Battle of the Windmill

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Contemporary engraving of the Battle of the Windmill as seen from the American shore.

Date	November 12 – November 16, 1838
Location	Windmill Point, Ontario
Result	Decisive British victory

Combatants

American Hunter insurgents

United Kingdom

Commanders

Nils von Schoultz

Henry Dundas

Strength

250 American Hunter insurgents

500 regulars and 1133 Upper Canadian militia

Casualties

18 - 53 dead
136 captured

17 dead
60 wounded

Upper Canada Rebellion
Montgomery's Tavern – Pelee Island – Short Hills – Windmill – Windsor – Dickinson's Landing

The "Battle of the Windmill" is also a fictional battle in the book Animal Farm.

The Battle of the Windmill was a battle fought in November 1838 in the aftermath of the Upper Canada Rebellion. Loyalist forces of the Upper Canadian government defeated an invasion attempt by Patriot Hunter insurgents based in the United States.

1 Background
2 Attempted Seizure of Prescott
3 First Assault
4 Second Assault
5 Aftermath
6 Tactical Considerations
7 See also
8 Further reading
9 External links

[edit] Background

After the first rebellion by disaffected Upper Canadians was suppressed in 1837, the majority of the rebel leaders fled to the United States. Popular sentiment in the States believed that the Canadians were eager to overthrow British rule and form a republic patterned after the American model, and an organization known as the "Hunters" was formed to assist the rebellion. Organized in neo-Masonic secret lodges, and with widespread support in the northern border states from Vermont to Wisconsin, the Patriot Hunters aimed to invade Canada and lead an army of insurgent Canadians against the British colonial government. The aspirations of these early political terrorists were misplaced. In reality, much of the Canadian population was loyal to existing British institutions and decidedly against the prospects of revolution or invasion.

In November 1838, a group of Hunters decided that it was time to invade Canada and restart the rebellion. They chose as their target the town of Prescott, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River downriver from Kingston. Prescott is the site of Fort Wellington, a British military fortification which commanded the St. Lawrence River and which was serving as a fortified depot for the Upper Canadian militia. To initiate the strike, a large group of Hunters assembled in Sackett's Harbor, New York and descended the River to Ogdensburg in civilian vessels. Overall military command of the insurgent forces was held by John Birge, a senior member of the Hunter organization in New York State, while the naval operation was commanded by Bill Johnston, a Canadian mariner who had run afoul of the colonial authorities and was taking advantage of the border unrest to indulge in some old-fashioned piracy on the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario.

[edit] Attempted Seizure of Prescott

Early in the morning of November 12, a force of about 250 men attempted to land in Prescott. However, the British had infiltrated the Hunter organization, and had advance warning of the attack. With the element of surprise gone, and with the town militia ready to repel a landing, the Hunter forces were forced to abandon the landing. Both vessels ran aground on a mud flat where the Oswegatchie River flows into the St. Lawrence off Odgensburg.

Later in the morning, Bill Johnston arrived and succeeded in freeing the stranded vessels, which ran downriver to Windmill Point, a promontory located approximately two miles east of Prescott. Here, most of the Hunter forces landed to occupy the hamlet of Newport and its most prominent feature, a large, stone windmill building which enjoyed a panoramic view of the St. Lawrence River as far west as Brockville and eastwards over the Gallop Rapids. The commanders of the Hunters appointed a Swedish immigrant with some military experience, Nils von Schoultz, to command the Hunter forces while the Hunter leadership withdrew to Ogdensburg to collect reinforcements and supplies.

[edit] First Assault

The windmill was built of thick stone and stood 60 feet high on top of a 30-foot bluff. Although the structure had not been intended to play a role in the invasion, it was an ideal field fortification. Its height would prevent the British forces from approaching unobserved, and its thick stone walls were impervious to small arms and to small field and naval artillery. Early on the morning of 13 November, a force under the command of the militia officers Colonel Plomer Young, Colonel Richard Fraser, and Colonel Ogle Gown and comprising a handful of British infantry from the 83rd Regiment and approximately 600 Canadian militiamen invested the Hunter position around Newport. Their attack failed, leaving 13 regulars and militiamen killed along with 70 wounded. Approximately 18 Hunters were also killed along with an unknown number of wounded.

