Photo credit: www.readtheplaque.com 

The CAROLINE was an American steamship that operated out of Fort Schlosser in New York State. The vessel was chartered in 1837 by rebels from Upper Canada (now Ontario, Canada) to carry men, cannons, ammunition etc. to Navy Island in the Niagara River, above Chippawa, and opposite where the Battle of Chippawa had been fought in the War of 1812. The rebels fired upon the Upper Canada mainland from the island. Note that this was technically British soil at the time as Canada did not form a confederation until 1 July 1867.

Captain Drew of the Royal Navy was tasked with clearing out this pocket of rebels.  He called for volunteers and 50 men were selected and armed with pistols and cutlasses. One of these men was my Gret-great-Grandfather Neil MacGregor (1816-1874). Seven rowboats were brought upriver from the village of  Chippawa. Five were towed and two were rowed. 

Captain Drew took one boat and did a reconnaissance by rowing around Navy Island. His boat was seen and fired at. Then at night, 29/30 December 1937 in pitch black, and freezing cold, the raiding party set out, expecting to find the steamboat berthed at Navy Island. Five of the raiding party’s boats found the steamboat CAROLINE, but she was moored on the American mainland at Fort Schlosser. The remaining two boats had became lost in the darkness, landed on another island briefly, and then returned to the Canadian shore. Captain Drew decided to attack and destroy the CAROLINE where she lay. 

They boarded the vessel, cut her adrift and set her on fire. One American, a black man named Durfee was killed on the dock. The raiding party returned safely to the Upper Canada shore with minor injuries to some of the men. 

That was the end of it, right? Not at all. The British-Canadian raising party had attacked and destroyed an American vessel at an American dock. This was seen as an invasion of sovereign territory. 

The American media assumed that the CAROLINE still had Americans on board and that the vessel went over Niagara Falls, carrting some Americans to their death. Their illustrations certainly fanned the flames.

Tempers ran high and the incident almost started another war between Britain and the new country of the United States of America. The War of 1812 had only ended 22 years before, in 1815 and so was fresh in the meomory of many people in both the USA and Canada. Calmer minds eventually prevailed and peace was maintained. The Rebellions were crushed in 1838. 

My Great-Great-Grandfather Neil MacGregor’s obituary stated that “He displayed considerable pluck at the burning of the Caroiline in 1837.” Natuarally as a retired army Captain, Museum Curator and family genealogist, I was curious to know what part he had played. How could I find out such details? eBay can be a researcher’s friend. In response to my search request, it turned up a Trial Transcript related to the incident. I bought it in hopes that he might have been mentioned. 

He was! The trial was a very important one for the State of New York and a verbatim transcript was publish in a book! My copy of the book was missing the front cover, but my Great-Great-Grandgfather’s testimoney was inside! 

 

QUERY – CAROLINE Burning and Trial – People involved

This list is far from complete and I have compiled it from the evidcne presented at the Trial. People are listed alphabetically. Many of the Americans are mentioned in the Trial as being asked to perform jury duty. The table below this one will list the raiding boats. Sadly there are no know complete lists of the raiders, and ondded that was a key factor in the trial!

