The Battle Of Chateauguay, 200 Years Later

The Honour Guard

It seems that every time I make the effort to spit shine my boots  or press razor-sharp creases into my uniform in advance of a 3BAM event, it rains throughout that event, and my efforts  essentially are for naught. This October 26th, when 3BAM accompanied by the 2nd Field Regt's RSM, CWO Joao Barros helped the armed forces, re-enactment groups and various government officials, VIP guests and local citizens commemorate the Battle Of Chateauguay, which took place exactly 200 years today.

Depiction of the battle.

Every school child in Quebec was taught about this when I was a kid, I think in 5th Grade. Unfortunately, the government-sanctioned version I was taught in the early 70's was pretty much what Naploeon would have called "a set of lies, agreed upon."

In this version, the gallant Lieutenant-Colonel de Salaberry with a force of only 300 men sent an an American army of over 7000 running for their mothers by shooting at them from behind rocks and running around in the woods making native war-cries that frightened the inexperienced American troops as they blundered about in the woods, lost and confused, much like the British regulars had at Monongahela (Fort Duquesne if you are French or a Canadien) 58 years earlier.

Canada's First Nations were represented at the ceremony.

There's probably a little bit about this that is true; de Salaberry is credited by many sources as having used deceptions, and he did have 180 fierce Mohawk warriors in his force, but his total force numbered around 1,600, not 300 and the American force under General Wade Hampton numbered more like 2,600 troops, not 7,000. Even today, Oct 26th, the Montreal Gazette continues to report the myth, rather than the facts, claiming de Salaberry had 300 men versus 3000. When the legend becomes fact, you print the legend, you print the legend, right?

Neither did the Americans scurry home in panic as I was taught.  They retired the next day in good order, and without pursuit,  reporting a total of 23 killed, 33 wounded and 29 missing. Canadian losses were 2 killed, 16 wounded and 4 missing. The Battle of Chateauguay when you boil it down, was more of a skirmish than a pitched battle.

Reenactors depicting de Salaberry's Voltigeurs. .

The feat of arms remains impressive in the sense that de Salaberry was nonetheless badly outnumbered and could have been defeated had he not commanded his little force with far more skill his opposing number.  General Hampton convinced as he probably was that de Salaberry disposed a somewhat larger force than he actually did, and convinced that he could not possibly carry the position by renewing the attack the next day, decided instead to withdraw back to Four Corners, NY.

Even a defeat however, would probably not have resulted in the capture of Montreal by the Americans, as Hampton had received an order from the Secretary of War on the eve of the battle, ordering him to put his force into winter quarters on the Saint-Lawrence. Battle or no, there would be no attempt to capture Montreal for the rest of the year. Hampton only committed to battle because prior to receiving this order, he'd  committed a brigade of 1000 men to attempt a flanking movement against de Salaberry's position and to have withdrawn on the 25th would have left them exposed and without support.

American re-enactor

De Salaberry of course knew none of this, and the American mismanagement of the entire campaign does not in any way detract from his reputation or from the the bravery and dedication of his outnumbered command.  He disposed and commanded his forces with skill and guile and won the day. If he is not quite David defeating Goliath, he is still a national hero and rightly so. Vive la Canadienne!

As much as I complain about the rain taking the crease out of my trousers and the shine out of my boots, everyone I was wearing an old Cold War era Canadian winter parka over my WWII era DESERT uniform, as were most 3BAM members present, if our dress was anachronistic in the extreme we were probably also among the most comfortably attired of the uniformed participants in this event. The poor blighters in the honour guard were were stuck standing in the rain in their service dress uniforms without overcoats the whole time.


Unlike our last mission, things went smoothly. We were not beset by mishaps, breakdowns or dud rounds. We were even provided with a collapsible white tent to place over the gun, looking for all the world like a chuppah, as if we were about to conduct a Jewish wedding ceremony rather than a gun salute. When finally the time came to fire, we fired our two shots without SNAFU, somewhat shocking some of the onlookers who because of perhaps inadequate planning on the part of the organizers, were standing a bit closer than we would ordinarily like them to be.

The detachment fires the gun from under the "chuppah" while RSM Barros looks on diligently.

The detachment was commanded by WO (ret) Michel Lepage, and included Lcol (ret) Jaques Borne, Lcol (ret) Yvon Bégin looking after security, MWO (ret) Tom Savoie, WO (ret) Gilles Pelletier, Mbdr (ret) Denis Dumas, Ocdt Robert Ouellette, and making her first uniformed appearance, our newest gunner, Gnr Nathalie Millette. As previously mentioned, we had the honour to be accompanied by RSM Barros of the 2nd Field Regiment and in case you haven't figured it out, I was there in my usual capacity of photographer.

Voltigeur 2Lt watches the rehearsals

Given the number of military participants involved in this event, it's hard to imagine why this mission wasn't tasked out to the regiment, but it was an honour and a pleasure for 3BAM to fire the salute.  This is what 3BAM is all about, and of course, we always attract attention and questions at events like this, which I always view as central to our objective of teaching the history and tradition of the Royal Canadian Artillery. As always, I relish in explaining how artillery works and I try to pretend that I'm sort of like the Carl Sagan of artillery, explaining our methods to non-gunners the way Sagan used to explain science and the scientific method to non-scientists, but without the "BILLIONS."
A particularly fun moment came when two young members of the R22R came up to me as I was waling around, camera slung around my neck and asked me politely but with keen interest, to what regiment we belonged.

"We don't belong to any regiment," I explained. "We're a bunch of old soldiers who who had such a hard time dealing with civilian life that now we dress up in WWII uniforms  and do this SH_T for free. We're mostly old gunners, but hell, we even have a couple of ex-Van Doos within our ranks. We take ANYBODY"

I didn't really use exactly those words, being a bit more diplomatic, but the gist was pretty much the same. 3BAM stands out among the crowd and these guys were curious and full of questions, and I was glad to answer them. Now to figure out ways to get more people to ask us more questions because WE NEED RECRUITS! 


Ubique!


Gary Menten
Photographer-correspondent,
Blogmeister,
Sgt, (ret), etc, etc.