The Battle of Pelee Island took place during the
Patriot War
The Patriot War was a conflict along the Canada–United States border in which bands of raiders attacked the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British colony of Upper Canada more than a dozen times between December 1837 and Decembe ...
along what is now the Michigan-Ontario border in 1838 involving small groups of men on each side of the border seeking to "liberate"
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...
from the British.
Prelude
On February 26, 1838, the frozen ice of
Lake Erie
Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
allowed 300 Canadian and American
Patriots under the command of Major Lester Hoadley to take
Pelee Island Pelee may refer to:
* Île Pelée, an island off Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France
* Pelee, Ontario, an island in Lake Erie, Canada
*Point Pelee National Park, a park in Ontario, Canada
*Mount Pelée, a volcano in Martinique
*Peleus
In Greek mytho ...
at the western end of the lake. This prompted British Colonel John Maitland to send a force to recapture the island and secure it from further attack. Maitland sent Major George Browne with 126 men, comprising two companies of the British 32nd Regiment, a detachment of the Canadian St. Thomas Volunteer Cavalry, and a small band of First Nations warriors to cut off the invaders.
[Mann, p. 76]
Battle
On March 3, 1838, Browne's force intercepted the
Hunter Patriots
The Hunters' Lodge was the last of a series of secret organizations formed in 1838 in the United States during the Rebellions in the Canadas. The organization arose in Vermont among Lower Canadian refugees (the eastern division or Frères chasse ...
on the ice off the south western shore of the island and defeated them in a sharp fight. The British and Canadian casualties were 5 killed (4 from the 32nd Regiment and 1 Canadian cavalryman) and 25 wounded.
[ On the Patriot side, Hoadley, his second-in-command, Captain Van Rensselaer, and 12 rank and file were killed by enemy fire, in addition to 1 man who drowned when he fell through the ice. 18 Patriots were wounded and a further 11 were captured, some of whom were also badly wounded.][
]
References
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External links
"The Battle of Pelee Island 1838
* : A veteran of the battle
Upper Canada Rebellion
March 1838 events
1838 in Upper Canada
Conflicts in 1838
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