A Bastion Of Empire A Story Of Fort St Joseph And The War Of 1812

In the late summer of 1809, Louis Cloutier, 18, is aboard the "Nancy," a schooner of the North West Fur Company, sailing from Fort Amherstburg on a journey of 400 miles, and heading for Fort St. Joseph, the furthest northern British outpost. This is a small fort, located in the wilderness, isolated from the outside world, particularly during the long hard winters. Forty soldiers garrison the fort. The British Indian Department has a post there, where Louis' father is employed as the new store keeper; the Department assists the traders in their dealings with the Indian tribes; also, to ensure the continued allegiance of the Indians to the British crown. The fur trading companies have facilities outside the fort. Their agents are mostly Métis with their voyageurs mainly from Lower Canada. The people of the fort are thrown together, dependent on each other for survival, and tangles occur in their relationships, often leading to dire consequences. Louis meets a Métis kitchen helper, Giselle Lortie. In 1812 war breaks out, he leaves her, to accompany Captain Charles Roberts in his expedition to capture Fort Michillimackinac from the Americans. Louis finds his Ojibwe grandmother, when the dramatic conclusion of the story unfurls....

In early 1812, as the British and the Americans were on the brink of war in North America, Fort St. Joseph was not thought to be of much importance to the British cause. It was disregarded as a useless, poorly located post. But when war was delcared, the garrison at Fort St. Joseph pulled off a miracle: it captured the American Fort Mackinac, and for the remainder of the War of 1812 the British never relinquished control of the Upper Great Lakes. Built in the aftermath of the American Revolution, Fort St. joseph played an important role in the defence of Canada. And yet, when the war ended, the fort was abandoned, and almost forgotten. However, there were those who could not forget the heroics of 1812. They sought to restore the memory of the fort that was part of one of the defining moments in Canadian history. Determined individuals campaigned for government assistance and public support. Their efforts have paid off: since the 1960s, St. Joseph Island and the site of the fort have been revived as tourist destinations, and there are high hopes for an even greater tribute to the legacy of the fort and its soldiers.

The author has seven published novels. His enduring interest in Canadian Army history is based on having attended the McGill medical school through the Regular Officer Training Program which required three summers of basic and field training followed by three years of military service as the Regimental Medical Officer with the Second Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment. The early historical novels consisted of the Canadian Army Trilogy in which the first had to do with the Verrières Ridge in Normandy; the second with the costly river assault crossing of the Lamone River in Italy; the third novel goes back to the First World War, Lucifer’s Gate, after the Menin Gate through which the Canadian soldiers passed on the way to the Flanders battlefields. The next two novels included The Afternoon of the Women, about therapy in a psychiatrist’s office, and the second, North of the Tai, about a boy growing up in Japanese occupied China. The most recent two novels were about the War of 1812, the first, The Red Dawn, on the battles for Niagara, and the second, Bastion of Empire, was about Fort St Joseph. This brings us to Gone for Doctors, the eighth novel, not an historical account but about doctors. Don MacMillan visits the land lady for the boarding house he shared with the main character, Michael Hogan, when they were students at Western University. Don wanted to know had Michael already left for the McGill medical school. He was told that Michael had “Gone for Doctors.” Four medical students form a study group they call their cabal, which meets after the weekly pathology class. The cabal helps them though the cadaveric stench of the anatomy laboratory, and the ancillary classes in histology and physiology of their first year of medical school. It follows them through their clinical years, their personal lives and medical careers.

When war broke out between the United States and Great Britain in 1812, neither side was prepared for the conflict, as evidenced by their respective fortifications. The most sophisticated and modern fortifications were those built by the US Corps of Engineers to protect some of the main port cities. These included Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia, Fort McHenry in Baltimore and Castle William in New York. The British also heavily fortified their main harbor at Halifax and their main center of power at Quebec. However, elsewhere, especially in the interior, fortifications were old, neglected or only hastily erected. The forts at Detroit and Mackinac were much as the British had left them in 1796. This book covers all of the main fortifications of the conflict, those that faced the crashing of guns and those whose intimidation played a part in the grand strategy of the war.

In the late summer of 1809, Louis Cloutier, 18, is aboard the "Nancy," a schooner of the North West Fur Company, sailing from Fort Amherstburg on a journey of 400 miles, and heading for Fort St. Joseph, the furthest northern British outpost. This is a small fort, located in the wilderness, isolated from the outside world, particularly during the long hard winters. Forty soldiers garrison the fort. The British Indian Department has a post there, where Louis' father is employed as the new store keeper; the Department assists the traders in their dealings with the Indian tribes; also, to ensure the continued allegiance of the Indians to the British crown. The fur trading companies have facilities outside the fort. Their agents are mostly Métis with their voyageurs mainly from Lower Canada. The people of the fort are thrown together, dependent on each other for survival, and tangles occur in their relationships, often leading to dire consequences. Louis meets a Métis kitchen helper, Giselle Lortie. In 1812 war breaks out, he leaves her, to accompany Captain Charles Roberts in his expedition to capture Fort Michillimackinac from the Americans. Louis finds his Ojibwe grandmother, when the dramatic conclusion of the story unfurls.

Discusses the causes, events, campaigns, personalities, and aftermath of the War of 1812.