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William Wadsworth
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William Wadsworth
was a proud, but woefully inexperienced member of the Upper New York State
Militia. He was in charge of drumming up recruits for the attack on Queenston,
and later fought in that battle. He freely admitted he was, “ignorant
of even the minor details of the duty”, of which he had been assigned.
He even asked to be relieved when he was not able to find satisfactory numbers
of volunteers. In October of 1812, he greatly overestimated the number of Brock’s troops at Queenston and told General Dearborn that it would require at least ten thousand American troops to take the village. During the Battle of Queenston, he tried to face the enemy at all times so that he would not be shot in the back and thus appear to be cowardly. Waving his sword and swearing at the troops hoping to instill them with the fighting spirit, Wadsworth made a genuine but vain attempt to get the militia to cross the Niagara to meet the British. |