Shadrach Byfield British Soldier's Story

In the grand scheme of things, Shadrach Byfield is not a central figure in the War of 1812. An ordinary enlisted soldier, Byfield nonetheless stands out as a fascinating character. Originally from Wiltshire, he joined the British Army in London in 1807 at the age of eighteen. His mother didn’t take the news well: “Upon hearing that I was enlisting, and having two sons before in the army, my mother was so affected that on the evening of the same day, she fell ill in a fit and then never spoke again. I was obliged to march off the next morning. She expired three days later.” Byfield came to Canada and served as a private in the 41st Regiment. By 1814 he was a veteran soldier, and a lucky one at that. He had survived a series of battles which read like a textbook history of the war: Detroit, Frenchtown, Fort Stephenson, Moraviantown, Fort Niagara, and Lundy’s Lane. One hundred and ten members of Byfield’s company had helped Brock take Detroit in 1812. Two years later only Byfield and fourteen others were still alive. Byfield’s luck ran out in August 1814; during the failed British attack on Black Rock, he was hit in the right arm by a bullet. A surgeon decided the arm would have to be amputated below the elbow. Byfield refused to succumb to the standard procedure for such an operation. He didn’t want the blindfold, or to be held down by orderlies. What enraged Byfield, was not the unanesthetized operation. He became infuriated when he learned that his severed arm had been unceremoniously thrown onto a manure pile. After assaulting the offending orderly with his remaining fist, Byfield went out and tracked down his missing limb. He found some lumber, built a small coffin and gave his arm a proper burial. Byfield was of no more use to the British Army and was shipped back to England. A weaver by trade, he could no longer work and supported his family on his pitiful army pension. One night Byfield had a dream, however, and saw a special type of loom that would enable him to work again. His wife discouraged this fantasy, “there was never such a thing known as a person having but one arm to weave.” Byfield persisted and consequently explained his vision to a blacksmith who managed to construct the instrument. Byfield later found a position with a textiles manufacturer and returned to work, not far from the Wiltshire home he had left as a young man.