Neville Trueman, the Pioneer Preacher : a tale of the war of 1812Withrow, W. H. (William Henry)
History
Neville Trueman, the Pioneer Preacher : a tale of the war of 1812
Withrow, W. H. (William Henry)
Clergy -- Fiction; United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Fiction
"Having been kindly indulged by Col. Larned, commandant to the
prisoners, we most joyfully embraced the privilege of proclaiming
to them the sweet liberty of the Gospel. They were called together
by their officers, and a more attentive congregation I never
expect to address again. As soon as we began to sing there was
weeping; and immediately on our kneeling to prayer they all knelt
down, and here and there we heard the voice of 'Amen' to our
petition for their salvation. I could not solve this till after
the service. To my great surprise and mingled grief and joy,
several brethren and acquaintances from Canada came and made
themselves known unto us; they were militia in arms, and were
taken near Fort George. Among these were Messrs. George Lawrence,
leader at Four-Mile Creek; William Clinton, from the head of the
lake, and Russel Hawley, brother of David Hawley, of the Bay of
Quinte. Their captivity was an affliction which made friends more
consoling." [Footnote: Carroll's Case and his Cotemporaries. Vol.
I., pp. 316-20.]
On this statement, Dr. Carroll thus comments:
"Mr. Case says the Canadian prisoners 'were militia in arms,' but
Mr. Lawrence was an exception. The reader will remember that he
was one of the Methodist Palatine stock, and brother of John
Lawrence, the second husband of Mrs. Philip Embury. In the war-
time he was so advanced in years as to be exempt from militia
duty, although his sons bore arms, and one of them was wounded the
day his father was taken prisoner. Mr. Lawrence, senior, kept
about the peaceful avocations of his farm, and continued to meet
his little class in his own house in those stormy times. He was
made a prisoner at his own door at Cross-Roads. [Footnote: About
four miles west of Niagara.] The writer, though only a child of
four years, was there, and remembers well his arrest, as he does,
all events consecutively since the battle of Niagara. The
Americans were then in the occupancy of Fort George, and a portion
of the British army were entrenched at the Cross-Roads, about half
a mile from Mr. Lawrence's residence. A general skirmish Lad taken
place all that morning between the pickets and advanced guards of
the two armies. A body of only ten American Indians, or white men
disguised like Indians, advanced toward Mr. Lawrence's, where an
officer's mess was kept and a guard of thirty soldiers posted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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