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burg Races.” MHQ12, no. 1 (1999): 58–65.ROTTENBURG, FRANCISDE
Rottenburg, Francis de
(November 8, 1757–April 24, 1832)
English General
T
he Polish-born Baron de Rottenburg
was a senior military officer in Canada
during the War of 1812. A capable if
unimaginative professional soldier, he fulfilled
his tasks as ordered, but he also garnered little
distinction after two years of warfare.
Francis de Rottenburg was born in
Gdansk, Poland, on November 8, 1757, the
son of a prominent merchant. He was appar-
ently well-educated and highly literate by the
time he joined the French army as a second
lieutenant in the Regiment de la Marck in
- Within three years he secured an ad-
vancement to first lieutenant but resigned his
commission on the eve of the French Revolu-
tion. In 1791, he returned to Poland, joined
noted Gen. Tadeusz Kosciuszko in an unsuc-
cessful uprising against Russia, and was
wounded at the Battle of Praga in 1794. With
Poland back under the Russian yoke, Rotten-
burg left home again to join the English army
in December 1795. He was commissioned a
major in Hompesh’s Hussars and the follow-
ing year transferred as a lieutenant colonel of
light infantry. In 1798, Rottenburg’s unit was
amalgamated into the 60th Regiment of Foot,
the Royal Americans, distinguished as the
first British army unit armed exclusively with
rifles. He subsequently commanded the Fifth
Battalion during the Irish uprising of that year
and also participated in the storming of Suri-
name in August 1799. Around this time, Rot-
tenburg’s skill as a military writer held him in
good stead when he authored a drillbook enti-
tled Regulations for the Exercise of Riflemen
and Light Infantry.It was the first such man-
ual acquired by the British army and was pub-
lished by the government in 1798.
Rottenburg thus far enjoyed a reputation
as a competent and apparently popular offi-
cer, despite his foreign origins. He rose to
colonel in 1805 and three years later assumed
command of an infantry brigade stationed at
Kent, England. In 1809, he accompanied the
ill-fated Walcheren Expedition in the Nether-
lands, in which nearly a third of the soldiers
involved succumbed to disease. In 1810, Rot-
tenburg was transferred to Canada as a staff
officer with the rank of major general. At this
time, tensions with the neighboring United
States were on the rise owing to the British
practice of impressing American sailors onto
Royal Navy warships, and efforts were made
to strengthen Canadian defenses in anticipa-
tion of war. When hostilities finally erupted in
June 1812, Rottenburg found himself in
charge of Montreal, the most strategic city in
Lower Canada after Quebec. Its defenses and
manpower were relatively weak, but Rotten-
burg, fluent in French, interacted easily with
the French-speaking majority population and
solicited its assistance. The much-feared inva-
sion was attempted by Gen. Henry Dearborn
that fall, but it sputtered before troops
crossed the border, so in the spring of 1813,
Rottenburg gained additional responsibilities
by administering the province during the ab-
sence of Governor-General Sir George Pre-