War of 1812 dead honoured in Halifax

On a day when the United States remembered its war dead, Americans and Canadians gathered Monday on the windswept peninsula in Halifax known as Deadman's Island to remember those who fell in the War of 1812.

The act of remembrance was for the estimated 188 American soldiers who died as prisoners of the British army in the War of 1812, and were buried on Deadman's Island.

An informal ceremony has been held every Memorial Day since 2005 when the municipality bought the land and turned it into a park to prevent condominium development on the site.

Anton Smith, the U.S. consul general for the Atlantic provinces, attended the ceremony.

"British military authorities established a concentration camp here in this area, and a number of those who were imprisoned here succumbed," he said.

Britain was at war with the United States in disputes over territory and some of the Americans unfortunate enough to be captured were brought to what would have been a desolate spot on the Northwest Arm, then on the outskirts of the fortress town of Halifax.

"Disease was often a problem in the camps, sanitation was poor. This is an outpost — as we have experienced even today here in late spring — that can be pretty cold, and in those days, it wasn't very well protected," Smith said.

The soldiers who died were buried in the hillside alongside Chesapeake Black Loyalist refugees who died of small pox while in quarantine on nearby Melville Island.

When developers were about to put condominiums on the land, the issue that it was an unmarked burial ground was raised.

Smith said there are a lot of reasons the war dead were forgotten for nearly 200 years.

"Because it was a relatively small concentration camp, that period was very confusing. You had people going south, people going north. It was a period of confusion between our two countries," Smith said.

Smith said he's grateful to Canada and the people of Halifax for helping create the memorial site.