Hope Restored: The American Revolution and the Founding of New Brunswick

Richard Wilbur is author of The Rise of French New Brunswick and H.H.
Stevens, 1878–1973, and co-author of Silver Harvest: The Fundy
Weirmen’s Story. His latest book is Horse-Drawn Carriages and Sleighs:
Elegant Vehicles from New England and New Bruns

Like the two co-authors in the first volume of this series, Dallison has
a rich background in military history in addition to a distinguished
career in the Canadian Army. Consequently, his study on the first phase
deals almost exclusively with the military aspects of New Brunswick’s
first decades. Thus, the first chapter covers the “American
Revolutionary War Along the Bay of Fundy” and the second describes the
British Provincial Corps—the varied background of its members, their
roles both in the war and after being disbanded, and how they and their
families occupied land along the rivers flowing into the Bay of Fundy
(especially along the St. John river as far north as Fredericton).

All told, we learn with almost too much detail that there were 16
separate units who put in roots, culturally and physically, so deeply
that they defined New Brunswick institutions from then on. Commenting on
that legacy in Chapter 4, Dallison cites their respect for law and
order, education, and British common law. “Having suffered for their
dissenting views, the Loyalists brought a deep understanding of the
basic need for political, religious and racial tolerance.” Sadly,
these admirable traits were often lacking during the mid-19th-century
clashes between Protestants and Roman Catholics and again in the 1960s,
which produced a nasty anti-French reaction in Fredericton when the
first Acadian premier, Louis Robichaud, brought in his Program of Equal
Opportunity.

The final chapter, “People and Places,” provides fascinating
summaries of the New Brunswick careers of some of the most prominent
military figures. They include Captain John Saunders, who became chief
justice, and Quartermaster Daniel Morehouse, whose house (which he built
in 1812) can be seen in its restored splendour at Kings Landing Historic
Settlement. All in all, an informative study.