"-_See Ryerson's Loyalists_, p. 246.
NOTE 8, page 75.
Doomed St. David's Mill.
Auchinleck says, "From the 8th of July" [Chippewa was fought on the 4th]
"to the 23rd of the month, General Brown, with his enormous force, was
content to remain without striking a blow, unless an occasional
demonstration before Forts George and Mississaga, or the wanton
conflagration of the village of St David's, be considered as such."
Of this atrocity an American officer, a Major McFarland, writes:--"The
militia and Indians plundered and burnt every thing. The whole population
is against us; not a foraging party but is fired on, and not infrequently
returns with missing numbers. This state was to be anticipated The militia
have burnt several private dwelling-houses, and, on the 19th instant,
burnt the village of St. David's, consisting of about thirty or forty
houses. This was done within three miles of camp, and my battalion was
sent to cover the retreat, as they [the militia] had been sent to scour
the country, and it was presumed they might be pursued. My God, what a
service! I never witnessed such a scene, and had not the commanding
officer of the party, Lieutenant-Colonel Stone, been disgraced" [he was
dismissed the service by sentence of a court-martial for this deed]
"and sent out of the army, I should have resigned my commission.
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