Merry Hearts Make Light Days: The War of 1812 Journal of Lieutenant John le Couteur, 104th Foot

Wesley B. Turner is an associate professor of history at Brock
University and author of The War of 1812: The War That Both Sides Won
and The Military in the Niagara Peninsula.

Donald Graves edited, wrote the introduction, and supplied the notes to
this first full publication of the journal of an upper-class Englishman
(from the Island of Jersey) who served in British North America from
June 1812 until December 1815 and again from 1816 to 1817. Merry Hearts
is, however, more than a journal written at that time. It was worked on
in later life by Le Couteur, who used a daily diary, memory,
correspondence, official documents, and his mother’s diary to assist
his writing. Graves clearly explains in his informative introduction the
various sources used in this publication.

The title comes from Le Couteur’s credo, which he first expressed
during the voyage to Canada when the ship encountered its first gale.
“All our chairs were broken, our table cloths cut, the Cook ill or
sulky—obliged to cook for ourselves and to prepare our own Meals. Nor
was this the worst, the rascal Sailors stole a considerable portion of
our stock as we discovered. However, Merry hearts make light days!”
The journal’s flavor is what one would expect of a well-born, young,
and well-to-do officer who moved in the highest colonial civil and
military circles, frequently attending balls and parties as well as
dining with commanding officers from the army and navy.

Merry Hearts can be savored or consulted as a reference by anyone
interested in early 19th-century military matters, or simply in the War
of 1812.