Fort Wellington - The Battle of The Windmill

The Battle of The Windmill

After their defeat at York in the autumn of 1837, many of the Upper Canadian political dissidents fled to the United States. Among the citizens of the northern states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, these exiles found much sympathy and anti-British sentiment. Overnight, an army of sympathizers was organized. Calling themselves Hunter Patriots, they combined a neo-Masonic organizational structure with militant republicanism. Their propaganda machine convinced many Americans in the northern states that the citizens of Upper and Lower Canada were being oppressed by undemocratic British government, and were simply waiting for the intervention of liberty-loving American sympathizers.

Early in 1838, these hunters conducted insurgent operations in the Niagara Region, the area around Windsor and Amherstburg, Ontario and on Pelee Island. At one point, Navy Island, upriver from Niagara Falls, which was and remains Canadian territory, was occupied by a sizeable army of Patriot Hunters.

Tensions escalated when a force of Upper Canada militia seized a Hunter vessel, the Caroline, in the Niagara River and burned it. Although officially opposed to the actions of the Patriot Hunters, the United States government soon found that most of its local agents and officials were either themselves members of the Lodges or complicit in their activities. For example, the New York State militia "lost" several cannons from its armouries in New York State and Michigan.

In November, 1813, a force of Patriot Hunters met at Sackets Harbor, New York and then travelled downriver on civilian vessels to Ogdensburg. They planned to seize the militia strongpoint at Fort Wellington and organize the disaffected citizens of Upper Canada into a Patriot-led insurgent army with the goal of deposing the British Governor of the Colony.

The Patriots' attempt to land at Prescott proved farcical. The local militia commander had been warned that trouble was afoot. When a Hunter vessel attempted to land early on the morning of 12 November at a wharf in Prescott, it was challenged and fired upon by alert Canadian militiamen. Attempting to withdraw, it and a companion vessel ran aground off Ogdensburg. Later in the morning, both vessels were freed and drifted downriver, past the incredulous sentries at Fort Wellington, and landed two miles downriver at Windmill Point, a promontory on the north short of the St. Lawrence River. Windmill Point was the site of a hamlet called Newport and—most prominently—a tall, stone windmill. The Hunters disembarked and occupied the village and windmill. Their commanding officer returned by ship to Ogdensburg, promising that a larger force of Hunters would be embarked there and brought as reinforcements. He left a Swedish immigrant named Nils von Schoultz in command at the windmill.

With no regular British forces in the area, the local commander of the Upper Canadian militia summoned all available militiamen in Grenville, Leeds and Dundas Counties and began preparations to assault. He established a cordon of militiamen around Newport and Windmill Point. He also opened communications with the American military commander at Ogdensburg, who had arrived on the scene and had begun to restore order in that town.

A small American naval vessel arrived to cooperate with an even smaller British naval vessel, HMSV Experiment, in isolating Windmill Point from reinforcement. During the course of this blockade, a civilian vessel, the United States, commandeered by the Hunters attempted to run the blockade and was fired on by the Experiment. In what may have been the last naval action on the St. Lawrence River, the helmsman of the Patriot Hunter vessel was decapitated by a British cannon ball, and the Hunters withdrew into Ogdensburg Harbour, where their vessel was interned.

Meanwhile, sufficient numbers of militia and a small party of British regulars had arrived in Prescott to allow an assault on Windmill Point, and this was attempted on 13 November. The militia were successful in driving in the Patriot outposts and capturing many of the outlying farm buildings, but the Hunters held the windmill and some of the surrounding buildings. Casualties on both sides had been significant, and the British commander elected to await regular reinforcements. He reestablished the cordon around the Point while the main body of Militia withdrew to Fort Wellington.

Regular reinforcements arrived on 14 November in the form of British regulars of the Royal Artillery and the 83rd Regiment as well as Royal Marines from the Royal Navy facility at Kingston. aving appreciated that the windmill structure would be impervious to small arms and light artillery fire, heavy artillery was brought by ship from Kingston. A detachment of Highlanders from the 93rd Regiment arrived from Montreal just at the second assault was about to begin on 16 November. More small naval gunboats also arrived to shell the Hunters from the River while the United States Navy kept the rest of the Hunters bottled up on the American side.

During the second assault, the Hunters were quickly driven from the outlying buildings in Newport and forced back into the windmill itself. The heavy artillery opened fire against this building, but were unable to penetrate the thick stone walls. Nonetheless, Von Schoultz and his men now realized that the Upper Canadians were not going to join the insurgency and that the promised reinforcements from Ogdensburg had more pressing matters to attend to safely across the border. Surrounded by wounded men, running short of supplies, ammunition and food, Von Schoultz surrendered unconditionally. The survivors were taken to Fort Henry in Kingston, where they were tried. Von Schoultz and several others were convicted and hanged, while the rest were either pardoned or transported to Australia.