| BROCK PRESS Jeremy Colangelo January 9, 2012 The inauguration of the year 2012 has begun a period of great activity for the Niagara Region. The year will mark the 200th anniversary of the start of the war of 1812, and will see the first of many events to commemorate the war – events that will continue all the way through to the 2014 bicentenary of the signing of The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war. "We're working with a number of community groups and a number of federal and provincial groups," said Jim Hill, Superintendant of Heritage for the Niagara Parks Commission, who oversees the operations of all the historical sites under the Commission's jurisdiction. "There's going to be a series of activities, mainly in June, which marks the declaration of war by the United States." The commemorations began on Jan. 1 during a New Year's celebration at Fort George hosted by Ontario Lieutenant Governor David Onley. "In effect, we are launching the bicentennial of the War of 1812 today," Onley told the crowd. Though the planned events are largely military in nature — taking place at old forts and battlefields, and often involving re-enactments of the events by actors in period uniforms — both Onley and Hill have stressed that the events will be a celebration of 200 years of peace between Canada and the United States following the end of the war, and not of the war itself. "This was a pretty awful event on a scale that we often forget," said Hill. "Virtually every residence in the Region, if not destroyed, was rendered uninhabitable from the occupation." |
The War of 1812 cumulatively killed over 15,000 people and inflicted widespread damage on both sides of the border – most notoriously during the British army's burning of Washington. An agreement between the United States and Britain at the end of the war awarded the Americans $1,204,960 in compensation. Since the war ended, there has been a wide debate over which side was the war's victor – the ambiguity arising due to both sides having largely achieved their military goals. "We are lucky," said Hill, "that the Americans who are willing to visit are generally well informed, pretty bright people [...] they understand that we're going to be telling them a slightly different story. "In typical Canadian fashion we'll apologize to the Americans for beating them and try to be kind." According to Hill, a great deal of attention has been paid to the contributions made by Aboriginal groups to the Canadian war effort. One example Hill gave was The Battle of Beaver Dams, which was won by a Canadian force composed entirely of Kahnawake warriors who had come from their home north of the St. Lawrence River. The defeat proved highly demoralising to the American forces. "We had heroes — even back then — who were not Anglo-Saxon protestant white people," Hill said. The Battle of Beaver Dams is also notable for having made Laura Secord famous. Secord, whose house is now a historical site under the control of the Niagara Parks Commission, discovered an impending American ambush prior to the battle and then trekked 30 km to warn the British commander James FitzGibbon. The resulting failure of the ambush prefigured the American defeat. Secord's famous trek was later retraced by Brock University Professor Alun Hughes, who compiled one of the first truly accurate maps of her journey. "If this new route is correct, Laura Secord travelled approximately 15 miles on foot – from sunrise at about 4:30 a.m. to nautical twilight around 9:30 p.m.," said Hughes's research report. As Hill pointed out, Secord was not the only Niagara resident to earn fame during the war. Hill told the story of William Hamilton Merritt, "one of St. Catharines's most famous sons" who would later build the first Welland Canal. During the war, Merritt joined the Second Lincoln Militia, which was stationed in Chippawa, and patrolled the area around the Niagara River as the leader of a group of volunteer dragoons. During a patrol, Merritt was captured and sent to an American Prisoner of War (POW) camp – from which he escaped. "In truly Canadian fashion," said Hill, "Merritt, who came from a Loyalist household, stopped to visit his American girlfriend on his way home from a POW camp." View the article source |
Region begins 1812 commemorations
