prairie; and the whole mass of population in the
district of Montreal made a spontaneous movement towards the point of
invasion with an enthusiasm unsurpassed in any age or country.

"General Dearborn, who, no doubt, was well informed of the state of the
public mind in Lower Canada at this crisis, foresaw, from the multitude
assembled to oppose his progress, and the hostile spirit of the
Canadians, the fruitlessness of an attempt to invade Lower Canada, and
began to withdraw his sickly and already enfeebled host into winter
quarters at Plattsburg and Burlington.

"All apprehensions of an invasion of Lower Canada for the present season
having disappeared, the troops and embodied militia were, on the 27th of
November, ordered into winter quarters."[203]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 203: Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap, iv., pp.
90-92.

"The armistice between General Smyth and Sheaffe after the battle of
Queenston was terminated on the 20th of November, pursuant to
notification to that effect from the former. This and the former
armistice, without affording any present advantage, proved in the event
materially prejudicial to the British on Lake Erie. The Americans
availed themselves of so favourable an occasion to forward their naval
stores unmolested from Black Rock to Presqu' Isle [Erie] by water, which
they could not otherwise have effected, but with immense trouble and
expense by land, and equipped at leisure a fleet which afterwards
wrested from us the command of that lake."--_Ib._, pp. 92, 93.]

CHAPTER LVI.

PART I.

WAR CAMPAIGNS OF 1813--THREE DIVISIONS OF THE AMERICAN ARMY--BATTLE OF
FRENCHTOWN, AMERICANS DEFEATED--MISREPRESENTATIONS CORRECTED.

The campaign of 1813 opened auspiciously for the Canadians, in both
Upper and Lower Canada, notwithstanding the fewness of their defenders
in regulars, militia, and Indians, and though they suffered severely in
several instances towards the close of the year.

It was manifest from the movement of the American army to the frontiers
of Upper and Lower Canada, before the close of the year 1812, that on
the opening of the campaign of 1813 they intended to retrieve the
disasters and disgraces of the first year of the war, and make descents
upon the colonies in good earnest. Sir George Prevost, Governor-General,
was placed at great disadvantage for their general defence, as the small
British force then occupying the Canadas, and the wide extent of
fro