Gordon Drummond

Sir Gordon Drummond, painting by George Theodore Berthon, around 1882/83

Sir Gordon Drummond GCB (born September 27, 1772 in Québec , Canada , † October 10, 1854 in London , England ) was a British officer and colonial administrator in Canada.

Life

Gordon Drummond was born in Quebec, the fifth and youngest son of Colin Drummond of Megginch and Catherine Oliphant of Rossie. His father, who came from an old Scottish family, was a representative of a London company, paymaster for the British Army in the province of Québec and a member of the Legislative Council of Lower Canada . After the father died in 1776, the family returned to Great Britain in 1780 .

In 1789 Gordon Drummond joined the 1st Infantry Regiment of the British Army as an ensign , where he rose rapidly through the purchase of officers' certificates , which was common at the time . He was a lieutenant in 1791 and a captain in 1792 . In 1794 he reached the rank of major , in the same year that of lieutenant colonel . He became a colonel in 1798. He experienced his first combat missions in 1794/1795 in Holland , where he distinguished himself during the siege of Nijmegen . In 1801 he served as regimental commander in the reconquest of Egypt from the French .

After garrison service in the Mediterranean , Drummond was promoted to brigadier general in 1804 and posted to Great Britain, where he rose to major general the following year . He spent two years in Jamaica as deputy military commander and returned to his birthplace in 1808 on the staff of Sir James Henry Craig , Commander in Chief of the British Forces in North America . In 1811 he was promoted to lieutenant general and in the same year was provisional supreme command in Canada until the new governor Sir George Prevost took office, until he was transferred to Ireland in October .

From there he was transferred back to Canada in August 1813 , where the war of 1812 with the United States had broken out. Drummond replaced Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe or his acting successor Francis de Rottenburg as commander-in-chief in Upper Canada , who had been replaced by Governor General Prevost because of his dissatisfaction with his defensive warfare . With an advance on the Niagara Peninsula in December, he forced the Americans to withdraw from the British border fortress Fort George , which was captured in the summer, and the border town of Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake ). He then initiated a successful surprise attack on Fort Niagara on December 19 , in which this important American frontier fortress was captured, 344 Americans were captured and large supplies were looted. In further advances across the Niagara River, the British destroyed several US towns and defeated an opposing militia force near Buffalo . As administrator of Upper Canada, Drummond enforced strict measures in the provincial parliament in February 1814 against American sympathizers and, due to the poor supply situation, imposed martial law against the will of the Legislative Council and Prevost in April 1814 in order to be able to force deliveries by the farmers. However, he made sure that the victims were paid fair prices and that abuse was prevented.

In his efforts to conduct offensive warfare, Drummond was severely hampered by the lack of resources and the “no risk” attitude by Governor General Prevost. An attempt to recapture Amherstburg and Detroit , which had been lost in the fall of 1813 due to the defeats on Lake Erie and the Thames River , had to be abandoned for weather reasons, an attack on the US naval base Sackets Harbor planned together with naval commander Sir James Lucas Yeo on Lake Ontario had to be canceled because Prevost refused reinforcements from Lower Canada despite repeated requests . The British then attacked the less well protected Fort Oswego depot and captured it on May 6, 1814, but were only able to get their hands on some of the shipbuilding materials and equipment that were important for the Americans. However, this success was no substitute for a successful blow against Sackets Harbor, since the British brought control of this lake and prevented American offensive efforts, or at least made it much more difficult.

As a result of this failure, 4,000 US soldiers under Major General Jacob Brown crossed the Niagara River on July 3 and captured Fort Erie . Drummond's situation was aggravated by a heavy defeat of his subordinate Major General Sir Phineas Riall against the American vanguard under Brigadier General Winfield Scott at the Battle of Chippewa on July 5. On July 25th, the decisive battle at Lundy's Lane took place . The skirmish began around 6 p.m. when contingents from both sides accidentally clashed, and expanded as Brown and Drummond threw their reserves into the fight, eventually involving about 3,000 Americans and 2,800 British. This extremely bloody battle, in which both sides lost around 850 men and both commanders were wounded, had no clear tactical result, but was strategically a British victory, as the Americans had to give up their advance and retreated to Fort Erie.

In August, despite insufficient funds, Drummond began to besiege US troops at Fort Erie and an attached fortified camp. On August 15, he ordered a major attack on the fort, which after initial successes failed with heavy losses. In total, the British lost more than 900 men, the Americans only 84. Although the British succeeded in repelling a large-scale American defeat on September 17th, the losses in men and material (609 British men compared to 511 American losses) suffered in part The result of a failed tactic forced Drummond on September 21 to abandon the siege and retreat to a defensive position behind the Chippawa River . With the arrival of American reinforcements, Drummond got into a very threatening situation here at the beginning of October, but was rescued by the arrival of Sir James Lucas Yeo's squad, who arrived on October 18 with supplies and reinforcements at the mouth of the Niagara River. When Brown found out about this, he had Fort Erie and its fortified camp blown up on November 5 and withdrew from Canada. There was no further fighting in this theater of war. It is believed that the effects of his wounding and a painful stomach ailment impaired Drummond's judgment and contributed to the loss-making setbacks of the fall of 1814.

After the end of the war, the British government appointed Drummond as the acting successor of Prevost, who had to answer for his behavior in the Battle of Plattsburgh in England. In this role, Drummond mainly dealt with the demobilization or return of the troops and the fulfillment of the peace agreements, which u. a. included the return of Fort Mackinac and other captured U.S. posts. Politically, he did not play a major role in his service; the most significant event was the dissolution of the Lower Canada Legislative Council in 1816 in a dispute over the two judges Jonathan Sewell and James Monk , whose replacement had been refused by the government in London. Drummond returned to Britain in 1816. His services in Canada had already been honored in 1815 with the Order of Bath, Second Class (KCB) , which was followed in 1817 by the Grand Cross of the Order of Bath (GCB). In 1825 he received the rank of general . He died in London on October 10, 1854 .

Honors

The towns of Drummondville and Drummond in Canada are named after him.

literature

• Ernest Alexander Cruikshank: Drummond's winter campaign, 1813 , Ont. Publications, Welland 1900, online at Canadiana Discovery Portal

Web links

• Gordon Drummond . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).