6 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
month of May, General Vincent was forced by a much superior force to 
evacuate Fort George and retreat to the Heights where he entrenched 
his little army on the ground now included within Harvey and Dundurn 
Parks and the western part of the cemetery, where the remains of some 
earthworks can still be seen.” The invaders were then in complete pos- 
session of the Niagara frontier from Fort George to Fort Erie, and 
General Dearborn made preparations to drive Vincent from his position 
on the Heights, then the key of the military situation in the western 
peninsula of Upper Canada. All of you are quite familiar with the 
deeply interesting story of the memorable incidents, which led to the 
complete failure of the plans of the invaders, and the signal success of 
the defenders of Upper Canada. Many, if not all, of you have visited 
the battlefield of Stoney Creek* where Colonel Harvey surprised on a 
night in June a large force of American troops and captured the two 
brigadiers, Chandler and Winder, with a large amount of stores. 
You all have followed with thrilling interest the footsteps of Laura 
Secord in her perilous journey to warn Lieutenant Fitzgibbon at De 
Ceu’s of the sudden approach of Boerstler and his forces. 
“Sleep Laura Secord, resting well, 
Serenely pillowed ‘neath the grass ; 
Tender and reverent be the steps 
That by thy green grave pause and pass. 
The while across the ages long 
Oh, faint ! Oh, far! sweeps down a song 
From graves of heroes of our race 
From many an honoured resting place ; 
‘Numbered with us on glory's roll 
Be this Canadian dauntless soul.’” 9 
The result of this courageous woman’s exploit—the exploit of the 
daughter and wife of Loyalists—was the surprise of Boerstler and sev- 
eral hundred men through the clever strategy of Lieutenant Fitzgibbon, 
then in command of less than fifty firelocks. The invading forces re- 
treated in dismay to the cover of Forts George and Niagara and Upper 
Canada was saved at this critical juncture by Harvey and Fitzgibbon, 
whose names must be always associated with the history of the park 
where we now stand. By the end of the year the British had again pos- 
session of the Niagara frontier, and General Murray retaliated severely 
on the United States, for McClure’s shameful destruction of old Niagara 
town by the capture of Fort Niagara, and the burning of all the villages 
from that historic post as far as Buffalo. I need not dwell longer on 
the later events of the war which ended in the following year when the 
whole province of Upper Canada was free from hostile forces, except at 
Amherstburg, where the Stars and Stripes still floated. I shall close 
