Battle of the Windmill

Last updated
Battle of the Windmill
Part of the Patriot War, Rebellions of 1837
Battle of the Windmill.jpg
Contemporary engraving of the Battle of the Windmill as seen from the American shore.
DateNovember 12 November 16, 1838
Location
Windmill Point, Ontario - 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Prescott, Ontario
44°43′15″N75°29′14″W / 44.7209°N 75.4871°W / 44.7209; -75.4871
Result Anglo-American victory;
Belligerents
Hunters' Lodges

Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  British Empire

Flag of the United States (1837-1845).svg United States
Commanders and leaders
Nils von Schoultz Henry Dundas
Richard Duncan Fraser
Ogle Robert Gowan
John Crysler
Strength
250 Hunter invadersBritish:
1,133 Canadian militia
500 British regulars
Royal Navy
American:
U.S. Army
U.S. Navy [1]
Casualties and losses
53 dead
61 wounded
136 captured
17 dead
60 wounded
The "Battle of the Windmill" is also a fictional battle in the book Animal Farm.

The Battle of the Windmill was fought in November 1838 in the aftermath of the Upper Canada Rebellion. Loyalist forces of the Upper Canadian government and American troops, aided by the Royal Navy and U.S. Navy, [2] defeated an invasion attempt by a Hunter Patriot para-military unit based in the United States, which had the intention of using the beachhead as a launchpad for further offensives into Canada. Canadian, British, and American troops thwarted the invasion, successfully defending Canadian soil and forced the invaders to surrender. Others still in the U.S. were captured and arrested by U.S. officials.

Contents

Background

After a rebellion by disaffected Upper Canadians was suppressed in 1837, the majority of the rebel leaders fled to the United States. Popular sentiment in the States held that Canadians were eager to overthrow British rule and form a republic patterned after the American model.

An organization known as the Hunter Patriots was formed to assist the rebellion. Organized in secret neo-Masonic lodges, and with widespread support in the northern border states from Vermont to Wisconsin, the Patriot Hunters aimed to invade Canada and lead an army of insurgent Canadians against the British colonial government. In reality, much of the Canadian population was loyal to existing British institutions and decidedly against the prospects of revolution or invasion.

In November 1838, a group of Hunter Patriots decided that it was time to invade Canada and restart the rebellion. They chose as their target the town of Prescott, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River downriver from Kingston. Prescott is the site of Fort Wellington, a British military fortification that commanded the St. Lawrence River and was serving as a fortified depot for the Upper Canadian militia. To initiate the strike, a large group of Hunters assembled in Sackets Harbor, New York, and descended the river to Ogdensburg in civilian vessels. Overall military command of the invading forces was held by John Birge, a senior member of the Hunter organization in New York state. [3]

Attempted seizure of Prescott

Early in the morning of November 12, a force of about 250 men attempted to land in Prescott. However, the British had infiltrated the Hunter organization, and had advance warning of the attack. With the element of surprise gone, and with the town militia ready to repel a landing, the Hunter forces abandoned the landing. Their vessels ran aground on a mud flat where the Oswegatchie River flows into the St. Lawrence off Ogdensburg.

Later in the morning, Bill Johnston, Admiral of the Hunter navy, arrived and freed the stranded vessels, which then ran downriver to Windmill Point, a promontory located approximately two miles east of Prescott. Here, most of the Hunter forces landed to occupy the hamlet of Newport and its most prominent feature, a large, stone windmill building that enjoyed a panoramic view of the St. Lawrence River as far west as Brockville and eastwards over the Gallop Rapids. The commanders of the Hunters appointed a Swedish immigrant with some military experience, Nils von Schoultz, to command the Hunter forces while the Hunter leadership withdrew to Ogdensburg to collect reinforcements and supplies.

First assault

The windmill was built of thick stone and stood 60 feet (18 m) high on top of a 30-foot (9.1 m) bluff. Although the attackers had not planned to use the structure, it provided an ideal fortified position. Its height prevented the British forces from approaching unobserved, and its thick stone walls were impervious to small arms and to small field and naval artillery. Early on the morning of 13 November, a force under the command of the militia officers Colonel Plomer Young, Colonel Richard Fraser, Colonel John Crysler, Captain George Greenfield Macdonell, [4] [5] and Colonel Ogle Gowan and comprising a handful of British infantry from the 83rd Regiment and approximately 600 Canadian militiamen, including the Grenville Militia, Dundas Militia, and Glengarry Militia, invested the Hunter position around Newport and attacked. The attack failed, leaving 13 regulars and militiamen killed and 70 wounded. The Dundas County Militia lost 3 men killed and 7 men wounded. The Hunters suffered about 18 killed and some wounded.

