War of 1812 Bicentennial

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada

53 Wilton Crescent, Ottawa, Ont.

6 June, 1928.

Dear Mr. Panabaker:—

I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday and desire you will convey to the members of the Waterloo County Historical Society my warm appreciation of the honour of being elected an honorary member of the Society.

I am taking the liberty of enclosing herewith a statement of the losses of certain residents of Block Number 2 when employed in military transport in October, 1813, which I have lately discovered and transcribed, thinking it might be of interest to you and other member of the Society. You will observe among the names a kinsman or perhaps an ancestor of yourself and several of familiar surnames. These men it would appear were impressed to enable Major General Procter to retreat with his small division of regular troops from Detroit after the defeat of the British squadron on Lake Erie on 10 September 1813. He was overtaken and his force was dispersed by a greatly superior enemy near the Moravian village on the Thames on 5 October, 1813. The Captain Chissom mentioned in the statement was probably Captain John Chisholm, who commanded a flank company of the 2nd Regiment of York militia, within the limits of whose regimental area Block No. 2 was situated and who seems to have be the impressing officer. I have not found any mention of the capture of these teams in any other place and you may consider this document of sufficient importance to warrant its publication in some future report.

With best wishes,

Sincerely yours,

N. A. Cruikshank.

D. N. Panabaker, Esq.,

President Waterloo Historical Society,

Hespeler, Ont.

P.S.—The transcription is literal from the manuscript presented to the Board of Claims.