On This Day: Brock Killed at Queenston Heights, 1812

Maj.-Gen. Isaac Brock, the British commander in Upper Canada, was killed on Oct. 13, 1812, as American troops fought for the heights above Queenston, Ont. By the end of the day, British, militia and Indigenous forces had won the battle and taken almost 1,000 American prisoners, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia.

The fighting began when American forces under Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer, a New York militia commander, crossed the Niagara River from Lewiston, N.Y., and took Queenston. The Canadian Encyclopedia puts the first crossing at about 1,000 soldiers or more. A Brock University exhibit on Brock’s monument says Van Rensselaer’s force numbered about 3,000. The sources differ on the size of the American force.

Brock rode to Queenston from Fort George after hearing the guns. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, he led a charge with his sword drawn to retake a gun the Americans had seized. He was shot just above the heart and died almost instantly. The Brock University exhibit says the ball passed through his body, and that accounts of his last words conflict. It says modern forensic assessments suggest he died at once, as George Stephen Benjamin Jarvis, who was beside him, attested.

Lt.-Col. John Macdonell, Brock’s aide-de-camp, took command of the troops and was mortally wounded in a similar assault. The exhibit says he was trampled by his horse and died shortly after midnight.

The turning point came later in the day. The Canadian Encyclopedia says Maj.-Gen. Roger Hale Sheaffe arrived from Fort George with about 300 regulars and 250 militia, climbed the heights out of the Americans’ sight and attacked from the rear. That trapped the invaders between his troops and the cliff.

The encyclopedia credits Mohawk chiefs John Norton, known as Teyoninhokarawen, and John Brant, known as Ahyonwaeghs, with a key role in the hours before Sheaffe arrived. They led about 80 Haudenosaunee and Delaware warriors up the escarpment west of Queenston, away from Brock’s route, and used the woods to pin down the American advance.

When Sheaffe’s attack came, the British and Canadian line included the 41st and 49th Foot and Captain Robert Runchey’s Company of Coloured Men, according to the encyclopedia. New York militia reserves on the other side of the river refused to cross to help. Low on ammunition, the American force surrendered. The encyclopedia says Lt.-Col. Winfield Scott, who had taken command from the wounded Captain John Wool, signalled the surrender with a white handkerchief.

The encyclopedia puts British, militia and First Nations losses at 105, including 28 killed and 77 wounded. It puts American losses at about 300 killed or wounded, in addition to the almost 1,000 taken prisoner.

Brock was 43. His body was taken to a stone house owned by Patrick McCabe, near the Laura Secord homestead, and lay in state for three days at Government House, according to the Brock University exhibit. He and Macdonell were buried with military honours at 10 a.m. on Oct. 16, 1812, in the northeast corner of Cavalier’s Bastion at Fort George. The exhibit says the two men remained there for 12 years, and the spot is now known as Brock’s Bastion.

The battle is commemorated at the Battle of Queenston Heights National Historic Site, which the encyclopedia lists as the place to learn more about the engagement.

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Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Battle of Queenston Heights”; Brock University Library, “Death of Brock.”