Shadrack Byfield

Shadrack Byfield
Born	16 September 1789 Woolley, near Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
Died	17 January 1874[1]
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1807 to 1815
Rank	Private
Unit	Wiltshire Militia, 41st Regiment
Battles/wars	Siege of Detroit, Battle of Frenchtown, Siege of Fort Meigs, Battle of the Thames, Battle of Lundy's Lane, Conjocta Creek
Awards	Military General Service Medal for Fort Detroit[2]
Other work	Weaver

Shadrack Byfield, sometimes Shadrach was a British infantryman who served in the 41st Regiment during the War of 1812. He is best known as the author of a memoir of his wartime experiences, A Narrative of a Light Company Soldier's Service, published in his hometown of Bradford on Avon in 1840. This account is notable as one of the only accounts of the conflict penned by a common British soldier.

Born in Woolley, a suburb of Bradford on Avon to a family of weavers in 1789, Byfield enlisted in the Wiltshire Militia in 1807, aged eighteen. Two years later, he volunteered into the 41st Regiment and was sent to join the regiment in North America, serving prior to the outbreak of war in Lower Canada and at Fort George in modern-day Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Byfield, as part of the 41st Regiment, saw heavy action during the Anglo-American War of 1812. In the conflict's western campaign, he served at the Siege of Detroit and Battle of Frenchtown, where he was wounded through the neck, as well as at the Siege of Fort Meigs and the Battle of Fort Stephenson. Byfield narrowly escaped capture after British defeat at the Battle of the Thames, rejoining elements of his regiment in the Niagara Peninsula. Byfield participated in the Capture of Fort Niagara and the Battle of Lundy's Lane, but his left arm was shattered by a musket ball at the Battle of Conjocta Creek, an unsuccessful British raid on 3 August 1814, preceding the Siege of Fort Erie. Byfield's forearm was subsequently amputated and he was invalided back to England, where he was awarded a pension from the Royal Hospital Chelsea in 1815.

Less is known of Byfield's later years. He returned to Bradford on Avon and married but was prevented from working at his trade because he required both hands to operate a loom. However, according to his memoirs, a design for an 'instrument' came to him in a dream, allowing him to work at a loom with just one arm. Byfield published a memoir of his wartime experiences in 1840, sold for a shilling apiece. Although some sources speculate that he died c.1850,^[3], more recent research suggests that Byfield actually died on 17 January 1874 in Bradford.^[1] He also served as keeper of the Somerset Monument at Hawkesbury Upton, Gloucestershire from its completion in 1845 until he was dismissed in 1853.^[1]

Shadrack Byfield's Narrative provides a common soldier's perspective of the War of 1812, and as such his account, considered a critical source for studying the conflict,^[3] has seen repeated publication. Byfield has often been portrayed as the archetype of 1812-era British regular soldiers. John Gellner, who edited Byfield's memoirs in 1963, asserted that his story "could have been told by any one of those humble, patient, iron-hard British regulars who more than made up in discipline, training and bravery for their lack of numbers." ^[4] Byfield's account has frequently been drawn on in secondary histories of the war, for instance in Pierre Berton's popular histories The Invasion of Canada and Flames Across the Border. Byfield has repeatedly featured in museum exhibits (for instance, at Old Fort Erie) and in documentaries on the War of 1812, including Canada: A People's History (2000) and PBS's The War of 1812 (2011).^[5] Byfield was the protagonist in a 1985 children's novel, Redcoat, by Canadian author Gregory Sass, which presents a heavily fictionalized account of his military experiences.

• A PDF copy of Byfield's A Narrative of a Light Company Soldier's Service, held by the Toronto Public Library]
• A transcribed version of Byfield's Narrative, courtesy of the 41st Military Living History Group