Were these prisoners located at Charlesbourg proper, or at that locality
facing Quebec, in Beauport, called Le Canardiere, in Judge de Bonne's
former stately old mansion, on which the eastern and detached wing of the
Beauport Lunatic Asylum now stands?
Tradition has ever pointed to this building as that which sheltered the
disconsolate American warriors in 1812, with the adjoining rivulet,
Ruisseau de l'Ours, as the boundary to the east which their parole
precluded their crossing.
The result of the American defeat at Detroit had been important - "one
general officer (Wadsworth), two lieutenant-colonels, five majors, a
multitude of captains and subalterns, with nine hundred men, one field-
piece and a stand of colors, were the fruits of the victory, the enemy
having lost in killed, wounded, missing and prisoners, upwards of fifteen
hundred." (Christie's History.)
Amongst the American prisoners sent down to Quebec was the celebrated
General Winfield Scott, who lived to cull laurels in the Mexican war. He
was then Col. Scott, and there is yet (1878) living in Quebec an old
resident, R. Urquhart, who well remembers, when a boy, seeing the "tall
and stern American Colonel." He was six feet five inches in height.
(Lossing, p. 408.)
Of these prisoners taken at Detroit, twenty-three had been recognized as
British born and deserters from the English army.
