That happened which might be expected where bodies of men with
inflated ideas of glory and no experience attack men fighting
desperately for their homes, and officers and veterans who had seen
such service as the Napoleonic wars. The British, with an astuteness
which is oftener the character credited to their opponents, managed to
get earliest word of the Declaration sent to their own forts on the
Lakes, and promptly captured the American fort Michilimackinac. They
then followed with the daring capture of the stronghold of Detroit,
amply equipped and garrisoned, by a little handful of men under the
heroic General Brock, who simply went before it and demanded its
surrender, whereupon it was given up, together with the whole
Territory of Michigan. The presence of such trained British officers
as Brock and of army veterans in the ranks was a very great advantage.
Poor Brock soon afterwards died in his memorable charge at the victory
of Queenston Heights.

That year--the first of the War--is known as a succession of fiascos
for the Americans. The other conspicuous aspect of it is that the
attacked points were, with the exception of a little skirmishing at
St. Regis and Lacolle, all in the Province of Upper Canada.

It was only towards the close of the campaign of the next
year--1813--that Lower Canada was gravely threatened.

The Americans, emboldened by several successes, and having put a great
many men into the field, believed that the struggle might easily be
terminated by capturing Montreal. The advance upon Lower Canada took
place under General James Wilkinson in chief command, with 8,826 men
and 58 guns and howitzers.[1] He had intended to attack Kingston. "At
Montreal, however," wrote the Secretary of War, Armstrong, in phrases