Photo by Lucille Coleman
Military Memorials in Canada
Brown had come over to fight and annoy us,
Izard succeeded to blow up and destroy us,
Bold Drummond was posted on Welland’s steep banks,
Where he kept his brave soldiers close in their ranks.
Izard roamed up and down for a chance to pass over,
Not a bridge, not a ford, could he discover,
Not a raft, not a boat, not e’en a canoe,
Said he to his men “this business won’t do.”
Unless we can swim, like the Niagara ducks,
We cannot get over to strike these Canucks,
Besides we have eaten along this great river—
All the provisions here stored, so its “stand and deliver.”
Says Bissel, “we’ll march, if us you will send,—
With riflemen, Dragoons, the spoil we will rend.”
So his band it roamed round, and took at their will,
All in the back country, but the flour in Cooks Mill.
On the nineteenth October, they arrived at the place,
Where the undaunted Glengaries [sic – Glengarries] they met face to face,
The single Canuck two Yanks had to meet ;
No disgrace, after fighting, they beat a retreat.
Fighting, not plunder, Yanks hands did employ,
So they thought it the best, Cook’s Mills to destroy.
To head-quarters they march with diminished ranks,
Sans plunder, sans glory, with very small thanks.
A few days more the enemy linger,
But of our provisions they touch not a finger,
November the fifth, ʼmid explosion of bastions,
They ferry across, and eat their full rations.
Source: William Kirby Fonds, Archives of Ontario, MU1652, box 18, item G-56:
“The Battle of Cook’s Mills and the Evacuation of Canada, 19 October 1814”. A patriotic poem by “J.P.M.” [J. P. Merritt].
Read about the Battle of Cook’s Mills
