ST. LEGER, Barry, British soldier, born in 1737;
died in 1789. He was a nephew of the fourth Viscount Doneraile and fellow of St.
Peter's college, Cambridge, and was of Huguenot descent.
He entered the army, 27 April, 1756, as ensign of the
28th regiment of foot, and, coming to this country in the following year, served
in the French war, learning the habits of the Indians and gaining much
experience in border warfare.
He served under General Abercrombie in 1757, and
participated in the siege of Louisburg in 1758. Accompanying Wolfe to Quebec in
1759, he was in the battle on the Plains of Abraham, where he checked the flight
of the French. In July, 1760, he was appointed brigade-major, preparatory to
marching to Montreal, and he became major of the 95th foot, 16 August, 1762.
Maj. St. Leger was chosen by George III, at General
Burgoyne's recommendation, to be the leader of the expedition against Fort
Stanwix, and justified their confidence in him, in his advance from Oswego, by
his precautions against surprise and by his stratagem at Oriskany, and his
general conduct of the siege of that fort up to the panic that was produced by
the rumor of the approach of Arnold, which forced him to raise it.
After the failure of this expedition he was promoted, in
1780, to colonel in the army, the highest rank he ever attained, and, becoming a
leader of rangers under the immediate command of General Haldimand, he carried
on guerilla warfare, with headquarters at Montreal. In the summer of 1781 he
proposed a plan for the capture of General Philip Schuyler, which, however,
failed in its object.
In the autumn of the same year, in obedience to the
orders of Haldimand, who was anxious to persuade Vermont to return to her
allegiance, he ascended Lake Champlain with a strong force to Ticonderoga, in
the expectation of meeting the Vermont commissioners, Ira Allen and Joseph Fay;
but, hearing a rumor of the surrender of Cornwallis, he retreated to St. John,
without accomplishing his mission. He was commandant of the royal forces in
Canada in the autumn of 1784, and his name appears in the army lists for the
last time in 1785.
St. Leger possessed some literary talent, as is shown
both by his letters to Burgoyne and the British ministry, and by his volume
entitled "St. Leger's Journal of Occurrences in America" (London, 1780).
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia by John
Looby, Copyright © 2001 StanKlos.comTM
