John Macdonell, 1785-1812

This obituary appeared in today's Globe and Mail:

John Macdonell, 1812

Lawyer, politician and soldier born in Glengarry, Scotland, 1785. After immigrating with his parents to a Highland colony near what is now Cornwall, Ont., he attended Bishop John Strachan's school in Kingston. At 18, he joined a law office to begin a meteoric legal career that six years later saw him become Attorney-General for Upper Canada. When the War of 1812 erupted he was given the rank of lieutenant-colonel and made aide-de-camp to General Isaac Brock and later negotiated the surrender of American forces at Detroit. When Gen. Brock was killed at the Battle of Queenston Heights, he assumed command but was himself mortally wounded. Their remains are interred together in a sarcophagus at the Brock Monument overlooking Queenston Heights, Ont.

Macdonnell is perhaps the most famous obscure soldier in Canadian history. His story first came to my attention through Stan Rogers' song "MacDonell on the Heights", covered on his final album From Fresh Water:

Too thin the line that charged the Heights
And scrambled in the clay.
Too thin the Eastern Township Scot
Who showed them all the way,
And perhaps had you not fallen,
You might be what Brock became
But not one in ten thousand knows your name.

To say the name, MacDonnell,
It would bring no bugle call
But the Redcoats stayed beside you
When they saw the General fall.
Twas MacDonnell raised the banner then
And set the Heights aflame,
But not one in ten thousand knows your name.

You brought the field all standing with your courage and your luck
But unknown to most, you're lying there beside old General Brock.
So you know what it is to scale the Heights and fall just short of fame
And have not one in ten thousand know your name.

At Queenston now, the General on his tower stands alone
And there's lichen on 'MacDonnell' carved upon that weathered stone
In a corner of the monument to glory you could claim,
But not one in ten thousand knows your name.

You brought the field all standing with your courage and your luck
But unknown to most, you're lying there beside old General Brock.
So you know what it is to scale the Heights and fall just short of fame
And have not one in ten thousand know your name.