The next several days were a standoff. As time passed, von Schoultz's position became desperate. Promised reinforcements and supplies never arrived as the United States Navy aided the Royal Navy in blocking egress from Ogdensburg. Law enforcement and military officials in Ogdensburg secured available vessels, and most of the prominent Hunter leaders fled from town to avoid arrest.

Second assault

Heavy artillery from Kingston, as well as sizeable detachments of British Army regulars, Canadian militia and U.S. Army regulars, [6] tried to strengthen the Canadian forces. An artillery bombardment of the windmill was conducted on November 16 as they had been reinforced by four companies of the 83rd Regiment, Commanded by Henry Dundas. Royal Navy gunboats and steamers, and ships of the U.S. navy blocked the Hunters from escaping, and Hunter casualties mounted, so von Schoultz unconditionally surrendered.

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the battle, almost all of the Hunters were captured and were transported to Kingston for trial. Eleven people, including the Hunter leader Nils von Schoultz, were executed; another 60 were sentenced to transportation to Australia. 40 were acquitted, and another 86 were later pardoned and released. Von Schoultz enjoyed the legal counsel of John A. Macdonald, a prominent young Kingston lawyer who would later become the architect of Canada's Confederation in 1867 and Canada's first prime minister.

The site of the battle was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1920. [7] [8]

See also

Further reading

Related Research Articles

The Hunters' Lodge was the last of a series of secret organizations formed in 1838 in the United States during the Rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada. The organization arose in Vermont among Lower Canadian refugees and spread westward under the influence of Dr Charles Duncombe and Donald McLeod, leaders of the short lived Canadian Refugee Relief Association, and Scotland native William Lyon Mackenzie, drawing in support from many different areas in North America and Europe. They also absorbed Henry S. Handy's 'Secret Order of the Sons of Liberty' in Detroit into a Grand Lodge in Cleveland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prescott, Ontario</span> Town in Ontario, Canada

Prescott is a town on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River in province of Ontario, Canada. The town is a part of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville. In 2021, it had a population of 4,078. The Ogdensburg–Prescott International Bridge, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Prescott at Johnstown, crosses the Canada–United States border and connects the town with the city of Ogdensburg, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower Canada Rebellion</span> 1837–38 populist uprising against the government of Lower Canada (present-day Quebec)

The Lower Canada Rebellion, commonly referred to as the Patriots' Rebellion in French, is the name given to the armed conflict in 1837–38 between rebels and the colonial government of Lower Canada. Together with the simultaneous rebellion in the neighbouring colony of Upper Canada, it formed the Rebellions of 1837–38.

The Battle of Windsor was a short-lived campaign in the eastern Michigan area of the United States and the Windsor area of Upper Canada. A group of men on both sides of the border, calling themselves "Patriots", formed small militias in 1837 with the intention of seizing the Southern Ontario peninsula between the Detroit and Niagara Rivers and extending American-style government to Canada. They based groups in Michigan at Fort Gratiot, Mount Clemens, Detroit, and Gibraltar. The Patriots were defeated by British and American government forces, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Crysler's Farm</span> War of 1812 battle

The Battle of Crysler's Farm, also known as the Battle of Crysler's Field, was fought on 11 November 1813, during the War of 1812. A British and Canadian force won a victory over a US force which greatly outnumbered them. The US defeat prompted them to abandon the St. Lawrence Campaign, their major strategic effort in the autumn of 1813.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Duncombe (Upper Canada Rebellion)</span> Canadian and American politician

Charles Duncombe was a leader in the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837 and subsequent Patriot War. He was an active Reform politician in the 1830s, and produced several important legislative reports on banking, lunatic asylums, and education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebellions of 1837–1838</span> Canadian reformers rebellion against the British Canadian government