Side	Last Name	First Name	Boat #	Boat Commander	Reached CAROLINE
?	WISHERLUR (pronounced Wiscoon)
British	ARMOUR	Robert	Boat 4 of 7 – 2 of _ people ARMOUR	ELMSLEY	YES
British	ELMSLEY	John	Boat 4 of 7 – 1 of _ people ELMSLEY	ELMSLEY	YES
British	MCCORMACK / MCCORMICK	Shepherd / Sheppard	Boat 2 of 7 – 1 of _ people MCCORMACK	MCCORMACK	YES WIA
British	HARRIS	John	Boat 1 of 7 – 2 of 9 people HARRIS	DREW	YES
British	HEAD	Francis Bond
British	RANSOM, Jr.	Elias
British	BROUGH	Secker
British	PRICE	James Harvey
British	CLEVERLY	Frederick	Boat 3 of 7 – 3 of 9 people CLEVERLY	BEER	YES
British	XXXXXXXXXXXXX
British	CURRANT or CURRAN	J. P.	Boat 6 of 7 (boat 6 or 7) CURRAN(T)	HECTOR or BATTERSBY ?	NO
British	SMALL	James E.
British	LIGHT	William Smart	Boat 4 of 7 – 2 of _ people ELMSLEY	ELMSLEY	YES
British	PRESS	William
British	MORRISON	John W	N/A
British	MORRISON	Archibald	N/A
British	MORRISON	Margaret	N/A
British	GORDON	John	Boat 5 of 7 – 1 of _ people GORDON	GORDON	YES
British	MOSIER	John	UNKNOWN BOAT
British	MCCORMICK	Thomas (= Shepherd?)
British	MACDONALD	Rolland	UNKNOWN
British	DREW	Andrew	Boat 1 of 7 – 1 of 9 people DREW Commanding Gig	DREW	YES
British	BIER aka BEER aka RICE	Christopher	Boat 3 of 7 – 1 of 9 people BIER aka BEER aka RICE	BEER	YES
British	GRAHAM	Philip
British	MACGREGOR	Neil	Boat 7 of 7 – 2 of 7 people MACGREGOR	BATTERSBY	NO
British	MCNAB	Allan Napier	N/A
British	BATTERSBY	John Palmer	Boat 7 of 7 – 1 of 7 people BATTERSBY – no keel	BATTERSBY	NO no keel
British	McLEOD	Alexander	NONE	N/A	NO
British		Francis
British	ARNOLD	John
British	ARNOLD	Richard	Boat 3 of 7 – 4 of 9 people ARNOLD	BEER	YES WIA slightly ?
British	ELMSLEY	John
British	WARREN		Boat ? Of 7 – WIA on Caroline WARREN	Unknown	YES WIA slightly
British	HECTOR	Thomas	Boat 6 of 7 – 1 of _ people HECTOR	HECTOR	NO changed poor rowers; 100-200 yds
British	O’REILLY	Hamilton Robert	Boat 3 of 7 – 2 of 9 people BIER aka BEER aka RICE	BEER	YES
British	SULLIVAN
British ?	WILSON	Adam
British ?	HINCKS	Francis
British?	CHALMERS	George
British?	RIGBY	Sylvanus S.
British?	INGLIS	Russell
British?	ZEALAND	Edward	Boat 1 of 7 – 3 of 9 people ZEALAND	DREW	YES
Patriot	MACKENZIE
Patriot	Van Rensselaer
Patriot	WRIGLEY	Silvanus Fearns	Caroline
Patriot	LUCE	Alfred	Caroline
US	ELLIOTT	Volnev
US	CARPENTER	William	x
US	HUNT	Washington
US	BOWEN	Levi F.
US	COOK	Lathrop
US	ALLEN	Eseck
US	CARRIER	Syemour
US	ALLEN	Asher
US	SLEIGHT	Peter
US	THURBER	Isaiah / Josiah	x
US	BYINGTON	Ira	x
US	BRUSH	Elijah	x
US	MOTT	John
US	ALLEN	Edmund
US	CURTIS	Charles O.
US	WELLS	William	Caroline
US	WOODS	J. L.
US	Appleby	Gilman	Caroline
US	33 on Caroline
US	DURFEE	Amos	Killed on the dock
US	MCNEIL	Hiram
US	PEASE	Andrew
US	SAFFORD	Charles L.
US	ADDINGTON	Henry
US	LEONARD	John	Caroline
US	Black boy (not DURFEE)
US	SWANTON
US	STEWART	Danielt J.	Caroline
US	NICHOLS		Caroline
US	EMMONS	Frederick
US	ALLAN	Edmund
US	MOTT	John
US	CAULDWELL	Joseph
US	HILLS	Ashley
US	ROBBINS	Royal
US	EASTMAN	Roswell T.
US	SWANN	John jun. (Junior)
US	CURTIS	George
US	BARNES	Amasa
US	NORTHRUP	Stephen
US	ALLEN	Esecck
US	BABCOCK	Henry D.
US	SEYMOUR	Joseph
US	DAVIS	Joseph
US	SCOVILLE	Edward
US	NOONAN	Thomas
US	SHEPHERD	Luther
US	CARRIER	Seymour	x
US	ALLEN	Asher	x
US	TUTTLE	David
US	HAYTER	Henry
US	SLEIGHT	Peter	x
US	UNKNOWN Missing 5 of 7		Caroline
US	HOUSE	Jonathan
US	FARNSWORTH	Hunt
US	UNKNOWN Missing 7 of 7		Caroline
US	POOL	Alfred
US	BEECH	Moses
US	HUNTLEY	Jesse
US	ROBERTS	Truman
US	ROOT
US	JEFFREY	John
US	GRIDLEY
US	TOMPKINS	James
US	GREEN	Warner
US	ODELL	Erastus
US	YALE	Levy
US	FIELD	James
US	CROWNOON	James
US	CARPENTER	Warren
US	GARDNER
US	CLEVELAND	Joseph
US	UNKNOWN Missing 4 of 7		Caroline
US	UNKNOWN Missing 3 of 7		Caroline
US	UNKNOWN Missing 2 of 7 POW		Caroline
US	UNKNOWN Missing 1 of 7 POW		Caroline
US	TROBRIDGE	Henry P.
US	SMITH	John H.
US	UNKNOWN Missing 6 of 7		Caroline
US	BRADLEY
US	SPENCER
US	HAWLEY	Seth C.
US	WOOD
US	JENKINS
US	HALL
US	KING		Caroline

 

QUERY – CAROLINE Burning – People involved – Listed by Boat 

Some are known to have not been on a boat and are so noted.

