Check out Dave Chidley’s photographs. He attended last year’s Battle of the Longwoods Memorial and his CP pictures went out over the wire and were published in several Canadian newspapers.
http://davechidley.ca/2009/03/02/battle-of-longwoods/
And here’s a description about the battle by L.N. Bronson. 1964.
This engagement of the war of 1812-14 lasted four times as long as Moraviantown and over the years has yielded more legend and folklore than any other engagement (except the mystery as to where Tecumseh’s body was buried after Moraviantown.)
Longwoods and a skirmish at Byron were probably the only two clashes in Middlesex County – Longwoods customarily being accepted as the eastern most point gained by organized American inivaders in the county. The legends which have spring up about Longwoods are:
- That the United States invaders poured water on the side of the hill on a bitter cold night, then threw snow over the quickly formed ice to handicap the British. Undoubtedly this is true, although not mentioned in any official report, but accepted as fact by the History of the Province of Ontario.
- That ghosts of the dead British soldiers often were seen on the battlefield. Merely an old wives’ tale – the Longwoods, that huge 190,000 acres 40-mile long forest which stretches from roughly Delaware to Bothwell was a favourite source of ghost tales.That a treasure in British gold was buried there. Equally an old wives’ tale.
Newspaper source unknown.
Wardsville, Ontario: a special place in Ontario's history 