WITH THE COMPLIMENTS LIEUTENANT-COLONEL CLARENCE A. DENISON AND THE OFFICERS OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL S BODY GUARD LIEUTENANT.COLONEL GEORGE TAYLOR DENISON UstMBellevue) Founder and First Commanding Officer of the Governor=General s Body Guard. A THE GOVERNOR - GENERAL S BODY GUARD. A HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN, DEVELOP MENT AND SERVICES OF THE SENIOR CAVALRY REGIMENT IN THE MILITIA SERVICE OF THE DOMINION OF CANADA. WITH SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE MARTIAL ANCESTRY AND MILITARY SPIRIT OF THE LOYAL FOUNDERS OF CANADA S DEFENSIVE FORCE. N? sg BY CAPT. ERNEST J. CHAMBERS, R.O., AUTHOR OF THE HISTORIES OF THE PRINCE OF WALES REGIMENT, 3rd FIELD BATTERY (Montreal), 2nd QUEEN S OWN RIFLES OF CANADA, ETC., ETC. c ? E. L. RUDDY, 60 VICTORIA STREET, TORONTO, 1902. 25101 WITH TORJC PUBLIC LIBRARY MAIN C Entered according1 to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year at the Department of Agriculture, by E L. Ruddy. Printing by R. <:. McLean. liitnlmu by Wilson. Munroe & Co. Kn-i;ivin^s | iy tirip, Liiaitfil. J Kiti-liic :I[>.T by A K:ims;iy. 1 riiLl. ,! wltli Llimtvpf Slugs. CONTENTS. PREFACE. CHAPTER. I. THE BASIS OF THE MILITIA S FOUNDATIONS. II. THE FOUNDING OF A NATIONAL FORCE. III. THE CAVALRY OF 1812-14. IV. THE YORK DRAGOONS. V. THE REBELLION OF 1837-38 THE "QUEEN S LIGHT DRAGOONS. VI. THE "FIRST YORK CAVALRY." VII. THE FENIAN RAID THE "GOVERNOR-GENERAL S BODY GUARD. VIII. THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. IX. WORK AND CHANGES OF FOURTEEN YEARS. X. THE CANADIANS ON THE NILE. XI. THE NORTH-WEST REBELLION. XII. THE BODY GUARD BECOMES A REGIMENT. XIII. BODY GUARDSMEN IN KHAKI. XIV. THE DUKE S VISIT AND ITS DUTIES. PREFACE The Breath of the Lord may rule the sea, And the lies of men the land : And the craft of the tongue may hold in fee The strength of the heavy hand ; Hut though tongues may quicken and strength may sicken. And hands grow soft and small, Year upon year the day grows near Of the unsheathed sword and the shaken spear, That shall make amends for all. FHAXK L. POLLOCK. with the ESTEEM it a very great honor and privilege to have been entrusted writing of the regimental history of the Governor (leneral s Body Guard, but entered upon the work with much misgiving, fearing that I should not be I the old able to do justice to my subject. From early boyhood, when joined Montreal High School Cadet Rities, I have been interested in the militia, and the name of Denison s Cavalry has represented to my mind the very ideal of with to Canadian military spirit and militia efficiency. My anxiety regard my when it is remembered present task can consequently be understood, especially that some of the Denisons themselves are distinguished as authors as well as soldiers. One of them, the late Lieut.-Col. F. C. Deiiison, whose acquaintance I had the honor of forming at the time he was organizing the Nile Voyageurs, Record" of the Guard, and 1 published in 1876 a concise "Historical Body have availed myself freely of his careful work in the present book. It will also be found that I have quoted extensively from Lieut.-Col. G. T. Denison s in Canada. 1 The (lleydon Villa) extremely readable work, "Soldiering present commanding has evinced a interest in the present book, officer, Lieut.-Col. Clarence A. Denison, very kindly from order books and official and has contributed some invaluable matter to it, including extracts his diaries, etc. I documents in his possession, extracts from personal newspaper clippings, etc., of Merritt and who have con must also acknowledge the invaluable assistance Majors Fleming, are based. tributed a considerable amount of the information on which the concluding chapters of this historical With so much assistance I hope I have been able to produce a history truly not as a means of exciting the proper corps pride of the corps which will prove useful, merely the throughout the district in which it will be regiment, but as a stimulant to military spirit chiefly circulated. to underrate the value I know from dear experience that there is a very marked disposition at such times as the late Boer but this of the military spirit in Canada, except perhaps War; pre of militia in Canada would do. shows that it is to sent history, as the accurate record any corps most official those who, in spite of individual sneering and persistent discouragement, carefully in tried to foster a wholesome military spirit, that the safety of Canada was due 1837, 1838, 1866, 1870 and 1885. of the vast Those who argue that Canadians are too much occupied with the development natural resources of the country to devote time