The Battle of Crysler's Farm was fought on land that now lies at the bottom of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

CREDIT: Photo Courtesy St. Lawrence Parks Commission

Two leading authorities on Canada's military history say citizens pausing this week to honour the veterans of 20th-century wars should also spare a thought for thousands of much older soldiers fading away even faster from our collective memory.

The day Canada honours the sacrifices of the First and Second World War and Korea is also the anniversary of a battle that saved the country from an American invasion during the War of 1812. And as the First World War slips from living memory into pure history, how Canadians have marked the other Nov. 11 from our military heritage -- the 1813 Battle of Crysler's Farm -- offers a sobering glimpse of the future of remembrance.

"That battle spelled the end of the most serious American attempt to conquer Canada during the War of 1812," says Donald Graves, a military historian whose 1999 book Field of Glory is the definitive account of the fight at John and Nancy Crysler's farm near Cornwall. "The date, of course, is coincidental. But we tend to think about the poppy as being from 1918 on. Actually, a lot of soldiers have died over the centuries to preserve this country."

The Battle of Crysler's Farm, fought exactly 190 years ago yesterday on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River between Kingston and Montreal, resulted in a crucial and resounding victory over 4,000 Americans by an Anglo-Canadian force of just 800. The defeat halted a planned American assault on Montreal, by far the largest and most important city in British North America at the time.

Notably, the winning side included French- and English-Canadian militiamen who fought alongside Mohawk warriors and professional British soldiers under the direction of Lt.-Col. Joseph Morrison.

The triumph of the underdog thanks to those key alliances -- French and English, mother country and colony, white man and First Nation -- makes the battle "particularly significant in terms of the mythology of Canada," says Mr. Graves.

Despite being the site of a true turning point in Canadian history, the Crysler's Farm battlefield -- along with the graves of hundreds of soldiers from both sides of the fight -- was flooded during the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1958. A small historical exhibit and a hill-top obelisk commemorating the battle stand near the site today, a tourism sidebar to a popular pioneer village built nearby.

The destruction of the battlefield, Mr. Graves lamented in his book, has made it "difficult, if not impossible, to stand on that mound and get any sense of the ground as it was in 1813."

But in 1913, decades before the inundation and just months before the start of the First World War, thousands gathered at the original Crysler's Farm to celebrate the centennial of Canada's great victory.

The armistice that ended the First World War on Nov. 11, 1918, led to an annual ceremony celebrating victory and mourning the dead. The event has come to include remembrance of those who served in the Second World War and Korean War, but soldiers from earlier battles -- including the South African conflict of 1899-1902 -- are typically not recognized.

By contrast, the U.S. Memorial Day holiday that originated after the Civil War was later broadened to honour soldiers from all wars throughout American history.

"I think it's important that we remember, on a day like this, all those who have either served or died in service to the country. And that includes those that occurred even before we became a country," says Joe Geurts, director of the Canadian War Museum.

"I certainly think back to all of the events prior to and into the 18th and 19th centuries. We should be conscious of those. We need to recognize that military events and activities have shaped the country."

Remembrance Day