Holechek, James A.

From Carlisle and Fort Couch: The War of Corporal John Cantilion

John Cantilion was a tall, handsome soldier when he stepped into Ordnance Sergeant Lewis Leffman's office at Fort Niagara. The old sergeant was somewhat of a legend in the Niagara area. He had fought with Wellington's Hanovian forces at Waterloo in 1815. Shortly after he joined the British army and shipped to Canada. His next assignment was to have been the disease-plagued islands in the south, so he arranged an early departure to Hancock Barracks, Sackets Harbor, New York, where he enlisted at twenty seven in the United States Army, 30 August 1829.