About this time, 1799, a great number of old soldiers, who had served under and with my father, found their way to Long Point Settlement.

One of these soldiers had been taken prisoner with my father at Charleston, and when they were plundered of everything he managed to conceal a doubloon in his hair. With this he supplied my father’s wants, who was wounded and suffering.  My father now exchanged with him one of his choice lots, that he might be in the settlement, and near a mill; and took his location, which was far back in the woods.

My uncle [Joseph Ryerson], and several other half-pay officers, came from New Brunswick to visit my father.

The pleasure of seeing these loved and familiar faces, and again meeting those who had fought the same battles, shared the same dangers, and endured the same hardships, fatigues, and privations for seven long years, and had the same hopes and fears, and the bitter mortification of losing their cause, was indeed great.

How many slumbering feelings such a reunion awakened!  How many long tales of the past they used to tell, of both love and war!

Those officers that came from New Brunswick to visit the country all returned, after a few years, as settlers.  The climate of Canada was much preferable, and as an agricultural country was very superior.

The population was now becoming so great that the government thought it necessary to have all the male population, between the ages of sixteen and sixty, enrolled in the Militia.

My father was requested to organize a regiment, and to recommend those whom he thought, from their intelligence, good conduct, and former service, most entitled to commissions.  He was appointed Lieutenant-colonel of Militia and Lieutenant of the County, a situation that was afterwards done away with.

This duty of selecting officers gave rise to the first awkward feelings that had been exhibited towards him in the settlement.  Every man thought he ought to be a captain at the least, and was indignant that my father did not appreciate his merits.  Some threatened to stone him; others to shoot him.  The more moderate declared that they would not come to his mill, although there was no other within seventy miles.

John McCall did not care for my father; he would be a captain without his assistance. He built a large open boat and navigated her for several years, and gloried in the designation of Captain McCall.

But, notwithstanding all opposition, the regiment of militia was formed.  They used to meet one day in the year for company exercise, and there was a general muster on the 4th of June, the King’s birthday, for a general training.

These early trainings presented a strange mixture.  There were a few old officers with their fine military bearing, with their guns and remains of old uniforms; and the old soldier, from his upright walk and the way he handled his gun, would easily be distinguished, though clothed in home-spun and buck-skin, with the coarse straw hat.

The early settlers all had guns of some description, except the very juvenile members, who used to carry canes to represent guns.

Those trainings used to be looked forward to with intense interest by all the boys of the neighbourhood, and afforded subjects of conversation for the ensuing year.  It was no easy thing in that day to find a level piece of ground that was tolerably clear from stumps sufficiently large to serve for their general trainings.

Continued...>

Copyright 1994-2014 John Cardiff and Port Ryerse Environmental and Historical Society

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