The Rebellions of 1837–1838, were two armed uprisings that took place in Lower and Upper Canada in 1837 and 1838. Both rebellions were motivated by frustrations with lack of political reform. A key shared goal was responsible government, which was eventually achieved in the incidents' aftermath. The rebellions led directly to Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of British North America and to the Act of Union 1840 which partially reformed the British provinces into a unitary system and eventually led to the British North America Act, 1867, which created the contemporary Canadian federation and its government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1838 in Canada</span>

Events from the year 1838 in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Ogdensburg</span>

The Battle of Ogdensburg was a battle of the War of 1812. The British gained a victory over the Americans and captured the village of Ogdensburg, New York. Although small in scale, it removed the American threat to British supply lines for the remainder of the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders</span> Military unit

Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders is a Primary Reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. It is part of 33 Canadian Brigade Group, 4th Canadian Division and is headquartered in Cornwall, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard</span>

The Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard from 1788 to 1853 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, at the site of the current Royal Military College of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Wellington</span> Historic site in Ontario, Canada

Fort Wellington National Historic Site is a historic military fortification located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River at Prescott, Ontario. The military fortification was used by the British Army, and the Canadian militia for most of the 19th century, and by the militia in the 20th century, until 1923, when the property was handed over to the Dominion Parks Commission, the predecessor to Parks Canada. The fort was earlier named a National Historic Site of Canada in January 1920.

The Battle of Pelee Island took place during the Patriot War along what is now the Ohio-Ontario nautical border in 1838 involving small groups of men on each side of the border seeking to overthrow British rule in Upper Canada.

Nils von Schoultz was a Swedish military officer, chemist, and adventurer of Finland-Swedish origin who led the Battle of the Windmill during the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1838.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patriot War</span> 1837-38 raids by U.S.-based militias to assist Upper Canadian rebels

The Patriot War was a conflict along the Canada–United States border in which bands of raiders attacked the British colony of Upper Canada more than a dozen times between December 1837 and December 1838. This so-called war was not a conflict between nations; it was a war of ideas fought by like-minded people against British forces, with the British eventually allying with the US government against the Patriots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Johnston (pirate)</span> American pirate (1782–1870)

Bill Johnston was a Canadian-American smuggler, river pirate, and War of 1812 privateer. Born in Canada, Johnston was accused of spying in 1812 and he joined the American side of the war and lived the rest of his life in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Locofocos</span> Short-lived United States Democratic Party faction

The Locofocos were a faction of the Democratic Party in American politics that existed from 1835 until the mid-1840s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dundas County Militia</span> Regiment of the provincial militia of Upper Canada

The Dundas County Militia was a regiment of the provincial militia of Upper Canada that was raised in Dundas County, Ontario, in the 1780s. The battle honours and legacy of the Dundas Militia are perpetuated by the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Matilda</span>

The Battle of Matilda, also known as the Battle of Toussaint's Island, was an early skirmish of the War of 1812 fought on September 16, 1812 between American and Canadian militia in the St. Lawrence River near the township of Matilda, in Dundas County.

The Assault on Ogdensburg, also known as the First Battle of Ogdensburg or the Battle of Prescott, was an attack by Canadian militia on the American defences at Ogdensburg on October 4, 1812.

References

  1. Bonthius, Andrew (2003). "The Patriot War of 1837–1838: Locofocoism With a Gun?". Labour/Le Travail. 52: 10–11. doi:10.2307/25149383. JSTOR   25149383. S2CID   142863197.
  2. Bonthius, Andrew (2003). "The Patriot War of 1837–1838: Locofocoism With a Gun?". Labour/Le Travail. 52: 10–11. doi:10.2307/25149383. JSTOR   25149383. S2CID   142863197.
  3. Guns Across the River: The Battle of the Windmill, 1838 by Donald Graves
  4. "Remembering the Battle of the Windmill". Recorder & Times.
  5. "The Battle of the Windmill: A soldier's version". Recorder & Times.
  6. Bonthius, Andrew (2003). "The Patriot War of 1837–1838: Locofocoism With a Gun?". Labour/Le Travail. 52: 10–11. doi:10.2307/25149383. JSTOR   25149383. S2CID   142863197.
  7. Battle of the Windmill, Directory of Designations of National Historic Significance of Canada
  8. Battle of the Windmill . Canadian Register of Historic Places .