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John Parker Boyd
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After an early stint in the American army, John Parker Boyd traveled to India in 1789 to sell his services to Indian princes as a mercenary officer. He returned home in 1808 and rejoined the U.S. Army. In 1811, Boyd commanded the Fourth Regiment at the Battle of Tippecanoe. When the War of 1812 began, he was promoted to brigadier general. He led his brigade against Fort George in May 1813. In the fall of 1813, Boyd accompanied Major General Wilkinson on an expedition down the St. Lawrence; his ultimate goal was to capture Montreal. When Major General Hampton, who commanded the other half of the two-pronged expedition, suffered a humiliating defeat at Chateauguay, Boyd was one of the senior officers who urged Wilkinson to continue on to Montreal. On November 11, upon learning of the two British regiments at John Chrysler’s Farm, Wilkinson sent Boyd at the head of the army to destroy them. During the ensuing battle, Boyd relied on his seemingly overwhelming numerical superiority, launching his men on three separate charges. The seasoned British soldiers, under Lieutenant Colonel Morrison, used parade-ground tactics to face each charge with concentrated volleys that broke each of them in turn. After little more than an hour, the American army had been backed to the river where it reembarked to escape Morrison’s relentlessly advancing soldiers. Boyd served the last years of the war without particular distinction. After the war he was one of the officers dismissed in the period of reduction of the Army. He died in 1830. |
