The Alfred Memorial of Queenston

By Andrew Hind

With its many historic buildings, the village of Queenston doesn’t feel too far removed from the War of 1812 when a fierce battle raged atop the heights towering over it. It’s not hard to imagine British soldiers and Canadian militiamen gathered here, faces etched in fear, as they prepared to storm the American forces ensconced on the heights.

A memorial stands sentinel here, at the point where Sir Isaac Brock’s infamous attack began. But the monument doesn’t pay homage to any man, general or private soldier. Instead, it is dedicated to the memory of General Brock’s horse, Alfred.

In 1811 the ailing Governor General of the Canadas, Sir James Craig, who had served as colonial administrator since 1807, bequeathed the horse to General Brock prior to departing for England to recover. Lt. Colonel Edward Baynes, adjutant-general of forces in British North America and a man very close with Craig from having served as his long-time aide-de-camp, apparently penned a letter to Brock on behalf of the grievously ill governor general. He was said to write that Craig, “requests that you will do him the favour to accept, as a legacy and mark of his very sincere regard, his favourite horse Alfred.”

“The whole continent of America could not furnish you so safe and excellent a horse,” Baynes adds. “Alfred is ten years old, but being a high bred horse, and latterly but very little worked, he may be considered as still perfectly fresh.”

Brock was moved. And the gift came none to soon, because in 1812 war broke out between the United States and Britain and Brock, commander of all British and Canadian forces in Upper Canada would need a good steed to race from one trouble spot to another. It’s reported that Brock was riding Alfred when he accepted William Hull’s surrender of Detroit on August 16, 1812.

Two months later the inevitable American riposte came. On October 13th, 1812, Brock, headquartered in Niagara (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) woke to the news of an American attack on Queenston Heights. The alarm almost certainly came by messenger rather than the oft-told story of being awakened ‘by the sound of guns’, as others in Niagara at the time reported hearing no sound of battle. Hurriedly dressing, Brock mounted Alfred and rode for the village of Queenston. He pushed his mount as hard as he could, racing along a rain-soaked road to arrive about an hour later. What Brock found concerned him terribly.

Photos courtesy of Brock University.

Chaos abounded. There had been much fighting atop the Heights, and the strategically vital artillery battery there had fallen to the enemy. Brock, always a man of action, now made a foolhardy decision to personally lead a counterattack with whatever troops he had on hand rather than delegate the task to a more junior officer.

Brock dismounted Alfred, tethered the horse near a stone wall, and advanced up the hill at the head of his troops. Brock was shot and killed, and the attack faltered.

In the years since there has been much commentary on why Brock had dismounted rather than lead the attack on horseback. There were likely several reasons. First, after racing seven miles along muddy roads, Alfred would have been jaded. Second, the slope up the Heights was broken by a stone wall and brush, and the top of the plateau was wooded, hardly ideal terrain for a horse. Finally, Brock may have been brave to the point of recklessness, but he was no fool. Attacking atop a horse but at the pace of marching troops would have made him an even more conspicuous target than he already was. For all these reasons, Alfred was left tethered while his master climbed the hill and into legend.

Alfred’s fate after Brock is killed becomes rather uncertain. The memorial suggests that Alfred was the mount ridden by Lt. Colonel John Macdonell, a militia officer and Brock’s aide-de-camp, in another counterattack. A musket ball hits the horse, which reared up, while a second ball felled its rider. Macdonell would later die of his wounds. This version of the story says Alfred suffered the same fate.

But credible sources suggest that not only did Alfred survive the battle, but he lived a long life after. Major John Glegg, another of Brock’s aides, writing on Brock’s October 16, 1812, funeral procession, said that: “The Late General’s horse was fully caparisoned and led by four grooms.”

There is even some evidence to believe that Alfred survived into the 1830s. He may have spent his final years in Goderich as the possession of Reverend Francis Campbell. Alfred’s monument isn’t merely a memorial to General Brock’s mount. It also served as a tribute of sorts to all the horses that served in the defense of Canada during the War of 1812.