- Francis de Rottenburg
Major-General Francis de Rottenburg, baron de Rottenburg (1757–1832) was raised in what is now
Gdańsk inPoland to aSwiss family and became a British military officer and colonial administrator. He spent almost a decade in the French army which came to an end with theFrench Revolution . In 1795, de Rottenburg joined theBritish army serving inHompesch’s Hussars , a unit of foreign-born troops. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the 5th Battalion of the 60th Regiment of Foot, the first rifle-armed unit of the British Army, commanding the unit during theIrish Rebellion of 1798 and the capture ofSuriname in 1799.An expert in the use of
light infantry he wrote the first British instruction manual on their use, though the manual had to be translated to English from German.De Rottenburg was sent to
British North America prior to theWar of 1812 and became amajor-general in command of theMontreal district.He became the military administrator of
Upper Canada in 1813.George Prevost , governor-in-chief of British North America and commander of British forces, appointed de Rottenburg after removing his predecessor,Roger Hale Sheaffe due to complaints from the establishment in the province. De Rottenburg proved to be a poor military commander due to his excessive caution in regard to using troops. His unwillingness to take risks resulted inLake Erie being captured by the Americans.De Rottenburg imposed
martial law in the Eastern and Johnstown districts to force farmers to sell supplies to the army.The arrival of
Gordon Drummond allowed de Rottenburg to be moved toLower Canada where he commanded forces south of theSt. Lawrence River atMontreal .In September 1814, when British forces invaded the
United States de Rottenburg was put in command of three brigades (led byManley Power ,Thomas Brisbane , andFrederick Philipse Robinson ) in theLake Champlain campaign and theBattle of Plattsburgh . After briefly serving as acting administrator of Lower Canada he was recalled to Britain and leftQuebec in July 1815. He apparently resided in England until his death, and accumulated various rewards: knight commander of the RoyalHanoverian Order in 1817, knight bachelor on 12 Feb. 1818, and lieutenant-general on 12 Aug. 1819.External links
* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=3106 Biography at the "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online"]
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