and money to the cultivation of a military spirit or As and the training of a strong military force, do so either ignorantly foully unpatriotically. so the need to protect it increases, not the private and natural wealth of the country develops, The sinews of war are not if the sinews diminishes. As Francis of Verulam put it : money, nation." We find Virgil of men s arms be wanting, as they are in a soft and effeminate express not how the flock is." ing the same idea: "The wolf cares large the that such a Those who would discourage the fostering of a military spirit on ground read with their eyes shut, for the records of the past spirit is a menace to peace, certainly history safe of all arts as that "a show that it is as certain that the art of war is the only protectress sub latet. Glaudianus.) To severe war lurks under the show of peace." (Mars gruvior pace the must be able to rely upon the tan have real peace assured so far as it ever can be, country trained national defensive force. Extemporized armies are only gible result of military spirit, a counts for little. In the science of war, as in useful as auxiliaries; spasmodic military training no time of rest. all others, there is no period of inaction, honorable one. The record of the Governor General s Body Guard is a long and extremely as what the military spirit of a succession of It is very interesting historically demonstrating men can under great disadvantages and repeated dis patriotic and self-sacrificing accomplish out these salient points, it falls couragements; and if the present book does not clearly bring short of the designs of its compiler. ERNEST J. CHAMBERS. 38 Park Avenue, Montreal, September 23rd, 1902. CHAPTER I. THE BASIS OF THE MILITIA S FOUNDATIONS. Not drooping like poor fugitives, they came, in exodus to our Canadian wilds; But full of heart and hope, with heads erect, And fearless eyes, victorious in defeat, With thousand toils they forced their devious way Through the great wilderness of silent woods, That gloomed o er lake and stream, till higher rose The Northern Star above the broad domain Of half a continent, still theirs to hold. Defend and keep forever as their own, Their own and England s, to the end of time. "The Hungry Year." W. T. KIKHV. circum OT merely the geographical situation of Upper Canada, but the special stances connected with the first serious settlement of the Province as well, from the made the question of national defence one of vital importance of country s earliest infancy. Upper Canada had become the refuge 10,000 of the United Empire Loyalists, people hated with a fierce and ever-increasing hatred for their loyalty to their King by their former republican neighbors- that came neighbors who, to give them whatever credit may be due on account, next to by their disloyalty naturally, by inheritance. A rampant democracy, being childishly bombastic, is nothing if not unreasonably revengeful. Revenge the of their of a mean description led the American revolutionists to soil opening chapters of and it was natural to national story with as foul a blot as disfigures the pages history, only of the new would suppose that in pursuit of their chosen policy of revenge, the citizens republic which furn seize the first opportunity they could to inflict loss and trouble upon the country ished an asylum and a home to so many of the United Empire Loyalists. Subsequent history and on their shows that they actually put themselves out to seize such an opportunity, brought own country a terrible chastisement for their pains. with the But in proportion as Upper Canada, in its infancy, was threatened revengeful ambitions of the American democrats, so did the devoted and cruelly-tried loyalty of Canada s of new settlers rise to the emergency, and so did the importance of providing an adequate system connected with the of national defence magnify itself in their loyal hearts. The facts coming noble founders of Canada s the loyalists, and the tempers and lofty characters of these premier the which led to the province, have to be considered before it is possible to understand motives establishment of the Upper Canada militia. With the exception of some small settlements in the neighborhood of Frontenac, now Kings ton, where there had for years been an old French post of considerable importance, the present Province of Ontario was a wilderness when Canada was ceded to Britain in 1761, and but a trifling amount of settlement took place before the advent of the United Empire Loyalists in 1782, 1783 and 1784. So the Loyalists, when they came into their new homes, found that there was 110 militia in the country, because there were no men to compose it.