28 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



During the last two weeks of December more than one hundred 

 sleigh loads of naval and ordnance stores were successfully forwarded 

 from Montreal to Kingston. 1 



The troops stationed at Prescott, which had become the prin- 

 cipal garrison on the line of communication, were provided with snow- 

 shoes and exercised in marching with them. 2 



Licenses were granted to a number of persons residing near 

 the frontier to enable them to carry on a clandestine trade with the 

 United States. 



Lieut. Colonel Bruyères, of the Royal Engineers, was instructed 

 to make a thorough inspection and report on the condition of all 

 the military posts and works on the line of communication and along 

 the frontier of Upper Canada as far west as Fort Erie and submit 

 recommendations for strengthening them. 3 



He reported that works of a considerable extent should be con- 

 structed immediately at the Cedars, consisting of a blockhouse to 

 be armed with three guns with quarters for two hundred men on the 

 left bank of the river and a second blockhouse and a battery for two 

 guns on Prison Island, nearly opposite, so as to command the navigable 

 channel from both sides. At the River Raisin he found a detachment 

 of one hundred of the Glengarry militia stationed in a miserable tem- 

 porary barracks. He advised the construction of a blockhouse there 

 for a garrison of two hundred men. One small gunboat had been 

 placed during the autumn at that point for patrol duty in Lake St. 

 Francis. He recommended that two more should be allotted for that 

 service during the coming season of navigation and that two others 

 should be sent to Cornwall for the protection of convoys of boats 

 in the river. Glengarry House was occupied by an officer and thirty 

 militiamen who were actively engaged in barricading its windows 

 and doors. He proposed the construction there of a battery for four 

 guns. It was reported and believed that the enemy were building 

 a number of large boats in the Salmon River and cutting a road 

 towards St. Regis with the intention of establishing a military post 

 near that village. 



Cornwall was garrisoned by 140 men of the Stormont militia, 

 commanded by Colonel Neil McLean. They were quartered in the 

 courthouse, which afforded miserable shelter. As no good position 

 could be found in the vicinity, he did not consider the construction 

 of any fortifications advisable but directed that the blockhouse 

 already built by the militia in the township of Osnabruck, a few 



1 Prévost to Sheaffe, January 1, 1813. 



2 Mil. Secty. to Vincent, Jany. 3. 



3 Bruyères to Mil. Secty., Jany. 7. 



