1813
Account of Billy Green the Scout (1794-1877)
on the Battle of Stoney Creek, June 5, 1813
I was the first white child born at Stoney Creek, being born February 4, 1794,
and at the time of the Battle of Stoney Creek I was 19 years old, my home being
in Stoney Creek up to that time. My father, brothers and sisters lived there
also. We heard that the American army were camping down east below the Forty
[Forty Mile Creek, now Grimsby, Ontario), so my brother Levi and I went down the
road on top of the Mountain about 6 o'clock in the morning on June 5. We got to
the Forty and stayed out on the Peak of the Mountain above the Forty until noon,
when we espied the troops marching up the road. We stayed there until all the
enemy but a few had passed I through the village. Then we yelled like Indians. I
tell you those simple fellows did run. Then we ran along the Mountain and took
down to the road that the Americans had just passed over. Levi ran across a
soldier with his boot off, putting a rag on his foot. The soldier grabbed for
his gun, but Levi was too quick for him, hitting him with a stick until he
yelled with pain and some of the scouts fired at us. We made our way to the top
of the Mountain again. I whooped like an Indian and Levi answered. By this time
the settlers came out to the brow of the Mountain to see what was going on.
Among them were the Lee brothers who lived near the brow of the Mountain at that
time. They went home and the rest of us went to brother Levi's place on the side
of the Mountain. When we heard them [the enemy) coming through the village of
Stoney Creek, we all went out on the brow of the hill to see them. Some of them
espied us and fired at us. One ball struck the bars where Tina, my brother
Levi's wife, was sitting holding I Hannah, her oldest child, on her arm. We all
went back to the Mountain to one of Jim Stoney's trapping huts. Tina went to the
house with Hannah, her child. Not long after, two American officers came up to
the house and asked her if she had seen any Indians around there. She said there
was a band of Indians on the Mountain. The officers left, and Tina came out to
where we were hiding and whistled. I answered her and told them I would go down
to Isaac Corman's. When I got there I whistled and out came Keziah, my sister [Corman's
wife). I asked her where Isaac was, and she said the enemy had taken him
prisoner and taken the trail to the beach.
I asked her how she knew. She said Alf had followed them to the swamp. [Alf
was their oldest son.) I asked, "Where is Alf?" and she said he was in
the cellar with Becky and Jane, his two sisters. I went down to the cellar and
Alf told me where to go to find his father. I started and ran; every now and
then I would whistle until I got across the creek. When I heard Isaac's hoot
like an owl, I thought the enemy had him there, but he was coming back alone. I
was going to raise an Indian war-whoop to scare them when I saw Isaac coming. I
asked him how he got away and he said, "The major and I got a-talking, and
he said he was second cousin to General Harrison. I said I was first cousin to
General Harrison and came from Kentucky. After talking a little longer a message
came for the major; he said, 'I must go; you may go home, Corman.' I said I
couldn't get through the lines. 'I will give you the countersign,' and he
did."
Isaac gave the countersign to me; I got it and away I came. When I got up the
road a ways I forgot it and didn't know what to do; so I pulled my coat over my
head and trotted across the road on my feet and hands like a bear. I went up the
hill to Levi's house and got Levi's old horse "Tip" and led him along
the Mountain side until I could get to the top. Then I rode him away around by
the gully, where I dismounted and tied old Tip to the fence and left him there,
making my way on foot to Burlington Heights.
When I got there they took me for a spy, and I had to tell them all I knew
before they would believe me. It was about 11 o'clock p.m. I explained to
Colonel Harvey where and how the American army were encamped near Stoney Creek.
He suggested a night attack on the enemy. After Colonel Harvey had a short
interview with General Vincent, it was decided to start at once for Stoney
Creek, and they commenced to hustle.
We got started about 11.90 p.m. Colonel Harvey asked me if I knew the way,
and I said, "Yes, every inch of it." He gave me a corporal's sword and
told me to take the lead. Sometimes I would get away ahead and go back to hurry
them up. I told them it would be daylight before we got there if we did not
hurry. Someone said that would be soon enough to be killed.
We got down the east side of the Red Hill Creek, near William Davis', when
three sentries fired at us, and then ran over to the south side of the creek.
Then we came on more carefully after that. I espied a sentry leaning against a
tree. I told the man behind to shoot him, but Colonel Harvey said, "No, run
him through!" and he was dispatched. The next sentry was at the church. He
discharged his gun and demanded a pass. I commenced to give him the countersign
and walked up to him. I grabbed his gun with one hand and put my sword to him
with the other. His old gun had no load in it. He had shot the ramrod away.
Then we could see the camp fires; we cut across and got in Lewis' lane, when
the order was given to "Fix flint! Fire!" and we fired three rounds
and advanced about one hundred yards. Then we banged away again. There was a
rush in our middle flank. Their south flank charged, then came orders for our
flank to charge. This is where we lost most of our men. We got bunched right
down under them. The centre rank captured two of their guns, then the general
order was given to charge and we drove them back. We could hear them scampering.
We were ordered to fire and we shot all our powder away. When it commenced to
get daylight we could see the enemy running in all directions.
In the flat just across the creek near Lewis' Lane about five hundred
American soldiers were encamped in advance of their artillery, which was
situated on a hill directly in front of the road that our troops must pass. The
five hundred on our left were the first that were discovered excepting those
that were taken prisoners in the church. Two thousand of their men were on the
hill to the right and about one thousand on the hillside just east of the James
Gage house. They were burning James Gage's fence rails for their camp fires.
Major Plenderleath, with thirty men of the 49th, and Major Ogilvie, with the
8th or King's Regiment, charged and captured four field pieces in very gallant
style. Generals Chandler and Winder were captured near their cannon. Our General
Vincent came in the rear of his army to Stoney Creek that night, and somehow got
lost in the bushes and the dark foggy night. He was found in the morning after
the battle, down near Van Wagner's. He had lost his hat. Seth White and George
Bradshaw found him. We lost about eighty killed and one hundred and forty
wounded. Their loss was two hundred killed and two hundred and forty wounded.
The settlers held to scare the enemy by giving war-whoops from the top of the
hill. After the battle was over we got William Gage's oxen and stoneboat and his
son Peter, John Lee, John Yeager, I and several others buried the dead soldiers
on a knoll near the road where the enemy had placed their guns and where the
road then turned south towards the Gage house; the road then went south of the
Gage house and south of the cemetery, also north of Red Hill past William Davis'
house. William kept a hotel there at the time, and it was used as a hospital for
some of the wounded soldiers after the battle was over. The old Dr. Case
homestead, near Hamilton, was also used for the same purpose. John Brady kept
hotel at Stoney Creek at the time of the war of 1819, and the Americans
refreshed themselves and their horses at his expense and did not leave his
premises until they had eaten and drunk all that they could find around his
place.
***
Source: "Billy Green, The Scout" by Mabel W. Thompson, Ontario
History, October 1952
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