‘Sedentary militia’ was a weak defence force

“I was agreeably surprised to see a very numerous and respectable muster of the Battalion of Montreal Militia.”

—Gazette, Friday, July 7, 1854

Well might Looker-On, which is how a letter to The Gazette was signed, be surprised. For some time, the annual muster of Montreal’s sedentary militia units had been a joke — and a joke in bad taste, at that. Each year, a growing number of men ignored the law and failed to turn out, while often as not those who did quickly fell to drunken brawling.

And well might Looker-On’s surprise have been an agreeable one. Save for these citizen soldiers, Montreal that summer of 1854 had never been so defenceless in the 94 years since it fell to the invading British.

A permanent national defence force, essentially a regular Canadian army, was gradually to emerge in the 1870s and 1880s. Before then, defence was in the hands of various militias and, until most were withdrawn forever in 1871, soldiers of the British army. It was a system attuned to Canadian realities, and in 1854 it was in a shambles.

In numbers alone, the sedentary militia was the biggest force. On paper, anyway, it consisted of every male between the ages of 18 and 60, organized along county lines. But it was “sedentary” — that is, the men sat in their regular civilian jobs every day of the year but one. Only on that single day, scheduled in June after the sowing of crops but before they had to be harvested, were they required to report to the various battalion headquarters. They would endure some rudimentary drills and a rallying speech or two before retreating to the nearest tavern.

There were fines to ensure a full turnout, but they were rarely levied. Furthermore, by 1854, leadership was in disarray. Many of the old-line militia officers, drawn from prominent families, had been eased out of their positions because their loyalties were suspect. Some had been too close to the rebels of 1837-38; others were caught up in the push a decade later, mainly in Montreal, to see Canada annexed by the United States.

Then, in March 1854, war broke out. It was more than an ocean away, in the Crimea, where Britain and France were squaring off against Russia, but the impact was felt in Montreal. Most of the British regulars here were pulled out to join the war effort. That left all of Canada to be protected by just 1,695 professional soldiers, including 278 in Montreal. If ever the Americans had a golden opportunity to invade, this was it.

The crisis seems to have focused the minds of at least some in Montreal’s sedentary militia. Looker-On, in his letter to The Gazette, recounts how he happened to be walking along Côte-St-Pierre Rd. a week earlier, on the day of the annual muster, and saw the 11th Montreal Battalion turned out in fine array. The 11th was commanded by Lt.-Col. Benjamin Delisle, the long-serving high constable for Montreal. It was of one of the few “mixed” units, made up of both French and English speakers.

Looker-On reported that Col. Delisle “was mounted and in full uniform. Captain Prud’homme and his Company were also in uniform and armed. I suppose there were from 400 to 500 of the Battalion present, accompanied by an excellent band formed, I understand, of young men of the battalion.”

At the same time elsewhere in the city, the Fire Battalion mustered 441 men, a turnout so gratifying that James Ferrier, its colonel and a former mayor of Montreal, offered 100 of them for the Crimean campaign.

Alas, other units were less enthusiastic, especially English-speaking ones. Just 95 men from the 4th Battalion deigned to show up, and none at all from the 2nd and 3rd. The Montreal Battalion of Rifles managed a dozen officers but not one ordinary ranker. Lt.-Col. Thomas Ryan of the 5th had a decent showing of men, 414.

In any event, it was probably the last annual muster of the sedentary militia. The system was no way to defend a growing country, and the following year new legislation created militia units whose enrolment would be volunteer, not compulsory, and who would be paid. Sedentary units survived for another two decades, but only in theory — as, in effect, was already the reality.

The Americans, meanwhile, stayed on their own side of the border.

This story was first published on July 8, 2007, in the Montreal Gazette.

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