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General Brocke put himself at the head of the 49th's Grenadiers, and while gallantly cheering them on, he fell mortally wounded, and soon after died. His trusty aid-de-camp, the brave Colonel McDonell, fell beside him, almost at the same moment, never again to rise in life. The 49th fought stoutly for a time, but, discouraged by the loss of the General, they fell back and the position was lost.
He died at the age of 42, and the remains of this gallant defender of Upper Canada were buried at Fort George, together with those of his aid-de-camp, Colonel McDonell. One grave contained both. General Brocke was buried amidst the tears of those whom he had often led to victory, and amidst the sympathetic sorrowing of even those who had caused his death.
Knowing from his absurd proclamation, how much in dread he stood of the Indians, General Brocke intimated that if an attack were made, the Indians would be beyond his control; that if Detroit were instantly surrendered, he would enter into conditions such as would satisfy the most scrupulous sense of honor; and that he had sent Lieutenant-Colonel McDonnell and Major Glegg with full authority to conclude any arrangement that might prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood.
He opened the session on the 29th of December, and in his speech from the throne, alluded to the honorable termination of the campaign, without much effusion of blood, any loss of territory, or recourse having been had to martial law. He proudly alluded to the achievements in Upper Canada, and feelingly alluded to the loss sustained by the country, in the death of General Brocke.
Alison's History of Europe, page 662, vol. 10. General Brocke, ignorant of the armistice, and indeed it did not affect him, for General Hull had acted under the immediate orders of the American Secretary at War, and was consequently irresponsible to General Dearborn, with the aid of the Lilliputian navy of the Lakes, was maintaining the ascendancy of Great Britain in Upper Canada and Michigan.
For upwards of an hour the cannonade was terrific, the fire of the enemy being very feebly maintained, from two twenty-four pounders. On the morning of the eighteenth, the cannonade recommenced, and General Brocke crossed the river with his little army, unopposed, at the Spring Wells, three miles below Detroit, the landing being effected under cover of the guns of the Queen Charlotte and Hunter.
The circumstance is not a little curious that only three days after General Hull had surrendered to Governor Brocke, Captain Dacres, commanding H.M.S. Guerrière, had surrendered to Captain Isaac Hull, after a most severe action with the American frigate Constitution. The Constitution was most heavily armed for a vessel of that period.
They had no idea of transferring their allegiance to a power who had visited them with the miseries of war, for no fault of theirs. Hull was dismayed. When it was announced that General Brocke was advancing against him, he sounded a retreat. Unwilling that his fears should be communicated to the troops under him, General Hull retreated ostensibly with the view of concentrating the army.
It was late in the season, and the weather becoming more and more boisterous, the Americans bore away for Sackett's Harbour, in making for which they captured two British schooners, taking from one of them, Captain Brocke, the paymaster of the 49th regiment of the line, who had with him the plate which had belonged to his gallant deceased brother, the late Governor of Upper Canada.
But the Pointe Claire habitants bitterly repented the resistance which they had made to the militia law, and many of them came to Montreal, craving the forgiveness of the Governor, which they readily obtained. The ringleaders alone were punished. Hostilities were commenced in Upper Canada. No sooner had General Brocke learned that war was proclaimed, than he conceived a project of attack.
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