A GENERAL VIEW OF QUEBEC.—By Rich. Short. After Siege of 1759

The book containing this journal is an ordinary pocket memorandum or account book measuring 6 x 4¼ inches and covered with split calf. The journal opens the day of the author's capture, and closes on the day he receives orders at Quebec to prepare to leave for Boston. The author's name is nowhere to be found in the book, and several pages at the beginning have been cut out, evidently by the original owner. The journal was found among the papers of the late J. Gradden, a benevolent merchant of Quebec who rendered considerable aid to the American prisoners of war confined there on prison ships. The journal was no doubt presented to Mr. Gradden by its author as a return for kindnesses. Mr. Gradden's son, the late Chas. Gradden of Kilmarnock, gave it to Sir James M. LeMoine, the venerable Historian of Quebec, who in turn presented it to me with the understanding that I would edit and print it.

Although the author's name is not attached to the journal it bears unmistakable evidence of having been written by Surgeon's Mate James Reynolds who was deputed by Surgeon General Edwards of Gen. Hull's army to the charge of the sick on the two vessels that were dispatched from Maumee to Detroit, but which were captured at Fort Malden (Amherstburg) by the British. Lossing, in his "Pictorial Field Book of the war of 1812" says that the schooner conveying the sick in charge of Reynolds escaped and reached Detroit, and that the Dr. Reynolds of this expedition was killed at the attack on Detroit by a cannon ball. There is a mistake somewhere as the author of this journal says that he was in charge of the Cuyahoga conveying the sick, and that the accompanying schooner carried the stores, and that both vessels were captured at Malden. Could it be that there were two Reynolds, one the Surgeon's Mate and the other the Dr. Reynolds that Lossing refers to as having been killed, and hence the confusion? I am inclined to this view in the absence of convincing proof to the contrary. The journal itself is strongly corroborative of my contention as the weight of evidence is with the writer whose story is everywhere the simple straightforward one of the daily chronicler of the events that came under his observation. It is a very human document and not without historical value. It will take its place in the Archives of the war of 1812 on the Frontiers.

Note.—On a blank page in the book I find written in pencil in the author's handwriting, Sergt. Ord. Reed, Dougherty, Jowlen, Madison, Printiss, Button, Noble—Emetic (The author had evidently dosed them all).

Anticipating the formal declaration of war President Madison of the United States during the winter of 1811-12 commissioned Gov. Wm. Hull of the Territory of Michigan as a Brigadier General to command the Ohio and Michigan troops at Detroit, with the understanding that immediately upon the announcement of war he was to invade all that part of Canada contiguous to Detroit. On June 24th, 1812, Gen. Hull with several thousand troops had arrived at Fort Findlay. Here he received despatches from Washington to hasten his forces to Detroit and there await further orders. When the troops arrived at the navigable waters on the Maumee (or Miami) Hull determined to relieve his tired men of as much baggage as possible by dispatching it by water. Accordingly a considerable portion of the stores and intrenching tools, Hull's and his staff's personal baggage, and the trunk containing Hull's instructions and the muster rolls of the army together with other valuable papers—also three officers' wives, Lt. Goodwin, Lieut. Dent with thirty soldiers were transferred to the Cuyahoga packet and an auxiliary schooner. Both reached Maumee Bay where Toledo now stands on the evening of July 1st. On the morning of the 2nd of July the Cuyahoga and the schooner entered the Detroit River and while sailing past Fort Malden (Amherstburg) the British armed vessel Hunter went alongside of the Cuyahoga, and vessel and cargo became a prize, while the crew, troops and passengers were declared prisoners of war. Lossing says that the auxiliary schooner bearing the invalids, being behind the Cuyahoga, escaped and reached Detroit next day. The author of the journal says that this auxiliary vessel which contained only the stores was also captured later in the day and brought in under the guns of Fort Malden. Col. St. George, the commander at Fort Malden, had received the news of the declaration of war on the 30th of June, while Gen. Hull only received it on the 2nd of July when he immediately despatched an officer to the mouth of the Raisen to intercept the two vessels, but he arrived too late. In the capture of these two vessels valuable stores and yet more valuable information fell into the hands of the British. The journal of the Surgeon's Mate begins July 1st and some of the events that lead to the final surrender of Detroit and the forces under Gen. Hull's command are recorded in the journal from such observations as were possible to a prisoner on a vessel, and from stray information. The journey from Malden to Quebec is recounted and the subsequent imprisonment there on a ship in the harbor until he with others were sent to Boston for exchange.