George McFeely was a true "officer and gentleman." As lieutenant colonel of the 22nd Regiment of Infantry and as colonel of the 25th Regiment, he acted as second in command of the force which invaded Canada. Then, after the war was over, McFeely was designated as a "gentleman" of Carlisle by the censors and the assessors of the septennial assessment of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
George McFeely was born in 1780. His father was John McFeely, of a Scotch-Irish family in Middleton Township, on the Yellow Breeches Creek south of Carlisle. George's mother was Elizabeth Line McFeely. John was a blacksmith, a fairly prosperous man, and by 1790 he had acquired 211 acres of farmland and was listed as a farmer. He had three sons and four daughters. His youngest son, John, Junior, became a farmer and inherited the farm on the father's death in 1834. The McFeelys were members of the First Presbyterian Church at Carlisle.
George, however, was less of a farmer and more of a soldier, politician, lawyer, educator, and realtor. He first made his mark in the militia, in which he was chosen a captain in 1807. After three years, he was made a major for a year and a lieutenant colonel for another year.
On March 14, 1812, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 16th Infantry by President James Madison. This was quite an advancement for McFeely, because he was now in the United States Army at the rank he had held in the militia. Perhaps his leadership for the reelection of Madison for the second term had prompted his selection for the office. Regardless of the reasons, McFeely proved himself an able officer during the War of 1812, which began three months later. It was said of his service in the war, "he was an excellent disciplinarian, had his troops under admirable control, and was remarkable for his coolness under the enemy's fire and his patient hardihood under the severest sufferings."
The army's first assignment for Colonel McFeely was to stay in Carlisle to become the Recruiting District Officer. His returns showed 621 in seven recruit lists (perhaps not a final return). There was one exception taken by the army to his receiving recruits: The Inspector General's Office wrote that, "no set of instruction declaring that 'no persons in any degree intoxicated with liquor,' or to that effect, has been issued for raising the additional army of the United States. Such an instruction would prevent half of the enlistments. The courts will decide on the laws, and have nothing to do with the instructions: For the instructions cannot make an enlistment legal or illegal."
Whether or not a question was raised, in July George McFeely was transferred from the 16th to the 22nd Infantry Regiment, with assurance of early orders to go to the Niagara Frontier. A letter from the Adjutant General at Washington on September 19, 1812 instructed McFeely to go to Niagara "with all the men of the 22nd Regiment now in Pennsylvania. It is not known how many men have been enlisted for this regiment, and I am fearful that not more than three complete companies can be moved at the time."
McFeely started on October 5 with two hundred men and marched, as directly as possible, up the Susquehanna River as far as Williamsport. From here he was largely in the wilderness or in Indian reservations. He arrived at Niagara on November 2 and reported to General Alexander Smyth, who ordered McFeely and his men to occupy Fort Niagara at the mouth of the Niagara River.
Within a week of their arrival at the fort, on November 21, they were under fire. The British troops at Fort George, on the Canadian side of the river, opened their artillery on Fort Niagara. McFeely ordered his men to return fire, the cannonade lasting from early morning until dark. McFeely reported in his diary of this first battle, " ... we had the pleasure of seeing a schooner sink and several houses in flames in the town of Newark and also at their Navy yard and in Fort George ... our loss was three killed and 6 wounded. The enemy's loss we could not ascertain."
Mr. President and Members of the Hamilton Library Association:—
I desire to say, in the first place, that I esteem it an honor to have been invited to prepare a paper for this occasion. Having listened to some of the papers here presented I fully understood that the preparation of a paper to be read here involved serious labor and that a random talk would not be acceptable.