While all eyes were riveted on the trials and executions of captured Hunters at Kingston in eastern Upper Canada, a new army of Hunters and Patriots prepared to attack the colony’s western border near Windsor. It turned out to be the final organized invasion of the Patriot War and a bungled bloody affair like all the raids before it.
Showing posts with label Events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Events. Show all posts
Monday, March 28, 2011
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Robert Nelson: 2. Leads Patriotes to Defeat
Patriote leader, Robert Nelson, lead the first attack in the renewed war on colonial Canada. After a summer of planning, collecting weapons, and setting up cells of supporters on both sides of the border, Nelson began his assault on Lower Canada (Quebec) on November 3. It didn’t go well for the Patriotes.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Hunters Lodge: 2. Plans for Renewed War
Compared to the series of rebel raids in the winter of 1838, summer was quiet along the border. Other than the ineffectual Short Hills raid and Bill Johnston's mischief, Upper and Lower Canada faced no serious threats. Farmers, by far the largest faction of the rebel armies, needed to stay close to their crops. But, as harvest season approached, the Hunters Lodge and Robert Nelson's Patriotes began to plan new campaigns, for soon the farmers would be free to march.
Monday, August 23, 2010
John Montgomery: Escape from Fort Henry
John Montgomery (February 29, 1788-October 31, 1879) was the son of refugees who came to Canada after the US Revolutionary War. He fought for Britain during the War of 1812. Despite having a loyalist pedigree, he was tried as a traitor and sentenced to hang in the early months of the Patriot War.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Peel Pirates: The Trials Begin
Within days of Bill Johnston's raid on the Sir Robert Peel, American constables arrested 13 of his pirate crew, including three men who never set foot on the ship. Most people in Jefferson County, NY, supported Johnston's men and waited expectantly for their trials to start. The show began on June 23, 1838, at the county court house in Watertown. And what a show!
Monday, May 24, 2010
James Morreau: Short Hills Raid Leads to Long Drop on the Gallows
On June 10, 1838 a band of 26 Patriot raiders assembled beside the Niagara River in New York State. With liberation of Canada as their goal, emboldened by Bill Johnston's raid on a steamer, and deluded by a promise that thousands of Canadians would rise up to join them in armed revolt, they planned to strike a blow for the Patriot cause. What blow--they had no idea.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Bill Johnston: 6. Destroys Sir Robert Peel
For nearly three months since the Pelee Island raid, an uneasy peace had settled along the border as the bulk of the Patriot army went back to their farms for spring planting. Into that lull stepped Bill Johnston and Donald McLeod at the head of a bold raid that became Johnston's signature event—the act that earned him his pirate moniker.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Hunters Lodge: 1. Rise of Warlike Secret Society
After his army's defeat in February 1838, Robert Nelson, military chief of the French Canadian rebels, realized he could never win if he continued to publicly recruit and train his army. British spies and informers were everywhere. So, he created a secret society to build his army and raise funds. Word of his initiative found its way to the English Canadian rebels. In April, General Donald McLeod came to investigate. He liked what he saw.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Lester Hoadley: Leads Patriot Capture of Pelee Island
After General Donald McLeod's rout at Fighting Island, the remnants of his army joined another Patriot army forming in Ohio. Under the command of Colonel Edwin D. Bradley, Major Lester Hoadley and Captain Henry Van Rensselaer drilled recruits from Canada, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, preparing them for another assault on Canada--the fifth and largest so far.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Robert Nelson: 1. Invades Lower Canada and Creates Secret Society
Following the massacres of Patriotes and the brutal reprisals by the British against former Patriote towns in Lower Canada (Quebec), the defeated rebel army and its leaders fled to America. The British captured Wolfred Nelson, but Papineau and Robert Nelson found sanctuary in the US. One chose peace. The other chose war.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Papineau and Nelson: Lower Canada Rebellion Begins
A month before William Lyon Mackenzie's Patriot forces began planning, executing, and bungling invasions of Canada, Patriotes in Lower Canada (Quebec) waged battles of their own. One band of rebels even dealt the British a minor defeat.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Patriot Attack on Kingston Falters
On the evening of February 21, 1838, Patriot General Rensselaer Van Rensselaer tried to rally his army and march 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) from Clayton, NY, across the ice-covered St. Lawrence River to Hickory Island. The island, just inside the Canadian border, was to be the first step in the Patriot invasion of Upper Canada.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Van Rensselaer Spoils Bill Johnston's Plans
Five weeks after Bill Johnston held a council of war in Buffalo with William Lyon Mackenzie, Donald McLeod, Rensselaer Van Rensselaer, and Daniel Heustis, his preparations for the invasion of Canada at Kingston were ready. He had the weapons, the men, and their provisions. They were unstoppable, or so he and others thought.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Bill Johnston Builds an Army
While General Donald McLeod headed off to invade Windsor, the other Patriot leaders traveled by coach to upstate New York to carry out their Eagle Tavern battle plan. William Lyon Mackenzie, Rensselaer Van Rensselaer, and Daniel Heustis stopped in Watertown. Bill Johnston continued on to Clayton. Together, they began to build an army of invasion with stunning ease.
Monday, February 15, 2010
The Caroline: A Burning Ship Lets Mackenzie Set the Border Aflame
On December 13, less than a week after William Lyon Mackenzie fled his bungled 1837 rebellion to the US, he took control of Navy Island in the Canadian half of the Niagara River, upstream from the falls. Backed by hundreds of armed followers, he declared himself the head of a provisional government, the Republic of Canada. They built fortifications and began a cannon bombardment of the Canadian shore.
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