THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 37 



he would not give up without a struggle. One of the first acts of 

 the United States reinforcement, after encamping, was to drive in the 

 British advanced posts at Davis', eight miles from Burlington 

 Heights, towards Forty-mile Creek, the picket consisting of the light 

 company of the 49th regiment. The attacking party then took camp 

 at Stony Creek. On hearing of this Vincent sent off lieut.-Col. 

 Harvey, the Deputy Adjutant General, to reconnoitre. On his return 

 he recommended a night attack on the enemy's camp, whose force 

 consisted of 3,500 men, that of the British 704, being five companies 

 of the King's (that is, the 8th) Regiment, 280 in number, and the 

 49th, 424, a total of 704, or, as stated in Harvey's original letter, 700. 

 Vincent agreed to the proposal, and in the most noble manner 

 entrusted the command of the expedition to Harvey, although he 

 accompanied it himself. In his official report Vincent says : " To 

 Lieut.-General Harvey, the Deputy Adjutant General, my obligations 

 are particularly due. From the first moment the enemy's approach 

 was known he watched his movements and afforded me the earliest 

 information. To him, indeed, I am indebted for the suggestion and 

 plan of operations." 



The night of the 5th June was unusually dark ; at half-past 

 eleven the march began ; strict silence was ordered and enforced ; 

 the hght companies of the King's and 49th in front, the 49th in the 

 centre and the King's as a reserve. " In conformity," says Harvey, 

 " with directions I had given, the sentries at the outskirts of the 

 enemy's camp were bayonetted in the quietest manner, and the 

 camp immediately stormed." 



The matter of fact statement that the sentries were quietly done 

 to death by the bayonet makes us forget to think of the grief stricken 

 homes to which these men may have belonged, just as we read with 

 nerves unmoved the " butchers' bill " after every battle, feeling 

 mechanically that the dead and wounded were but machines, forget- 

 ting that they were human beings like ourselves, and connected by 

 ties of love with others who were watching with anguish for the 

 return of their loved ones. Not with much pathos, but with natural 

 feeling, the French girl in the song says to her conscript lover : 

 Oh I if I were Queen of France, or still better Pope of Rome, 

 I'd havg no fighting men abroad, no weeping maids at home ; 

 All the world should be at peace, and if kings must show their might, 

 Why let them that make the quarrels be the only ones to fight. * 



