Throughout the course of its history, the British Army has been expanded and reduced in size based on the needs of the government. Until 1862, regiments were generally identified by numbers, and, in some cases, by a territorial association as well. The numerical title determined the seniority of the unit, and when peace came and reductions followed, the more junior, higher-numbered regiments were usually the first to go.
This routine expansion and contraction has resulted in a regiment having borne the number “104th” on five previous occasions. The first came in 1761, during the Seven Years’ War, when the 104th (King’s Volunteers) Regiment of Foot was raised; it was disbanded in 1763. The number was resurrected as the 104th between 1780 and 1783, during the American Revolutionary War, and again in 1794-1795 as the 104th (Royal Manchester Volunteers), during the war with revolutionary France. In 1810, the New Brunswick Fencible Infantry was redesignated the 104th Regiment of Foot and, after serving in Upper and Lower Canada during the War of 1812, was disbanded in 1817. The final iteration of the 104th came in 1861, with the redesignation of the 2nd Bengal Fusiliers as the 104th Bengal Fusiliers. In 1881, the regiment was amalgamated with the 101st (Royal Bengal Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot to become The Royal Munster Fusiliers, which was disbanded in 1922. None of these regiments shares any lineage with the others that have borne the number or with any modern British regiments.1
The story of the unit that is the subject of this book owes its origin, as noted above, to a fencible regiment from New Brunswick. Between 1791 and 1816, the defence of the province was augmented by the formation of one provincial regiment and two regiments of fencible infantry. The first regiment of fencibles, The King’s New Brunswick Regiment, existed between 1791 and 1802; in 1803, it was followed by The New Brunswick Fencible Infantry, which was later taken into the line as the 104th Foot. Finally, in the autumn of 1812, a new regiment, the New Brunswick Regiment of Fencible Infantry, was raised; it was disbanded in 1816. Like their regular counterparts, fencible regiments were subject to orders from the British Army, not the New Brunswick militia.
This book briefly examines the history of the 104th Regiment of Foot, which was formed in New Brunswick during the Napoleonic Wars and fought in the War of 1812. The 104th Foot is distinct in that it was the only regular infantry regiment raised in British North America between 1803 and 1815. Thereafter, however, its employment in the Canadas mirrored that of other British regiments that served in the conflict: sent piecemeal, often as companies, to the most threatened regions, then redeployed to a central location, such as Kingston, once the situation stabilized.
This war of companies that the 104th Foot experienced in no way diminishes its record. In 1812, the 104th contributed to the defence of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton. When it was ordered to Upper Canada in 1813, the regiment arrived in Kingston at a time when the scale of the war had increased dramatically from that of the previous year. The arrival of British reinforcements, the embodiment of the Upper Canadian militia, the transformation of the war on the Great Lakes by the arrival of the Royal Navy, and the rejuvenation of the US Army are but a few of the changes that had taken place.
The arrival of the 104th Foot in Kingston allowed the British to consider indirect means of attacking their enemy, and the regiment promptly provided the majority of the troops committed to the raid on the American naval base at Sackets Harbor, New York. Several companies were then sent to the Niagara Peninsula, where they were involved in a number of actions before returning to Kingston at the end of the year. In 1814, as the line companies garrisoned posts between Kingston and Prescott on the important line of communication between Montreal and Kingston, the grenadier and light companies joined the Right Division of the Army of Upper Canada in the Niagara Peninsula, where, over a four-month period they were nearly wiped out. The end of the war saw the 104th in Montreal, where it was disbanded in 1817.
Although the unit is often styled the 104th (New Brunswick) Regiment of Foot, readers will soon discover that the regiment included a diverse group of men not only from New Brunswick, but also from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Lower and Upper Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, and elsewhere. From the contemporary Canadian perspective, the 104th Foot can be considered as a national endeavour whereby men from a group of loosely associated British colonies, known as British North America, and Britons served side-by-side in defending those colonies from foreign aggression. Not only did they succeed in doing so, but many remained in the colonies and helped to build what eventually would become the Dominion of Canada.
Today, aside from some commemorative plaques, a bridge named in the regiment’s honour, and a few artefacts, there is little to remind us of the exploits of the 104th Foot. Perhaps, however, the award of War of 1812 Battle Honours to units of the Canadian Army, and the numerous projects surrounding the bicentenary of the War of 1812 will allow Canadians to appreciate the story of the soldiers of the War of 1812, including the history of the only regular regiment of the British Army to be raised and employed on this continent during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
A Note to the Reader
The proper designation of British numbered infantry units in the Napoleonic Wars was as “regiments of foot.” Many regiments also acquired territorial affiliations, including British counties, North American provinces, or cultural associations such as “Highland.” Not all of these designations received official sanction, and did not appear in the Army List. Thus, although the regiment that is the subject of this book is often identified as the “104th (New Brunswick) Regiment of Foot,” it appeared only as the “104th Foot” in the Army List. So, for purposes of brevity, I identify it hereafter by that shorter name or simply as the 104th.
Military records are notoriously inaccurate, especially when it comes to strength returns, routine reports that showed personnel by rank, whether they were present and fit for duty, and other details that staff officers thought important. A close reading of the text will reveal discrepancies between the figures presented here, depending on whether they were drawn from town or district orders, provincial or theatre returns, and medical reports. In some cases, such as when the flank companies of the 104th were in the Niagara Peninsula in 1814, the pace of military operations and the continual shifting of units between locations meant these reports were never completed, or were compiled in haste. Greater precision is normally found in returns involving the payment of funds, but these, too, are subject to error and, on occasion, deliberate fabrication due to graft on the part of the reporting staff officer, non-commissioned officer (NCO), or clerk. Although I have tried to reconcile these differences and omissions, it proved impossible to resolve the conflicting data completely; I thus present “ballpark” figures and inconsistent data, and leave the reader to contemplate the possible conclusions.