Page 99 – Overland to Upper Canada
On the 4th of March the cold was gradually increasing and an
incessant snow-storm filling the track up rapidly made the dragging
of the Toboggans exceedingly laborious, especially as we
occasionally had to quit the Madawaska river owing to rapids in it
which had not frozen, and the thickness of the brush-wood and the
frost along the edge of it. When we got to the end of our day’s
march the cold was so intense that the men could scarcely use their
fingers to hew down the fire-wood, or to build huts, and it was dark
before we could commence cooking; it sticking a bit of salt pork on
the end of a twig and holding it in a fire could be so termed
On the morning of the 5th [of March 1813] the cold
had greatly augmented with a gale, a north-wester in our teeth,
which scarcely left us power to breather; indeed, the intensity of
the cold is indescribable, the captain of the company anticipated
the effects of it, and went on with an officer and a few men to
arrange the huts, and prepare fires for our reception.
Page 100
About mid-day, on turning an angle or corner along
the river, I was surprised to find that the head of the company had
stopped, which caused the centre and the rear to halt as they came
up. Knowing the dangerous consequences that might ensue from a
prolonged halt in such excessive cold, I hastened in the deep snow
to the head of the company and, going along, I observed that almost
every man was already more or less frost-bitten and was occupied in
rubbing his cheeks or nose, or both, with snow. In my progress I
also was caught by the nose and, when I turned the corner in the
river, I really thought I should not have been able to proceed, the
cold wind appeared to penetrate through my body in defiance of
flannels or furs.
I however urged the men on, as soon as we had
taken time to lay one poor fellow upon a Tobogan whose whole body
was frost-bitten, and covered him with blankets. By changing the
leading file every four or five minutes we at length got to the
huts, having about 90 men out of 105 more or less frost-bitten on
that occasion.
ON arriving at the huts, we found that the company
which should have been a day’s march ahead of use were still hutted.
They had attempted to cross the Temisquata lake in the morning but
the cold wind blowing over it was so exquisitely keen as to freeze
many of his men, the captain of it faced about and returned to the
huts. I was impossible to get warm that night, on officer literally
scorched his moccasins on his feet in his sleep, by being anxious to
keep them warm.
The next morning, the wind having abated, both
companies crossed the lake. The marching this day was very difficult
from any thing we had yet experienced in our journeys. The sun
having begun to have some power on the snow had thawed the surface
of it, which froze again in the night, and formed a sheet of thin
ice sufficiently strong to bear a light person but a heavy man would
frequently break through, and sink into the substratum of snow, till
he was arrested by the firm ice on the lake. This was very
troublesome and laborious work but those who chose to keep their
snow-shoes on, avoided it, and marched at a great pace over the ice.
It was an eighteen-mile march and were delighted to get to an
habitation on the edge of the portage.
We had lo leave poor Rogers, who was severely
frost-bitten on the 5th, in charge of a corporal, wit the woodsman
at the portage, who promised to recover him speedily by means of
simples and herb, though to us his life appeared in danger. He was
quite a hideous spectacle, altogether one ulcerated mass, as if
scalded all over from boiling water. However, he rejoined us at
Kingston in six weeks perfectly recovered.
The next day’s march was through a mountainous
country which was called the “Grand Portage”. Some parts of the pine
forest through which we passed had been burned for clearing and
presented a curious picture. The black and tall grim pine trees,
rearing their scathed heads to the sky, seemed like the ghosts, or
rather skeletons, of the noble forms they once possessed, and
contrasted strangely with the virgin snow on which they appeared to
stand. It was altogether a most dreary and laborious day’s march as
the snow drift in some places was ten or twelve feet deep, and the
constant ascent and descent made it extremely fatiguing for the
Toboggan men.
The descent of the hills was even more dangerous
than the ascent, for if a Toboggan once got a fair start down hill,
it shot to the foot of the hill like a car down a montagne russe
with amazing velocity, excepting where the rider was awkward, and in
this way there were several upsets, to the great amusement of those
who escaped an accident. It was necessary, speedily, to put an end
to this, as some of the Toboggans got injured by it, and on this
occasion delayed the rear of the company so much, that the head of
it had finished its march by ten or eleven o’clock in the morning,
whereas the rearguard did not arrive till half-past five. After our
frugal meal of biscuit and pork, we turned no in but, as usual,
round the fire on our green bed of pine. But our refreshing sleep
was doomed to be broken this night by a novel accident.
The wing being high had so completely dried the
top of our pine thatch that it caught fire and , on waking from a
sound slumber, I found myself in a blaze, in a complete au da fe,
for there was no appearance of a door or outlet, so instantaneous
was the blaze. However, a yell of despair from an officer of the
regiment who dashed into the hut through the flames exclaiming:
“Holy J___s, my money box!” which he snatched up with the fondness
of a father saving his only child from peril, enabled me to dash out
after him, dragging my all – a change of suit – in a hysterical fit
of laughter at the strange lamentation of our brother-officer.
The next morning we started with joyful
countenance under the impression that it was a out last day’s march
through an uninhabited country and that the morrow should enable us
to march in a region where the axe had mastered the forest, and
cultivation, however rude and in its infancy although we had not
lost a single man during the march, many were ill and few died from
the effects of it. It was observed that these were all the hardest
drinkers, indeed, there is no doubt whatever that dram-drinking is
highly injurious in a very cold country as the head that is
momentarily conveyed to the body is followed by a reaction which the
cold turns quickly into a numbness and retarded circulation.
Under the circumstances of a regiment having to
perform a similar march, it would appear advisable to use snow-shoes
for eight or ten miles daily, for at least a month previous to its
march, in order to accustom the men not only to tie on their
snow-shoes, and to wear them with ease to themselves, but also to
enable them to know how to dress their moccasins properly, and to
pack and drag their toboggans.
Indians or natives should be sent on a day’s march
ahead of the regiment to prepare huts for the officers and men, to
cut wood and to boil water in readiness for their arrival, as I
should consider warm tea or warm broth made from portable soup far
more refreshing and restoring than the piece of pork that was
allowed to the 104th Regiment.
The men were so fatigued and chilled by the cold
on some occasions that they would scarcely exert themselves to cut
wood for firing and I feel confident that, under similar
circumstances, a corps differently composed might have been placed
in a very uncomfortable situation but the advantage of having a
great number of natives of the country in the corps was manifest.
Brother soldiers will pardon the esprit de corps
which leads me to say that, during this long march, under
considerable privations and hardships, not one single robbery was
committed by the men, nor was there a single report made against
them by the inhabitants to the commanding officer."
