Patriot War Along the Michigan-Canada Border

The undeclared war between the American border states and Upper Canada, which saw that British colony attacked at least thirteen times between December 1837 and December 1838, was a historical oddity. The so-called Patriot War was not a conflict between nations; it was a war of ideals fought by like-minded people against the greatest military power of the time.

In western Upper Canada (now part of Ontario), the influence of thousands of American immigrants and their democratic ideas, made the region a hotbed of discontent. When William Lyon Mackenzie began the rebellion with an attack on Toronto, hundreds of men rose up in arms in the southwest. Initially routed by the militia, many fled to the US and took part in a year-long series of raids on the colony.

As with the first book, The Patriot War Along the Canada-New York Border, published in February 2012, this book delves into the rebel personalities; it describes the politics of the time, the battles, the court cases, the executions, and the sacrifices of both the raiders and the defenders. This second in the two-part series also documents the rebel exiles’ long and laborious internment in the Tasmanian penal colony, an experience that killed many of them.

The Patriot War Along the Michigan-Canada Border, published in September 2013, was a finalist in the 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the historical non-fiction category.  It is available in paperback and as an ebook.

See Pinterest images from the book online.

Tags: #CdnHistory #AmericanHistory