Charles John Forbes

Forbes was born in Gosport, Hampshire, England in 1786, the ninth child of Robert Forbes and Elizabeth Cobb. He studied at the College of Altona at Altona, at that time in Denmark, now in Germany.^[1][2]

In 1815 he married Sophia Browne, probably in England. The couple had seven children. John Wainwright, who was appointed to the Special Council of Lower Canada in 1839, was Sophia's cousin.^[1][2][3]

In 1805, Forbes joined the Commissariat Department of the British Army, which was responsible for provisions and supplies for the army. Beginning as a clerk, Forbes rose rapidly, due to his skills, a good personality, and a sense of daring. He soon held the rank of deputy commissary general. During the Napoleonic Wars, Forbes served in the Mediterranean theatre, including a brief period of imprisonment in Egypt. He was posted to the Peninsular War in 1813 to 1814, and was also present at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. He retired from the army in 1817 on half-pay.^[1][2]

For the next seven years, Forbes and his family lived at Corfu, in Italy, and in France. In 1824, Forbes returned to active service with the Commissariat and was posted to Nova Scotia. The next year, he was transferred to Montreal in Lower Canada, where he was responsible for providing all supplies needed by the British Army units in the district. He was also responsible for providing supplies for the construction of the canal system on the Ottawa River, including the Carillon Canal. In 1833 he was posted to Jamaica for two years, but was invalided back to Britain. During his posting in Canada, he had purchased land near Carillon in Lower Canada, and his family had stayed there during his Jamaica posting. After his illness in Jamaica, he retired again in 1836 and returned to his estate at Carillon.^[1][2]

In the 1830s, political tensions steadily grew in Lower Canada, as the Patriote movement and the Parti Patriote increased their criticisms of the colonial government, with a governor appointed by the British government and an appointed Legislative Council dominated by the British merchant class in the colony. By 1837, rebellion was in the air, following the British government's rejection of proposals for constitutional change set out by the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in the Ninety-Two Resolutions.^[4]

The commander of the British military forces was Sir John Colborne, a veteran of the Peninsular War and the Battle of Waterloo. He asked Forbes to report to him on possible Patriote activity in the Deux-Montagnes region, north-west of Montreal, which included Carillon. The Deux-Montagnes region was seen as a Patriote hotbed, particularly the towns of Saint-Eustache and Saint-Benoît. In October 1837, Colborne moved a detachment of British soldiers to Carillon, where they were lodged in a large stone building which Forbes owned.^[1][2]

In mid-November, after the Rebellion broke out, Forbes reported to Colborne that "Sedition ... now reigns paramount". Colborne, concerned about the growing numbers of Patriotes, responded by asking Forbes to raise volunteers from the area. Forbes was able to raise 800 volunteers within a week. Although they were placed under the command of a British Army officer, Major Henry Dive Townshend, the volunteers referred to Forbes as "the General".^[1][2]

In early December, Colborne moved into the Deux-Montagnes area with British soldiers. On 14 December 1837, he engaged one of the last groups of armed Patriotes, at Saint-Eustache. The British regulars overcame the Patriotes, at considerable loss of life by the Patriotes and only three British Army casualties. Several buildings were burnt by the soldiers during the battle, including the church.^[5]

On 16 December, Colborne and his forces joined Forbes and approximately two hundred of the volunteer group at the neighbouring village of Saint-Benoît. Although the Patriotes surrendered without resistance, the troops set fire to much of the village and plundered it. According to one volunteer who was present, Colborne and Forbes watched "the whole of the troops galloping through the flames ... everybody plundering, bringing hoard, stealing horses, furniture, sleighs, etc." Little was left of the village the next day. The volunteers, and possibly the British regulars, committed similar pillaging in other villages as they returned from Saint-Benoît. One Patriote who was captured by the British forces said that the volunteers were undisciplined and "fanatical partisans or ignorant and uncouth immigrants" who believed they were to be pitiless.^[1][2][5]