Flash! Fiction by Peter McMillan - HTML preview

#32 October-December 2010

37

The Uncle

"No full, accurate, and unprejudiced history of the war has ever been written." George Lewis Professor Lewis, in his new book, The Inland War of 1812, claims to have authenticated what many military historians now consider irrefutable evidence that Mrs. Laura Secord was not in fact the messenger who alerted Lieutenant James FitzGibbon to the American assault on the British depot at DeCew House. In an extraordinary find, Professor Lewis has uncovered the handwritten and signed confession of Mrs. Secord's uncle dated 22 June 1813, which proves that he, not she, saved the British. While her motives were honourable, unlike his, the military value of her famous trek in defence of the Loyalist community was nil. This is the essence of Professor Lewis’ latest research.

The record of Mrs. Secord's uncle has excited much controversy.

Some claim there was no such person, others that he was Mrs. Secord’s self-appointed guardian and neighbour, newly arrived from Massachusetts. Professor Lewis’ discovery suggests not only that Mrs. Secord's uncle was real but that it was he who, albeit indi-rectly, warned FitzGibbon by means of a confession that was undoubtedly extracted through torture, a common enough practise at that time. The legend of Mrs. Secord and her 30-kilometre journey through the wilds of 19th century Niagara has always rested on uncorroborated evidence and this latest piece of historical evidence will undeniably further diminish her standing among historians.

However, what is most damning to the legacy of Mrs. Secord are the alleged facts that her uncle was a collaborator and that it was a treasonous opportunist and not a courageous heroine who warned FitzGibbon and foiled the American attack.