Читать книгу The Lieutenant-Governors of Upper Canada and Ontario 1792-1899 онлайн

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Simcoe, whose father was commander of His Majesty's ship Pembroke, and who lost his life in the Royal service in the important expedition against Quebec in the year 1759, was born in 1752. His father had while on service been taken prisoner by the French and carried up the St. Lawrence, and thus had obtained a knowledge which enabled him to make a chart of that river and conduct General Wolfe in his famous attack on the citadel of Quebec. Naturally, therefore, we find him inheriting a spirit which only needed the events of the American Revolution to produce mature development.

After the death of Commander Simcoe his widow resided at Exeter, in England, and young Simcoe was sent to the Free Grammar School of that town, and from there, at the age of fourteen, to Eton. Thence he removed to Merton College, Oxford, where his classical education was completed, and where he acquired a love of Tacitus and Xenophon which made them his constant companions in after life. By the age of nineteen he had entered on his career, obtaining then a commission as ensign in the 35th Regiment of the line. He had been but three years in the army when his regiment was despatched to America to assist in quelling the rebellion of the colonists, and he landed at Boston on the day of the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17th, 1775. Soon after this he was promoted to command a company in the 40th Regiment, and was with it at the battle of Brandywine, when General Howe defeated General Washington and became master of Philadelphia. Captain Simcoe in this battle so distinguished himself that he was marked out for promotion, and in the following October, having attained his majority in the meantime, he was made second in command of the Queen's Rangers. This regiment, originally raised in Connecticut and around New York by Colonel Rogers, and sometimes called Rogers' Rangers, was a provincial corps of light cavalry of Loyalist Americans, with attached companies of light infantry, and was originally about four hundred strong. It had done valiant service, and was severely cut up at Brandywine, and was now recruited with gentlemen of Virginia and young men of the regular army. On receiving his commission, on October 17th, 1777, Major Simcoe joined his regiment, then stationed at Germantown, now a suburb of Philadelphia. Soon after the regiment was moved to New York, when recruiting was vigorously prosecuted in order to bring the regiment up to the required strength. During the war a company of Highlanders and a company of Irish were added to the infantry wing of the regiment, and at full strength it numbered five hundred and fifty infantry, and was one of the most efficient and active corps in the service, the companies being swift of action and adepts at ambuscade and stratagem. Until the early summer of 1778 the regiment was under command of Colonel Mawhood, and in March of that year took part in a successful expedition into the Jerseys, where they defeated a strong body of rebels under command of a French officer, who was taken prisoner. On the recall of General Howe, and upon Sir Henry Clinton taking command of the army, Major Simcoe was promoted to the command of the regiment, and at the same time was given the colonial rank of lieutenant-colonel. Marching through New Jersey in June, 1778, the Rangers encountered a force of seven or eight hundred Americans under Baron Steuben, of the American army, and General Dickenson, in command of the Jersey militia. In the engagement Colonel Simcoe was wounded. After the close of the summer campaign the Rangers wintered at Oyster Bay, Long Island.