Hamilton's Brown Bess figures out West

The eye is on Hamilton via Small Dead Animals. Those out West shouldn't be surprised really, this is Hamilton after all - now those on the outside looking in are getting to know what it's like living here.

The editor seems oblivious to the fact that the Brown Bess musket has been requested by the Canadian War Museum to use as an exhibit - which means it will be encased in plexiglass in a secured gallery - duh

This has more to do with ignorance and disrespect for historical artifacts and becomes more bizarre after The Spec has requested stories and artifacts from Hamiltonians for its "Memory Project".

Here are The Spec's articles on the subject here, here (the very unusual editorial piece - almost like the one supporting the Mayor's interpretation of "integrity" after being charged under the Elections Act) and here.

Update: From the April 12 Spec - Brown Bess is donated to Battlefield House in Stoney Creek

Here is a post on the War of 1812 from Hamilton's Memory Project blog - the Brown Bess was used in this war.


This post is just for reference and is older than 160 yrs (more like 200) but it ties in with Stoney Creek and Black History month.

A little known book called Broken Shackles, Edited by Peter Meyler is the story of Old Man Henson. This story inspired Harriot Beecher Stowe to write "Uncle Tom's Cabin", which apparently helped to foment hostilities between abolitionists and non-abolitionists in the United States Civil War.

In it, it has some great historical reference to the War of 1812 in a chapter called The Picket (page 37). A sweeter note is this passage in the chapter called John Hall (pg 42) which I've included an excerpt:

"They were all taken to the County of Frederick, near Winchester in Virginia, and kept as prisoners until the end of the troubles between England and the United States, early in 1815. Then, instead of being delivered up or exchanged, they had all been made slaves, except a few who effected their escape, among whom was one of Hall's sisters.

Hall, who was himself part Indian*, had been a scout with the Indians under Tecumseh, and had skirmished all along the way between the Detroit and Niagara rivers. At Stoney Creek, near the last named river, he had been bayonetted in the leg, and although he did not think it very serious at the time, the wound was still troubling him. He never dreamed of being made a slave, but a slave he had become, and was owned by one of the most cruel and passionate slave owners of Kentucky."

* is refering to the loss of native population from European encroachment documented on pg 15 of The Iroquois in the War of 1812...excerpt:

"So large were Iroquois losses and so great was the adoption process over the period of contact that the adopted individuals (native, white, and black), their descendants and the off-spring of mixed unions integrated within the Six Nations outnumbered the 'pure' Iroquois."

So indeed, Stoney Creek has some very important historical perspectives in both countries.