Sunday, June 9, 2019

Agent "Constant Bacon"

In early 1814, the British forces, having narrowly seen off invading American armies from the Fort George area and along the St. Lawrence River, anxiously awaited a renewed attack as the Americans came out of winter quarters in the spring. A crucial piece of intelligence fell into their lap when an American sutler, or merchant licensed to sell goods such as liquor to US troops, defected to the British headquarters at York (present day Toronto, Ontario). He outlined the American troop deployments, caches of supplies, and plans to attack the Canadian side of the Niagara River. His motive? He had borrowed money to buy whiskey to sell to the troops, but some soldiers had robbed the whiskey, leaving him still owing the money. "Constant Bacon" is pretty obviously a code name: maybe the British gave him some money to pay his creditors and sent him back over the river to act as a secret agent...

From E. A. Cruikshank, The Documentary History of the Campaign on the Niagara Frontier, 1896.








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