The next several days were a standoff. As time passed, von Schoultz's position had become desperate. Promised reinforcements and supplies never arrived as the United States Navy aided the Royal Navy in blocking egress from Ogdensburg. Law enforcement and military officials in Ogdensburg secured all of the available vessels, and most of the prominent Hunter leaders fled from town to avoid arrest.

[edit] Second Assault

With the arrival of heavy artillery from Kingston as well as sizeable detachments of British regulars and Canadian militia, the final attack began with an artillery bombardment of the windmill on November 16. With Royal Navy gunboats and steamers blocking the Hunters from escaping and casualties mounting, von Schoultz decided to unconditionally surrender.

[edit] Aftermath

In the aftermath of the battle, almost all of the Hunters were captured and were transported to Kingston for trial. Eleven people, including the Hunter leader Nils von Schoultz, were executed; another 60 were sentenced to transportation to Australia. 40 were acquitted, and another 86 were later pardoned and released. Von Schoultz enjoyed the legal counsel of John A. MacDonald, a prominent young Kingston lawyer who would later become the architect of Canada's Confederation in 1867 and the nation's first Prime Minister.

[edit] Tactical Considerations

The village of Newport proved to be a remarkable field fortification. In this part of the St. Lawrence valley and during this period, many houses were built of locally-quarried or fieldstone limestone blocks. It is not uncommon for the walls of these houses to be two or more feet thick, and consequently they are impervious to small arms fire. Original illustrations of the buildings of Newport indicate that the majority were built of limestone masonry, with a few outbuildings constructed of wood.

The windmill is build of the same stone, and at its base the wall appears to be approximately four feet thick. The wall tapers upwards to a narrower thickness.

The Village itself is located on a promontory jutting into the St. Lawrence. Because the River narrows on both the north and south banks at this point, the current is strong. In addition, the presence of the Gallop Rapids a few miles downstream (roughly starting downriver from the modern suspension bridge at Johnstown) must also have increased the speed of water flow.

Although a railway line was built through the site later in the nineteenth century and to some extent distorted the topography, the shore on the south and southwest of the promontory is shelved limestone with a significant cliff face approximately 30 feet in height. The land to the northwest of the windmill is flat, but drops gradually in the direction of Prescott. The land to the north and east is relatively flat. Although much of this ground displays secondary tree growth today, original illustrations suggest that it was relatively clear in 1838.

Original illustrations also show at least one field-stone wall on the western side of Newport, as well as numerous wooden "snake" fences. Presumably, the local residents kept cattle, pigs, and small animals as livestock and this explains the presence of these fences.

From the perspective of infantry, an assault by water is an unattractive option. Leaving aside the question of the availability of suitable landing boats, the current is strong and there is absolutely no prospect of concealment on the approach. If a landing were possible, it would be difficult to scale the cliff faces under fire. Thus, the Hunters had a significant advantage in that more than 180 degrees of the windmill's surroundings were protected by water.

An assault from land is a more attractive proposition. The Hunters were not present in sufficient numbers to strongly defend the Village with small arms fire, and lacked sufficient artillery to prevent or delay the Royal Artillery from emplacing it siege battery on 16 November. The Hunters appear to have been armed with significant numbers of rifles as opposed to the smoothbore muskets of their opponents. While these would have provided the ability to fire accurately at longer ranges, the weapons in question were muzzleloading, not breechloading, and consequently would have had a much slower rate of fire. At long range, they would have provide deadly, but suffered from slow rates of fire. At short range, their accuracy would have become less of an advantage while their slow rates of fire would have been a serious liability.

For the British regulars and Canadian militia attacking, the initial approach would have been unnerving in the face of accurate rifle fire, but the advantage would have quickly passed to the attackers in the close range fighting in the Village and around the windmill. Interestingly, contemporary accounts speak of the militia making liberal use of the bayonet, which appears anachronistic to us but which would have been quite effective in the close-range tactical operations of clearing fencelines and houses.

The presence of heavy artillery would have made most -- if not all -- of the buildings in Newport untenable with the exception of the windmill. However, the windmill lacked a water supply and had only one entrance. Unless reinforced, once the Hunters were forced back into the windmill they were caught in a deathtrap. Von Schoultz - who had experience as an artillery officer - would have been wise to surrender when he saw the Royal Artillery setting up its 18-pounder battery. From the time it came into action, his command was doomed.