Last updated 01-May-00
St. Francis Abenaki - War of 1812
- General Info
In 1844 a petition was prepared to the Crown that lands be granted the heirs of the veterans of the War of 1812. A roster of veterans of "The Abenaquis tribe residing in the Parish of St. Francis" accompanied this petition ... According to Abenaki tradition all the men of warrior age in the village went to this war. One or more of the names are those of veterans who did not settle in the village until after the war, and some other Abenakis are known who served in the war but do not appear in the roster, perhaps because they were dead without heirs in the village at 1844. Some names in the roster may have been men from Bécancour or Trois-Rivières who were never part of the tribe at Saint-François. [DAY]
The above mentioned list was used to compile most of the names on the Warriors list from St. Francis for this web site. Ne-Do-Ba records indicate there should be many other names on the list, but perhaps these men moved their families away from the village during this period to avoid serving for the British. [NL]
The Abenaki had 3 of their men killed (Pierre Msadoquis, Pierre-Joseph Wonlinas (ou Warinos) et Louis Wawanolet) and 4 wounded (Ignace Portneuf, Francois Laurent, Pierre Nagazoa, et Joseph Hitawabois [the last of Becancour]). Widows and the disabled received pensions from the government during their lives. The Veterans did not receive government pensions until 1875. Simon Annance and Francis Obomsawin received pensions. Louis Watso, than age 97, was forgotten. [notes translated from 'Les Abenakis D'Odanak' p.325]
- Louis Annance
18-Jun-1815 he captured a deserter from the 8th Regiment. (correspondence of J.T.Connell to Capt. Loring)
- Noel Francois Joseph Annance
25-Aug-1813, he was appointed a Lieutenant with the Indian Department.
26-Oct-1813, he was at the battle of Chateauguay. William Wood stated "Louis Langlade, Noel Annance and Bertlet Lyons, of the Indian Department, were in the action of the 26th and in the affair of the 28th. Their conduct throughout was highly meritous." The Indians were probably under the leadership of Capt. Lamothe/LaMotte.
4-Aug-1814, appointed Lieutenant, Company of St. Francis, Becancour, & Three Rivers Indian Warriors, under Colonel Sir John Johnson.
- Pierre Nagazoa
PIAL NAGAJOA, at the battle of Saint Philippe was wounded about the hip with a bullet, which could not be extracted; and it went with him to the grave. His premium during life was seventy dollars a year and six dollars a month. [HP1869]
- Toussaint Masta
A French Canadian from parish Terrebonne who served with the Abenaki militia
He married Catherine Vassal an Abenaki, at Odanak in 1812 and raised his family there.
- Louis Wawanolette
LOUIS, ... was killed in battle in the War of 1812 by a bullet in his forehead ... (This was the man who was well known at Boston and Troy -- and whom Captain Curtis Elkins saw die on the battlefield.) [HP1869]
Killed at the battle of Chateaugay, a private under the command of Ignace Portneuf. [HP1869]
- Ignace Portneuf
Portneuf was badly wounded in the hand, so that one finger was permanently deformed by being bent inward. His premium during life was a hundred dollars a year and six dollars a month. He became chief, and died -- at Saint Francis. [HP1869]
- Indian Company of Ignace Portneuf
... in the war of 1812, at the battle of Chateaugay, -- 1814, a party of about a dozen Abenakis, commanded by Ignace Portneuf, when beginning to eat their breakfast, were unexpectedly fired upon by a scouting party of Americans. Louis Wawhanlet, a Private, was shot with a bullet or bullets and so disabled that he could not get away. The Americans advanced to the place and finding Louis wounded killed him by stabbing him with a sword or bayonet. Two days afterward some of the Indians returned to search for missing comrads and found Louis dead and buried him. Another of Portneuf's command was hit six or seven times with bullets and he crawled away and hid under a log. When he revived enough to know that he was alone, he discovered that the log was hollow, and crawled into it. Some of the men searching for the missing went over the log without finding him. When he had lain there two days without food or water, he crawled to the river and drank and then crawled back to the log. The fourth day after the wounding he was found and taken care of and he lived through it all and finally returned home. [HP1869]
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