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British General Isaac Brock had been fortune's favourite during the War of 1812. He tricked the Americans into surrendering their huge garrison at Fort Detroit to his much smaller force in August of that year. He had previously enjoyed an equally bold victory two

Brock's luck ran out on October 13, when he charged into the gun-sight of an American sharpshooter whose musket ball pierced the general's chest and killed him, leaving his British regulars and Canadian militiamen to win the day. His monument and burial site at Queenston Heights near Niagara is the most majestic in Canada and befits the man considered by many to be the 'saviour of Canada.'

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A different legacy awaited another formidable officer stationed across Lake Ontario on the north shore of the St. Lawrence. In many ways the war record of Lieutenant-Colonel 'Red George' MacDonnell paralleled that of Brock. MacDonnell had launched a surprise attack that seized the enemy fort at Ogdensburg, much as Brock had done at Michilimackinac. He followed up his first major victory with a second in short order. Both MacDonnell and Brock were recipients of awards within the Order of the Bath.

But where Brock died in a blaze of glory in Canada, MacDonnell died in England in a dotage marked with bitterness and spite. The once brilliant officer spent his final days stewing in resentment that bordered on madness--a lamentable end to a military career that, like Brock's, had contributed greatly to Canada's salvation.

'Red George' Richard John MacDonnell was born in August 1780 in St. John's, Newfoundland, where his father served as the commander of the island's fortification, Fort Townsend. Father and son were descendants of a long line of Scottish clansmen known for their warlike dispositions.

The MacDonnell clan had its origins in Leek in the highlands of Scotland (the region known for the origin of the Scottish mainstay, cock-a-leekie soup). The MacDonnell patriarch had been the seventh Chief of Glengarry, dying in 1645 at the age of 102. As a branch of the Donald clan, the MacDonnells were granted their own tartan and occupied a large portion of the Glengarry estate, once estimated to be more than 100,000 acres. The MacDonnells were 'tacksmen' or leaseholders of the Leek portion of the estate. They were Catholic and bellicose, and fought in several battles from the mid-17th to 18th centuries, most notably the Battle of Culloden, in which Bonnie Prince Charlie and the papist Jacobites went down in defeat. As clansmen, the MacDonnells of Leek most likely fought the battle with axes, clubs and spears, as only a small portion of the Highlanders were equipped with swords. After their defeat and the subsequent clearance of the Glengarry Highlands, the MacDonnells and several other clans prepared for emigration to North America.

Captain John MacDonnell, Red George's father, was one of three brothers who crossed the Atlantic on the Royal Navy frigate Pearl. One of the brothers had sailed to New York and become acquainted with Sir William Johnson, one of the largest landowners in the colony; together they organized a mass emigration of several hundred Highlanders.

During the 1860s, ships carrying more than 500 Scottish Highlanders, many of whom were MacDonnells, arrived at Quebec. The clansmen and their families made the trip across the Atlantic to escape the severely depressed economic conditions of the Highlands. Their leader was a parish priest from Glengarry, Reverend Alexander MacDonnell. He was a physically imposing figure who encouraged them to emigrate and join their countrymen who began arriving in Canada with their families en masse after Culloden. They brought the name of their ancestral home to the north shore of the St. Lawrence, and despite early hardships and deprivations, they flourished in Glengarry County as farmers and fighters. Over the decades they developed a reputation for loyalty and military prowess.

The emigration from Scotland to Canada was supplemented with the arrival from northern New York of Scottish loyalists who had remained faithful to the Crown during the American War of Independence. They stood stalwartly behind their sovereign despite the evictions and usurious rents imposed on Highlanders in their homelands under crown rule.

Ambitious from the start, Red George chose to begin his military career by returning to England in 1796 as an ensign in the 55th Regiment of Foot. The regiment had distinguished itself in North America during the French Indian Wars, fought in the West Indies and in the American Revolution, after which it was ordered home to Britain. Within two years, MacDonnell was promoted to lieutenant, and by 1805 he had transferred to and gained a captaincy in the 8" Regiment of Foot, which ironically had played a vital role against the Highlanders 60 years earlier in the Battle of Culloden.

His father John died in 1807 in the town of Berwick just south of the English/Scottish border, and Red George returned to Canada the following year with the 8th. He was posted first to Nova Scotia and then to Quebec.

The colonial governor of the day and MacDonnell's commanding officer was General George Prevost. Though born in New Jersey, Prevost was the bilingual son of a Swiss-born British officer; he assumed command of British forces in North America in 1811 and he became governor just as war with the Americans was imminent.

