FromWCNY Org. Fort Niagara.
By Cathy Emmerson.
Betsy Doyle was a woman of the Army, one of a small number of military wives who were permitted to accompany their husbands to perform menial tasks like nursing and laundry. Prior to the War of 1812, she had married Andrew Doyle, a private in the 1st U.S. Artillery Regiment.
He was stationed at Fort Niagara, an antiquated outpost on the Canadian/U.S. border, about 30 miles north of Buffalo, New York.
When U.S. forces invaded Upper Canada, just seven miles south of the fort, on October 13, 1812, Private Doyle was among the forces crossing the Niagara River. The subsequent Battle of Queenston Heights was a disaster for the Americans and Doyle became a prisoner of war.
When he was recognized as a native of Upper Canada, he was sent to England to be tried for treason. There he remained for the balance of the war, an inmate at the infamous Dartmoor Prison.
Andrew's capture left Betsy Doyle and her four children alone at Fort Niagara.
--Brock-Perry
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