British Generals in the War of 1812: High Command in the Canadas

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Asked to name a War of 1812 hero, most Canadians would answer
Major-General Sir Isaac Brock. This should not be completely surprising.
Of the five generals who led Canadian and British forces in the Upper
Canada campaign, only Brock has been honored with a public monument.
This edifice, which stands more than six stories high, overlooks the
battlefield where Brock died leading a charge against overwhelming enemy
forces. The monument, like Brock’s memory, casts a shadow over every
other British commander who served in the war.

In this book, historian Wesley B. Turner attempts to examine why Brock
has become a Canadian icon while the names Roger Hale Sheaffe, George
Prevost, Francis de Rottenburg, and George Drummond are mostly
forgotten. Each general is profiled in a separate chapter. Turner
examines not only the life and career of each general before and after
the War of 1812 but also the political environment that sustained, or
thwarted, each commander while he served in Canada. To give readers a
20th-century perspective on these five very different men, Turner uses a
list of eight desirable leadership traits (based on the work of American
sociologist Morris Janowitz) to rate each general. He also discusses how
the British army was organized at the turn of the 19th century. Given
the inadequate training, poor discipline, and a hierarchy based on
purchased commissions, it seems a miracle that the British army managed
to produce any competent commanders during the War of 1812, let alone a
few brilliant ones.

British Generals in the War of 1812 will satisfy the needs of both
amateur and professional historians. Turner’s book is highly readable,
supported with ample maps and illustrations, and well documented with
endnotes, appendixes, a bibliography, and an index. Ultimately, the book
does not diminish the reputation of Brock in presenting a long-overdue
look at his equally remarkable colleagues.