Side	Boat #	Last Name	First Name	Boat Commander	Reached CAROLINE
British	Boat ? Of 7 – WIA on Caroline WARREN	WARREN		Unknown	YES WIA slightly
British	Boat 1 of 7 – 1 of 9 people DREW Commanding Gig	DREW	Andrew	DREW	YES
British	Boat 1 of 7 – 2 of 9 people HARRIS	HARRIS	John	DREW	YES
British?	Boat 1 of 7 – 3 of 9 people ZEALAND	ZEALAND	Edward	DREW	YES
British	Boat 2 of 7 – 1 of _ people MCCORMACK	MCCORMACK / MCCORMICK	Shepherd / Sheppard	MCCORMACK	YES WIA
British	Boat 3 of 7 – 3 of 9 people CLEVERLY	CLEVERLY	Frederick	BEER	YES
British	Boat 3 of 7 – 1 of 9 people BIER aka BEER aka RICE	BIER aka BEER aka RICE	Christopher	BEER	YES
British	Boat 3 of 7 – 2 of 9 people BIER aka BEER aka RICE	O’REILLY	Hamilton Robert	BEER	YES
British	Boat 3 of 7 – 4 of 9 people ARNOLD	ARNOLD	Richard	BEER	YES WIA slightly ?
British	Boat 4 of 7 – 2 of _ people ARMOUR	ARMOUR	Robert	ELMSLEY	YES
British	Boat 4 of 7 – 2 of _ people ELMSLEY	LIGHT	William Smart	ELMSLEY	YES
British	Boat 4 of 7 – 1 of _ people ELMSLEY	ELMSLEY	John	ELMSLEY	YES
British	Boat 5 of 7 – 1 of _ people GORDON	GORDON	John	GORDON	YES
British	Boat 6 of 7 – 1 of _ people HECTOR	HECTOR	Thomas	HECTOR	NO changed poor rowers; 100-200 yds
British	Boat 6 of 7 (boat 6 or 7) CURRAN(T)	CURRANT or CURRAN	J. P.	HECTOR or BATTERSBY ?	NO
British	Boat 7 of 7 – 1 of 7 people BATTERSBY – no keel	BATTERSBY	John Palmer	BATTERSBY	NO no keel
British	Boat 7 of 7 – 2 of 7 people MACGREGOR	MACGREGOR	Neil	BATTERSBY	NO
Patriot	Caroline	LUCE	Alfred
Patriot	Caroline	WRIGLEY	Silvanus Fearns
US	Caroline	Appleby	Gilman
US	Caroline	UNKNOWN Missing 3 of 7
US	Caroline	NICHOLS
US	Caroline	STEWART	Danielt J.
US	Caroline	LEONARD	John
US	Caroline	UNKNOWN Missing 7 of 7
US	Caroline	UNKNOWN Missing 6 of 7
US	Caroline	UNKNOWN Missing 4 of 7
US	Caroline	WELLS	William
US	Caroline	UNKNOWN Missing 2 of 7 POW
US	Caroline	UNKNOWN Missing 1 of 7 POW
US	Caroline	KING
US	Caroline	UNKNOWN Missing 5 of 7
US	Killed on the dock	DURFEE	Amos
British	N/A	MORRISON	John W
British	N/A	MORRISON	Archibald
British	N/A	MORRISON	Margaret
British	N/A	MCNAB	Allan Napier
British	NONE	McLEOD	Alexander	N/A	NO
British	UNKNOWN	MACDONALD	Rolland
British	UNKNOWN BOAT	MOSIER	John
US	x	CARRIER	Seymour
US	x	BRUSH	Elijah
US	x	BYINGTON	Ira
US	x	CARPENTER	William
US	x	THURBER	Isaiah / Josiah
US	x	SLEIGHT	Peter
US	x	ALLEN	Asher

MORE TO COME!

ENDNOTE: Rebellions of 1837, rebellions mounted in 1837–38 in each colony of Upper and Lower Canada against the British Crown and the political status quo. The revolt in Lower Canada was the more serious and violent of the two. However, both events inspired the pivotal Durham Report, which in turn led to the union of the two colonies and the arrival of responsible government—critical events on the road to Canadian nationhood. (Britannica)