The soldiers and civilians who participated in the Patriot War, fought
between 1837 and 1842, hoped to free Canada from supposed British
tyranny, as the United States had done just over half a century before.
Despite heavy losses throughout, the American and Canadian Patriots
refused to give up their noble cause. The Patriots launched at least
thirteen raids on Upper Canada from the American border states. The
western front, which spanned the British colony from Ohio and Michigan
in western Lake Erie and along the Detroit River, saw some of the
fiercest fighting, including the failed 1838 Battle of Windsor. In the
wake of this engagement, many Canadians were outraged at the retaliatory
hangings, while Americans protested the transport of their kin to the
Tasmanian penal colony. With stories from both sides of the border,
historian Shaun J. McLaughlin recalls the triumphs and sacrifices of the
doomed Patriots.