A great many individuals assisted in the preparation of this history of the 104th Foot. I offer my sincerest appreciation to J. Marc Milner and Brent Wilson, both of the University of New Brunswick, for commissioning me to prepare this book.
Donald E. Graves, the doyen of War of 1812 scholars, has for more than a decade served as my mentor and close friend. His unparalleled knowledge of archival holdings and understanding of the complex intricacies of the British Army of the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 has been most helpful in preparing this book.
Special thanks also to Andrew Bamford, René Chartrand, Dr. Gary Gibson, and Robert Henderson for their generosity in providing documents and advice. Lieutenant-General Jonathan Riley, CB, DSO (late Royal Welch Fusiliers) provided insights into the organization, training, and employment of British Napoleonic infantry regiments; Michael Bechthold of the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, in Waterloo, Ontario, prepared the maps; and Julie Scriver of Goose Lane Editions oversaw the design of this book. Freelance copy editor Barry Norris ably applied his professional skills and, in his role as “friend to the reader,” enhanced the style of the manuscript. The online collection of War of 1812 documents available through the Library and Archives Canada website was an extremely valuable resource. The staff of Massey Library at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, assisted with securing material from their special collections and from other libraries. Overseas in England, the staff at The National Archives was helpful as always.
Lastly, I must give loving appreciation to my wife Helga and our children, Sylvia, Karl, and Natasha, who, through the preparation of this title and others, have been an unending source of support, while they gained a greater — and sometimes unexpected — appreciation of the War of 1812, or so they tell me. Without their support, this book would never have been completed.
Compiling the story of a regiment involves many complexities; regiments are living organisms, and their stories centre on the men who served in them and the families that marched with them. The heroes, cowards, and ordinary people that make up the regimental family develop their own character and contribute to a unit’s identity, which is much more than regimental facings, colours, battle honours, and unit heritage. This character reveals itself as one gets to know the regiment’s members, and I have enjoyed getting to know the 104th Regiment of Foot. Any errors or oversights in telling the story of the family of the 104th Foot between 1803 and 1817 are my own.