American History – June 2019

60 AMERICAN HISTORY

regulars harassed the rebels with cannon and

musket fire. For supplies, the insurrection-

ists were relying on Caroline, a privately

chartered steam vessel flagged in the

United States. Rebel resolve persisted

until the night of December 29, 1837, when

a Canadian attack sent Caroline drifting in

flames toward Niagara Falls. One man died.

“BUTCHERED IN COLD BLOOD” shrieked the

Buffalo Journal, dramatically multiplying the num-

ber of casualties. Similar exaggeration by border newspapers from

Michigan to Vermont fired and reinforced the emotions of young Ameri-

can men, many as adrift as their Canadian cousins. As young Buffalo

diarist Mary Peacock wrote, “The war in Canada has so affected and

excited the people in this city that it is a subject of some doubt where it

will end and in what manner...”

To settle matters on Navy Island, U.S. President Martin Van Buren dis-

patched General Winfield Scott. The cele-

brated military leader convinced the rebels

on the island to relent.

However, an underground

paramilitary calling itself “the

Hunters” had formed secret

lodges in border states. Unem-

ployed fellows, some acting

out of democratic impulse,

others drawn by the outfit’s

promises of land and gold,

swelled the Hunters’ ranks.

Asserting themselves to be

servants of Canadian independence, Hunters and other

Americans organized into an amateur “Patriot Army” that

through 1838 carried on a sustained, if ramshackle, campaign

of cross-border raids, each in succession defeated by superior

British forces.

Counterattack

Crown troops

defeat rebels

at Dickinson

Landing.

William Lyon

Mackenzie

representation in their government, at the time controlled

by the lieutenant governor in cahoots with a ruling oligarchy.

Amid a dire economic crisis gripping the region as well as

the adjoining portion of the United States, Canada’s elite, the

rebels claimed, were denying ordinary people, many of them

out of work and destitute, a say in land policies, religion, and

politics. Upper Canada was split between its haves and its

have-nots.

Authorities quickly quashed the Toronto uprising. Many

rebels and their leader, William Lyon Mackenzie, crossed

the Niagara River into the United States, where their cause

had sympathizers. At Buffalo, New York, Mackenzie fired up

more support, and with their newfound allies he and his

men seized and fortified British-owned Navy Island, a speck

in the Niagara—declaring the island to be the new “Republic

of Canada.” Canadian militiamen and red-coated British

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9

Ill-Considered Gesture

Empathetic with Canadian nationalism,

Miller cast his lot with the losing side.

Winfield Scott

River Pirates

By darkness, rebels

seize Caroline on

the Niagara River.