Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Brisbane's Memoirs And Papers


...is a collection held at the Clements Library (University of Michigan):

Title: Thomas M. Brisbane papers
Creator: Brisbane, Thomas Makdougall, Sir, bart., 1773-1860.
Inclusive dates: 1813-1815
Extent: 57 items
"The papers contain plans to advance on Plattsburg...and a detailed plan, with maps, which Brisbane designed for the destruction of the American fleet at Whitehall, New York, in the winter of 1814."

"Of special interest is a batch of letters from General Prevost that includes a confidential letter from Cadwallader Colden, a member of the American militia and Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1760-1762. The forward is a transcription of a letter written in invisible ink that details three ways of destroying the American Fleet at Whitehall."

Source

Thomas M. Brisbane's also wrote his memoirs (excerpted below):

"It having been resolved by the British Government to send four brigades to America, I was appointed to the command of one of them. Accordingly on June 14th we proceeded down the Garonne to Bordeaux, and embarked on board line-of-battle ships, and after a pleasant voyage, we reached Quebec about the end of July, and proceeded from thence to Montreal. On receiving my instructions from Sir George Prevost, the governor and commander-in-chief, I proceeded to take the command of the advance of the army close upon the enemy's frontier."

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