Some smaller collections held by Library and Archives Canada are available on microfilm, and they can be consulted online. The Help page lists the available records and explains how to browse these microfilm reels. This series includes documents relating to the Canadian militia and the British Forces during the War of The Introduction page provides information about the records and explains step-by-step how to search the index and find the corresponding documents.
These records are the major source for researching a member of the Canadian militia. The Lower Canada and Upper Canada records have been digitized and can be viewed online. They are not indexed by name but are organized by regiment or unit. The Help pages list the contents of each microfilm reel. This web page provides information about other resources such as published sources and links to other websites.
Records relating to the service of members of the British Forces are in the custody of the National Archives in England. Consult their Research Guide: Military and Maritime. Library and Archives Canada holds microfilm copies of some of the War Office records from the National Archives that relate to regiments that served in Canada.
The records of the Department of Militia and Defence RG9 include several correspondence series, in which there are some documents relating to individuals who served in the War of You can also search with only a name, to try to find possible references in other collections. Motivated by Anglophobia and nationalism, these Republicans encouraged war as a means to retaliate against Britain for the economic distress caused by the blockade, and for what they perceived as British support for the First Nations in resisting American expansion into the West.
As American leaders planned their invasion of Canada, they quickly decided that Upper Canada was the most vulnerable to attack. The Atlantic provinces were protected by British sea power, and Lower Canada was protected by its remoteness and by the fortress of Quebec see Quebec City in the War of In contrast, Upper Canada seemed to be an easy target.
The population was predominantly American, and the province was lightly defended. Upper Canada was defended by about 1, British regulars, formed mostly from the 41st Regiment of Foot and detachments from other units. However, the badly outnumbered British were in fact better prepared than the Americans knew.
The 41st Regiment of British regulars had been reinforced by a number of militia units although their loyalty and reliability was uncertain. The Provincial Marine controlled Lake Ontario. Brock had a thorough grasp of the challenges of the upcoming conflict and had been preparing for five years, reinforcing fortifications, training militia units and, perhaps most important, developing alliances with the First Nations. Studio portrait taken in July of the surviving Six Nations warriors who fought with the British in the War of Right to left: Sakawaraton - John Smoke Johnson born ca.
The conflict forced various Indigenous peoples to overcome longstanding differences and unite against a common enemy. It also strained alliances, such as the Iroquois Haudenosaunee Confederacy , in which some nations were allied with American forces. Two Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa , implored Indigenous peoples to unite in order to defend their dwindling lands against the growing incursions of American settlers and the United States government. The promise of such an Aboriginal state never came to fruition.
During negotiations for the Treaty of Ghent that ended the war, the British tried to bargain for the creation of an Indian Territory, but the American delegates refused to agree. For Indigenous peoples living in British North America , the War of marked the end of an era of self-reliance and self-determination. Soon they would become outnumbered by settlers in their own lands. Any social or political influence enjoyed before the war dissipated.
Within a generation, the contributions of so many different peoples, working together with their British and Canadian allies against a common foe, would be all but forgotten see Aboriginal Title and the War of Sir Isaac Brock was dissatisfied by the number of troops at his disposal, with only some 1, regulars in the province.
But he was not prepared to simply wait passively for the Americans to act. He believed that a bold military stroke would galvanize the population and encourage First Nations to come to his side.
He therefore sent orders to the commanding officer of Fort St. Meanwhile, an American force under General William Hull had crossed from Detroit into Canada, forcing Brock to quickly march his men from the town of York to counter the invasion.
When he arrived at the British fort at Amherstburg , Brock found that the American invasion force had already withdrawn to Detroit see Fort Amherstburg and the War of With the great Shawnee chief Tecumseh at his side, he boldly demanded that Hull surrender Detroit, which the hapless general did on 16 August, in effect giving the British control of Michigan territory and the Upper Mississippi see Capture of Detroit, War of Having lost one army at Detroit, the Americans lost another at Queenston Heights 13 October after their militia refused to cross into Canada, citing the constitutional guarantee that it would not have to fight on foreign soil.
However, during the engagement, Brock was killed — a significant loss to the British and Canadian cause. One wing was so badly mauled at Frenchtown 22 January by a force of British, Canadians and First Nations under Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Procter , that further attempts at invasion that winter were abandoned.
The only Americans in Canada were prisoners of war. With the death of Brock, British strategy was to act defensively and allow the invaders to make mistakes.
Governor Sir George Prevost conserved his thin forces carefully, keeping a strong garrison at Quebec and sending reinforcements to Upper Canada only when additional troops arrived from overseas. The Coloured Corps was a militia company of Black men raised during the War of by Richard Pierpoint , a formerly enslaved man from Bondu Senegal and military veteran of the American Revolution. Created in Upper Canada , where enslavement had been limited in , the corps was composed of free and enslaved Black men.
Many were veterans of the American Revolution , in which they fought for the British see Black Loyalists. The company was disbanded on 24 March , following the end of the war. In claiming rewards for their service, many faced adversity and discrimination. When grants were distributed in , veterans of the Coloured Corps received only acres, half that of their White counterparts. Many veterans did not settle the land they were granted because it was of poor quality. Despite these inequities, the Coloured Corps defended Canada honourably, setting the precedent for the formation of Black units in future see The Coloured Corps: Black Canadians and the War of As the campaign of opened, an American flotilla of 16 ships landed at York now Toronto , the capital of Upper Canada.
The Americans briefly occupied the town, burning the public buildings and seizing valuable naval supplies destined for Lake Erie see The Sacking of York ; however, the British frustrated the American plan to appropriate a half-completed warship at York by burning it instead. Had the Americans succeeded, they might have gained greater control over Lake Ontario. As it was, neither side totally controlled that lake for the balance of the war.
While this was the bleakest period of the war for the British, the military situation was not irretrievable. The Americans did not take advantage of their success, and failed to immediately pursue General John Vincent and his army as they retreated from Fort George to Burlington Heights.
The American forces did not set out from Fort George until 2 June, allowing the British time to recover and prepare. In a fierce battle, the British dislodged the Americans, capturing two of their generals. The dispirited American force retired towards Niagara. The Americans suffered another defeat three weeks later at Beaver Dams , where some men were captured by a force of Kahnawake and a further Mohawk warriors led by Captain William Kerr see Mohawk of the St.
Lawrence Valley. Secord took a circuitous route through inhospitable terrain to avoid American sentries on her trek and was helped by a group of Mohawk warriors she encountered along the way. Finally, worn down by sickness, desertion and the departure of short-term soldiers, the American command evacuated Fort George on 10 December and quit Canada. The battle was contested at Fort York, located then on the shores of the lake.
Today, thanks to landfill as the city has grown, the old fort sits incongruously amidst skyscrapers and an elevated expressway, almost a kilometer from the water. It is at Fort York Historic Site, as much as anywhere else in this country, that the Canadian narrative of the war is articulated again and again during this bicentennial observation. Indeed, identity-building and bonding is a big part of all this. Americans often forget that our neighbors to the north are in some senses as much a patchwork as we are, which is one reason the current Conservative government of prime minister Stephen Harper is putting renewed emphasis on the War of With a few notable exceptions, however, French-speaking Canada did not see much fighting during the war.
Ontario, then known as Upper Canada, and now the largest province, is where much of the action took place.
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