From the outset, Prevost interpreted his responsibility to be a defensive one. Canada was badly outnumbered by the Americans in population--300,000 versus 8,000,000--and the bulk of the British military threes were heavily engaged in the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. Prevost was chronically risk averse and his timid tactical postures placed him at odds with his younger, more aggressive corps of officers, including Brock and MacDonnell.

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Since it had claimed autonomy with its Declaration of Independence in 1776 and subsequently defeated the British, the United States had grown frustrated with the European powers and their ongoing sea battles. The self-serving manoeuvres of two of Europe's great navies stymied American merchant shipping and pushed the young nation to the brink of economic depression by the end of the 18th century.

New England in particular felt financial pain which led to the exchange of harassments with the British; ships were fired upon, boarded and seized. It was not the Yankees who were the American pro-war hawks, but the congressmen based in the southern or central regions such as Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky, whose states were safely removed from the Canadian border. The New Englanders had the most to lose and northern New York was certain to be the scene of most of the military action.

The British began to place themselves on a war footing in 1811. The men of Glengarry County had come with military experience as part of Scotland's Glengarry Fencibles. They demanded to be re-mustered into a fighting unit in Upper Canada. At their lead was Father Alexander MacDonnell, who had been the unit's commanding officer and chaplain back in Scotland and the spearhead of their emigration. Prevost agreed. In December of that year the Glens were formed as a fencible light infantry regiment as part of Prevost's strategy to bolster the sparse British forces in Canada. Though intended to be 'fenced' into their home territory, they were destined to see action in the United States.

The Glengarry regiment modelled itself on Britain's 95th Rifles, who were seeing fierce action against Napoleon in Europe. The Rifles had been nicknamed 'Grasshoppers' by the French in reference to their green uniforms and their role as advanced light infantry in forested fighting. The 95th Rifles' tactics translated well to the North American theatre, and the Glens' black cross-belted kit and frontier fighting acumen acquired them the name of the 'Black Stump Brigade.'

Red George MacDonnell was assigned to head recruiting for the new regiment in February 1812; four months later U.S. President James Madison declared war on Britain. The American hawks intended to bring the European power to its knees by attacking and taking Canada, but the brazen tactics and three victories by Brock--he died the morning of the third on Queenston Heights--severely set back the Americans upon the outbreak of hostilities.

About the time that Brock was engaging Americans to the south and northwest, other initiatives were undertaken on both sides of the St. Lawrence front. The war had benefitted border towns such as Prescott in Canada and its opposite in New York, the village of Ogdensburg. Unlawful trade was booming between the two, with militia on both sides of the conflict decidedly uninvolved. Their economic self-interest was quickly put aside with the arrival of Major Benjamin Forsyth and a regiment of the U.S. rifle brigade.

Forsyth began a guerrilla campaign with raids across the St. Lawrence and seizures of boatloads of both Canadian and American supplies bound for Kingston. Ammunition and staples headed west from Montreal were often stored in the village of Gananoque, which Forsyth attacked, and emptied and burned its storehouse in September 1812. The British responded with some sniping of their own.

The stakes heightened in February 1813, when the British detachment from Prescott attacked the American side and brought prisoners back to Brockville (then known as Elizabethtown). Within days, Benjamin Forsyth initiated a punitive strike by marching west to Morristown, New York, and crossing the frozen river with 200 men with sleighs in tow in anticipation of returning with booty. They took Elizabethtown's sleeping militia by surprise, freed the American prisoners from jail--except for one charged with murder--stole British arms supplies and took several dozen British prisoners back to Ogdensburg.

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Two weeks later, George Prevost made his way along the river to monitor Britain's Canadian defences and arrived in Prescott to inspect Fort Wellington. Red George MacDonnell, who had learned much about the St. Lawrence front during his tenure as chief recruiter, claimed to have enlisted more than 700 men with an effective strength of 550, discounting those who died by disease or accidents, deserted or were discharged as unfit for service.

MacDonnell unsuccessfully tried to convince Prevost of the merit of an attack on Ogdensburg. His responsibility had been for the defence of Upper Canada along the St. Lawrence, stretching from Kingston to the Lower Canada border and he was to keep the lines of supply and communication open with Montreal year-round. He argued to Prevost that Forsyth was launching attacks from Ogdensburg via the frozen river during the winter and would be able to protect the American port of Sackets Harbor in the summer. Ever cautious, the governor general refused permission for the attack but agreed that MacDonnell's men could manoeuvre on the ice to discourage any American attempt to intercept Prevost and his entourage as they left for Elizabethtown.

This opened the door for MacDonnell to launch an attack in direct opposition to Prevost's orders. The clansman had a personal grudge to settle with Forsyth as they had met once in a parlay that ended with mutual threats to settle things man-to-man in the middle of the frozen river.

