Tecumseh and Brock Read Free Page A

their loyalty were tainted with the double sin of being both overtly or covertly republican and pro-American. In sharp contrast to the Americans, Upper Canadians believed that maintaining strong ties to the British Crown was the route to independence — not within the Empire, but from the United States. The fact that they developed their unique character by clinging to an empire has always made the Upper Canadian identity perplexing.
    The unpopular war did have one enduring historical consequence: north of Mexico, there were to be two great continental states, one of them much more populous and powerful than the other, to be sure. Against all odds, a transcontinental Canada, embracing many cultures and adopting two official languages, would take its place alongside the rising global power to the south. That Tecumseh and Brock, neither of whom was Canadian, are among the country’s immortals attests to the enigma that is Canada.

    A testament to the enduring legacy of these towering figures is the fact that two mysteries, one concerning Brock and the other Tecumseh, linger still today.
    General Isaac Brock took to his grave the answer to a question about which observers remain divided: did he have an unacknow-ledged romance with a young woman by the name of Sophia Shaw?
    To outward appearances, Brock appears to have been singularly devoted to his military career and his advancement in the army. He never married, and it is generally accepted that there is no evidence he ever established a relationship with a woman. But ever since his death, some have claimed that General Brock was engaged to Miss Sophia Shaw, a young woman who lived in York with her family. According to one story, as Brock set out on his horse Alfred en route to Queenston on the morning of his death, he encountered Sophia, dismounted briefly to accept a beverage from her, and then resumed his journey to the battle. Some claim, although the evidence is slight, that when Brock fell in battle at Queenston Heights in 1813, he muttered the name “Sophia” as he died. Years after the end of the war, Miss Shaw, heavily veiled and dressed in mourning clothes, appeared at a garden party at Government House in York.
    If the stories about Miss Shaw are true, why did the general keep it a secret? There is evidence that Brock’s friends in England would have regarded a marriage to any Canadian as beneath him. In April 1811, from Hampton Court Park in England, Colonel J. A. Vesey wrote to the general to tell him that he wished he “had a daughter old enough for you, as I would give her to you with pleasure. You should be married, particularly as fate seems to detain you so long in Canada — but pray do not marry there.” 2 A month later, the colonel wrote again to Brock to commiserate with him about “the stupid and uninteresting time you must have passed in Upper Canada.” 3
    Given the large age gap between the two — Sophia Shaw was in her late teens and Brock was forty-three when he died at Queenston — some historical analysts, among them Gillian Lenfestey in Guernsey, believe that Sophia was infatuated with the general and developed the delusional idea after his death that she and Brock had been betrothed.
    The second mystery concerns the death of the great Shawnee chief and his subsequent resting place.
    After it was known that Tecumseh had fallen on the battlefield in October 1813, Kentucky soldiers found a corpse they believed to be his and cut slices of flesh from the body to take home as souvenirs. Later it was believed that the body of the decoratively attired warrior was not that of Tecumseh, whose custom was to wear simple clothes into battle. The day after the fight, William Henry Harrison was taken to see the body of the warrior believed to be Tecumseh, but he did not recognize the swollen and disfigured remains as those of his old foe.
    From there, the mystery goes in three directions. Some have insisted that