The Battle of Crysler’s Farm, a National Historic Site at Morrisburg, took place in November 1813. It played a pivotal role in the defence of Montreal and in the independence of Canada as a sovereign state. The day that is remembered for those killed at Crysler’s Farm, November 11th, is the national Day of Remembrance for all who have died in battle while serving in Canada’s armed forces. The site of the battle is now largely under water as a result of the St. Lawrence Seaway project.

In early November 1813, an American army of close to 8,000 troops, commanded by Major-General Wilkinson, left Sackets Harbor and slipped down the St Lawrence as part of a two-pronged attack on Montreal to cut Upper Canada off from the rest of the British territories in North America. Wilkinson was followed and harassed by a British corps of observation consisting of about 800 regulars, militia and Mohawk commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Morrison. Morrison's smaller force, established in a defensive position on John Crysler's farm, was attacked by a contingent of the American army numbering about 4,000.

Mohawk from Tyendinaga fought with distinction alongside British regulars, Canadian Fencibles, Canadien Voltigeurs, and Dundas County militia. The hard fought engagement ended with the Americans’ withdrawal from the battlefield. East of Crysler’s Farm, a skirmish at Hoople’s Creek occurred the day before the battle. That same night, knowing that the odds for a victory at Crysler’s Farm were slim to nil, the community of Martintown, in Glengarry, burnt their bridge to help slow down the expected American Army.

The morning after the battle, Wilkinson’s flotilla continued en route down river to Cornwall. The residents of the town evacuated while Glengarry and Stormont militia conveyed the depot’s supplies to the base at Coteau-du-Lac. The American army occupied the empty town for several days before a decision was made to suspend the attack on Montreal. The flotilla then sailed up the nearby Salmon River to French Mills (Fort Covington) and set up a winter camp for the Army. Pressure eased only later in February 1814 when the flotilla was scuttled after the Army was ordered to withdraw from the Cornwall area.

Glengarry and Stormont militia had special responsibility for the protection of supplies at Cornwall and on the St Lawrence River in the eastern area. In 1812, some members of the Corps of Canadian Voyageurs based at St Regis were also involved in keeping supplies moving from Montreal. Nearby, the historic stone church (ca. 1802) at St Andrew’s served as the area military hospital during the war. It is now preserved as the parish hall. The military history of the three eastern United Counties and their militia units is today preserved by the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders in Cornwall.

Williamstown is home to the Sir John Johnson Manor House National Historic Site. In June 1813, Sir John, Superintendent General of the Indian Department, organized an expedition of about two hundred Mohawk from the Montreal area and sixty from Akwesasne, to join the British forces in the defence of Niagara.

The Glengarry Light Infantry was mobilized in 1812 as a regular British army battalion and was modelled on the first Glengarry Fencibles, a British highland regiment that had been mobilized twenty years earlier at the beginning of the war with Napoleonic France. Detachments of the 1812 Glengarry Fencibles fought locally at Sackets Harbor, French Mills (Fort Covington), Ogdensburg and Oswego; in many battles of the Niagara campaigns; and in other regions. The original parade ground for the Fencibles, in front of the Bishop’s house (1808), is at the St Raphael’s National Historic Site.

In the attack on Ogdensburg, led by his cousin “Red George,” the chaplain, Reverend Alexander Macdonell, of St Raphael’s, was in the battle with his friend, Reverend John Bethune of Williamstown. In the eyes of Canadian military historian, Dr George F G Stanley, Reverend Macdonell (the Big Bishop), is one of Canada’s and Great Britain’s most distinguished military chaplains. He is the only known person to have served in Scotland’s Glengarry Fencibles and in Canada’s Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles.

Glengarry County especially remembers the birth of the first Premier of the Province of Ontario (who would later take office, 1867). The Honourable John Sandfield Macdonald was born in St Raphael’s following the Battle of Queenston Heights. He is buried in St Andrew’s cemetery. He was named “John Brock” in memory of the battle’s two heroes: General Sir Isaac Brock and his aide-de-camp John Macdonell; a military officer from Glengarry. Together in battle and in death, they lie beside each other in the Brock Monument near Niagara. A soldier and a politician, Macdonell became the Attorney General of Upper Canada in 1812 (the first person trained-in-Canada and the youngest to hold this position).