So adamant was Prevost that MacDonnell not engage the enemy that he arrived at Elizabethtown and dispatched a courier to Prescott to repeat his orders to stand last. By the time the messenger arrived, MacDonnell's attack was already underway.

MacDonnell held the advantage in men and tactics. He had seconded two companies of the 8th Regiment that had been marching to Fort George in Niagara and added them to one detachment of his own men and one of the Royal Newfoundlanders, as well as about 200 local militiamen. The British and Canadians prepared to move south across the ice in two columns, one led by MacDonnell and the other by his friend and fellow officer Captain Jenkins of the Glengarry Light Infantry, and each with their artillery in tow.

Their advance began with the firing of a gun by MacDonnell at seven o'clock in the morning of February 22nd Lt.-Col. Forsyth (he had been promoted as a result of his successful attack on Elizabethtown) was taken by surprise as he refused to believe the British would attempt a crossing given the precarious conditions of the river ice.

It was not ice but snow that bogged down Jenkins' column as it advanced under American fire. Jenkins and his men attacked with grapeshot to halt the American musket fire but a return cannonade blasted and destroyed his artillery. The young captain then ordered his men to flank towards MacDonnell to attract fire away from his commanding officer while he continued to wade through the snow. Jenkins finally reached the American shoreline, charged with his bayonet fixed, and promptly had his left arm blown off.

MacDonnell's column took most of the American cannonade coming from their 12-pound artillery. Fortunately for the Canadians, one cannon quickly became disabled. Another fired relentlessly and its team held fast until MacDonnell's men cut them down. A few of Jenkins' men carried him out of harm's way while others secured the old French fort the Americans used for cover; still others made their way through Ogdensburg in a house-to-house street fight of rifle fire.

With Jenkins disabled and out of action, his militia became spooked and began to retreat back across the river, only to be re-formed and re-united with British troops by the striking black-robed figure of six-foot four-inch Father Alexander MacDonnell. Meanwhile, Red George deliberately marched his forces in view of Forsyth to allow Jenkins' column to rest and regroup. He sent a dispatch to the American commander demanding his surrender but instead received cannon fire in answer. Orders from MacDonnell to fix bayonets and charge the Americans were not heard until Forsyth's troops began their retreat and slipped into the woods.

Though they were not captured, the American military abandoned Ogdensburg permanently; much to the pleasure of the townsfolk who wanted to resume their trade with the northside of the border. The victorious MacDonnell was wounded and 60 of his men were either killed or injured in the attack. Forsyth, who had lost a third of that number at Ogdensburg, was ordered to Sackets Harbor; he would participate in an American victory later that spring.

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Surprisingly, MacDonnell did not run afoul of his commanding officer for disobeying orders; in fact, the duplicitous Prevost deliberately reported to his superiors that he gave the inital order to attack. Although appalled by the politics, Red George was seen in a favourable light and henceforth assumed command of British forces in Kingston.

Eight months later he was called into action at the Battle of the Chateauguay in Lower Canada, in which the French Canadian Voltigeurs and Mohawks defeated the Americans who attacked with an army three times the size of the combined Canadian/Mohawk forces. MacDonnell effectively acted as second-in-command to the victorious French Canadian nobleman, Lt.-Col. Charles de Salaberry, and oversaw the activities of three companies of Voltigeurs, Mohawks and Canadian militiamen.

George Prevost behaved dishonourably once again and took credit for de Salaberry's and MacDonnell's victory. Resentment began to build within Red George, for whom no honour would be deemed adequate in the many years that followed the end of the War of 1812.

As part of the war effort he had played a contributing role in keeping the St. Lawrence free and open for British and Canadian troops and supplies. But in no way was his role as significant as he later claimed. He ordered a survey of the Rideau corridor and recommended it as a future alternative defence route for the St. Lawrence, but was not the first to do so as he later claimed. A pattern of aggrandizing his role only to be rebuffed by the establishment continued for the rest of his days.

He returned to England two years after the war and married well, but was never successful in leveraging his wife's social standing or his inflated view of his war record into a position he felt appropriate. Not even the award of Companion of the Order of the Bath could satiate his need for recognition. 'Red George' Richard John MacDonnell died at Wardour Castle on May 16, 1870, aged 90 years.

MacDonnell had outlived his counterpart, Sir Isaac Brock, by almost six decades, most of which were spent in emotional decline. So misshapen was his mind at the end that he might have exchanged his longevity' in life for Brock's laurels in death.

In commemoration of two significant Canadian anniversaries--Quebec City's 400th and the St. Lawrence Seaway's 50th--this is the fourth in a series detailing the rich military history of those "shadow soldiers" who played a part in the development of Canada along the St. Lawrence corridor. Mark Jodoin credits Coral Lindsay for assistance in the researching of this article.