteers, under a well known Militia Colonel named Chapin. I sent some of my Militia men, who accompanied me as Guides, across section of the Country and they threw the planks off the Chippewa Bridge thus placing the mounted men, as it were, in a trap. But it so happened, that 150 Infantry coming from Fort Erie were also found in the trap when I closed upon the mounted men, and they (the 150 Infantry) escorted the mounted men back to Fort George – for I was obliged to decline the attack in open ground, having at the moment only 44 Muskets with me. While they were, however, within what I have described as a trap, I approached a Village through which they had just passed and seeing a Dragoon’s horse at the door of a Tavern I stepped quickly towards the door in hopes of surprising the Rider and making him prisoner, that I may obtain information from him.