John Vincent

John Vincent (* 1764 in Ireland ; † January 21, 1848 in London , England ), was a British officer in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 with the United States

Life

John Vincent joined the British Army's 66th Infantry Regiment as an ensign in 1781 and received the rank of lieutenant that same year . In 1783 he became a captain and in 1795 a major in the 49th Infantry Regiment , with which he was deployed in the Caribbean (1796), in Holland (1799) and in the naval battle of Copenhagen (1801). In 1801 his regiment was transferred to Canada , where he was stationed in York ( Toronto ) and Fort George . After the outbreak of the war of 1812 , he joined five companies to strengthen the defenders of Kingston (Ontario) , where a skirmish with a US naval unit under Commodore Isaac Chauncey broke out, which - albeit without much help from Vincent's soldiers - was driven out.

In February 1813, Governor General Sir George Prevost appointed him Brigadier General and Commander on the Niagara Peninsula , where he replaced the ailing Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe . Vincent's troops numbered only 1,900 men, many of them militiamen who deserted at the first opportunity . On May 24, the Americans began a heavy artillery bombardment of Vincent's Fort George headquarters and crossed the Niagara River three days later with about 5,000 men. Given the great American superiority, Vincent broke off the fight after losing about 50 dead and 300 wounded and missing, had the fort evacuated, retreated west and took a defensive position on the heights of Burlington, Ontario . Here he was promoted to major general on June 4th .

The Americans sent Vincent an army with 3500 infantrymen and 150 cavalrymen under the brigadier generals William Winder and John Chandler . After the British watched the American camp, Vincent was convinced by his chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel John Harvey , that a surprise attack had a good chance of success. Early in the morning of June 6, Harvey attacked the Americans with 700 men and forced them to retreat at the Battle of Stoney Creek , with the US guns and enemy commanders falling into the hands of the British. Vincent himself did not take part in the fight, as he was thrown from his horse on the approach, got lost and only then reached his troops again.

Since the Americans were bombarded with artillery by Sir James Lucas Yeo's warships in their camp at Forty Mile Creek and suffered heavy losses of supplies, they fled to Fort George. An attack on Vincent's outpost under Lieutenant James FitzGibbon led to another serious defeat in the Battle of Beaver Dams on June 23, after which the Americans remained passive for the rest of the year and finally gave up Fort George. Vincent remained in command of the Niagara Front until the new commander in Upper Canada , Sir Gordon Drummond , replaced him with Phineas Riall in December of that year and ordered him to Kingston. In June 1814 he was given command of the Montreal garrison , from where he returned to England in July 1814 due to illness . In April he had already received the post of governor of Dunbarton Castle in Scotland . In 1825 he became lieutenant general and in 1841 general . He died in London in 1848 at the age of 83.

Web links

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