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But it left also memories precious for a young people the memory of Brock and Macdonell and De Salaberry, of Laura Secord and her daring tramp through the woods to warn of American attacks, of Stony Creek and Lundy's Lane, Chrystler's Farm and Chateauguay, the memory of sacrifice, of endurance, and of courage that did not count the odds. Nor were the evil legacies to last for all time.
On the meadows of Châteauguay, another monument has been erected by the same national spirit in honour of the victory won by a famous representative of the French Canadian race, who proved how courageously French Canadians could fight for the new régime under which they were then, as now, so happy and prosperous.
Hampton, leading an army of probably seven thousand men, had been routed near the junction of the Châteauguay and Outarde rivers by an insignificant force of Canadian Fencibles and Voltigeurs under Colonel de Salaberry, a French Canadian in the English military service, with the aid of Colonel McDonnell, in command of seven companies of Lower Canadian militia.
And when November came large bodies of disaffected habitants gathered at St Ours, St Charles, St Michel, L'Acadie, Châteauguay, and Beauharnois. They had apparently been led to expect that they would be met at some of these places by American sympathizers with arms and supplies. No such aid being found at the rendezvous, many returned to their homes.
Lawrence, had been successfully met and repulsed at Chateauguay and Chrysler's Farm, two of the most memorable engagements of the war, when we consider the insignificant forces that checked the invasion and saved Canada at a most critical time.
The chairman was Sir Etienne Paschal Taché, who had proved in his youth his fidelity to England on the famous battlefield of Chateauguay, and had won the respect of all classes and parties by the display of many admirable qualities.
Early in September, General Hampton, with a well appointed army of five thousand men, advanced from Plattsburg on that lake, with a view to a junction with Wilkinson's army, and a combined attack on Montreal. On the 21st of October he crossed the border, and pushed forward his forces along both sides of the Chateauguay River.
The defeat of Procter was counterbalanced, however, by Colonel de Salaberry's dramatic victory over General Hampton. With 350 French Canadian Voltigeurs he hypnotized 3,500 United States troops at Chateauguay.
A combined movement on Montreal was now made by the forces of the United States; it was mainly owing to the loyalty of the French Canadians that they were repulsed. General Hampton advancing from the south with a force 7,000 strong was defeated at the river Chateauguay on October 26, by 900 men belonging to the Canadian militia, commanded by Colonel McDonnell and Colonel de Salaberry.
As Canadians look down "the corridors of time," they will always see those flashes from the musketry and cannon of Lundy's Lane, and hear the bugles which drove the invaders of their country from the woods of Chateauguay. The war did much to solidify the various racial elements of British North America during its formative stage.
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