When the war of 1812 broke out, the American warships controlled the Great Lakes, but General Brock managed to get a message through to the Commanding Officer of Fort St. Joseph. This Fort was on St. Joseph's Island at the Western end of Lake Huron, just east of Sault Ste. Marie and where the St Mary's river, flowing from Lake Superior to Lake Huron, entered Lake Huron.
The message was short, clear and very difficult. It commanded the St. Joseph's officer, who was twenty- four year old Captain Roberts, to re-capture Fort Mackinac. Fort Mackinac was towards the South and guarded the entrance to Lake Michigan. It had been in the possession of the Canadians, to guard the routes of the Hudson Bay canoes from Montreal to Superior, but after the war of American Independence it was ceded to the Americans to guard the fur route of the North West Company going to New York. The Hudson Bay people then moved up to St. Joseph and built their protective Fort there.
Captain Roberts read his Orders, "Recapture Fort Mackinac" and set about to do just that. He first checked out his supply of Ordnance and found that he had a "goodly supply of muskets and rifles and ammunition for them". There was one gun, one canon, and that was the one up on the wall pointing down the Lake. He then mustered the garrison to acquaint himself of what he already knew. But Captain Roberts was young and he was going to do this correctly. There were eighteen soldiers in the garrison, and of these some were so old that they could not stand for more than twenty minutes at a tune. Others had lost an arm or a foot in previous engagements.
Altogether there were three men who were sound in wind and limb. Three men. The Captain could have been forgiven if he had thrown his hands up in the air and said: 'It can't be done'.
The Americans had a well supplied Fort with a full garrison of healthy soldiers, and riding at anchor in the Bay in front of the Fort were three war ships. Roberts had three men altogether, along with one gun, and a goodly supply of muskets. The Captain was young and he had been ordered to capture Fort Mackinac and that was what he was going to do, but he needed more men. These wouldn't come from General Brock for the American ships controlled the Lakes. There was only one place.
Captain Roberts went up river to the Rapids and at the Hudson Bay Post at Sault Ste Marie he found his men. They were trappers in from their trap lines, trading their furs for supplies, laying the basis for their for-tune. Roberts gathered them around and put his problem to them and asked them to assist him in this military operation of recapturing Fort Mackinac. These Trappers were mainly young fellows from the Old Country. Some were Irish or Anglo-Irish, some were English but the bulk of them were Scots. They all agreed to a man to join in and see the matter through.
Then the Ojibway from Garden River and Sault Ste Marie said "What about us?" Roberts was grateful and accepted their offer to help. He then went back to Fort St Joseph to figure out how he could use all these men, and how he could bring off the re-capture of Fort Mackinac.
He found in a cupboard a collection of Reports by Inspecting Officers of Fort Mackinac, from the days when the British and Canadians occupied that Fort. He studied these closely. One Report gave full marks to the garrison of that day for readiness, the condition of the Fort, congratulating the Commanding Officer on the fact that it was impregnable from a frontal attack from the Lake. Then it went on to blistering criticism for not taking care of the back door. The reason for this omission was that the 'back door' was a cliff, but the Inspecting Officer drew attention to a rock about twenty feet square that rose up from the Lake in perpendicular fashion, and he said that if an enemy could get one gun up on that rock he could command and destroy the whole Fort.
One gun. That was what Captain Roberts had-- one cannon. But Roberts could not figure out how he could get it up on that commanding rock, far less unnoticed by the Americans. There was only one advantage, in that the rock was about two hundred yards behind and above the Fort and in between there was the cover of thick bush. It was his only chance. But how could it be done? He took his problem back to his trapper friends at the Soo.
One of them thought that he could do it by dismantling the gun and using ropes to portage it up. He was a big Irishman called John Johnston, and he got the job. The team he picked were confident of success, for they had never failed to hoist guns up on top of rocks, especially ones that they had never seen before.
One gun.
That was what
Captain Roberts
had--
one cannon.
Captain Roberts and his unlikely, happy warriors set off in canoes for Fort Mackinac. They paddled unnoticed down the coast and during nighttime crossed open water and landed without being seen at the bottom of the cliffs, as usual unguarded. When they climbed the cliffs, Captain Roberts deployed the trappers and Ojibway riflemen through the bush almost up to the walls of the Fort to wait for the canon shot. Since they were all good in the bush they had no difficulty doing this unnoticed.
Then Johnston and his friends, by grunt and groan and daring finger-tip climbing, got the canon up the perpendicular rock, re-assembled it and fired a shot right into the Parade square of Fort Mackinac. When they did that all the others opened up and with shouts and hollers, musketry, and rifle fire they gave the impression that twice their number was in cover in the bush.
The Americans were taken by surprise, and saw the hopelessness of their situation. When Captain Roberts went forward under a flag of truce, and demanded the surrender of the Fort to prevent needless bloodshed, the American Commander surrendered. He had ships in the Bay and he and his garrison sailed off for Detroit, just captured by General Brock.
There were other adventures, such as the capture by the trapper and Ojibway chums from their canoes of two American war-ships that had been sent to check on them, but they went back to their trap-lines, and resumed their life. We don't hear of Captain Roberts again, and Fort Mackinac was handed back, by the politicians, to the Americans at the end of the War, and is now a summer tourist attraction, but the rock is still there.
Fifteen years later John Johnston along with his Ojibway wife and their children, who were now teenagers, were camped on the banks of the St Mary's river beside the rapids. One evening, he got to thinking of what his parents had done for him in far away Ireland. He had a decent education and a good home and had been encouraged to adventure and to maintain himself. He had taught all these things to his children and to his wife. They could all read and write and recite some poetry, and sings songs. He had also asked his wife to tell about the folklore of the Ojibway, and they all knew many stories and had a feeling for the culture.
There was
one thing more.
His parents
had taught him
about
the Saviour.
There was one thing more. His parents had taught him about the Saviour. He had been told the stories of Our Lord and had been taught to honour the name of Jesus Christ in the worship of true piety and sound learning in what they called in Ireland the True Church. All this had been done for him and he had not done any of this for his children.
He resolved to do something about it then and there, and he reached into his pack and pulled out a book from the bottom of the pack. It was a book that he had carried everywhere since he had left his native land, but had rarely if ever used. It was the Book of Common Prayer.
There and then he opened it and read Evensong with his wife and their children. During the days that followed he went around his friends and invited them to a Service with him next Sunday, and if they had a book to bring it. A number of the English fellows, a bit shamefacedly reached into the bottom of their packs and brought out a Prayer Book, and a surprising number of Scots also possessed the Book of Common Prayer.
We shouldn't be surprised about the Scots, for the early leadership of the Church were nearly all Scotsmen. Bishop Inglis of Nova Scotia, the first Bishop, Bishop Strachan of Toronto, Bishop Machray of Rupertsland. Anyway, the Trapper friends gathered at Johnstons with their families for the Sunday Prayers in 1827.
It was quite a scene on the banks of the St Mary's river beside the Rapids. A man, a woman, their children, friends, and the Book of Common Prayer. The Church in what was to become the Diocese of Algoma had begun.
The Rev'd Robert Lumleyis a retired priest of the Diocese of Algoma and served as Chairman of the Algoma Branch of the Prayer Book Society of Canada.
