In 1838, seeing political turbulence in Canada as an opportunity, members of a clandestine American organization -- the Patriot Hunters -- launched a series of attacks across the international border. The Hunters were hoping to duplicate the success of the Texas rebellion two years before when their heroes Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie established a republic in northern Mexico. Detesting "tyranny and oppression wherever manifested," the Hunters were certain that all it would take was "a good stand maintained for a short time" by Americans and then Canadians would do their own fighting to win freedom from the British yoke.

The most ambitious Hunter attack took place in November 1838 when a force of more than 500 men, armed to the teeth and commanded by a European soldier of fortune, set out from northern New York in a motley flotilla of chartered and hijacked vessels. Avoiding the naval and military forces of two nations, they occupied a stone windmill near Prescott, Upper Canada, confident that the downtrodden Canadians would rally to their republican standard.

Their hopes were doomed. After five days of heavy fighting, British regulars and Canadian militia captured this "Alamo of the North" and those attackers who survived were imprisoned in massive Fort Henry at nearby Kingston and tried by a court martial -- eleven were executed and sixty deported to an Australian penal colony. The Patriot Hunters' dream of establishing a republic in British North America resulted in nothing but destruction and loss of life and, today, their only memorial is the stone windmill, now an historic site, on its bluff beside the mighty St. Lawrence.

Courtesy Rene Schoemaker

Guns Across the River is the story of this bloody but forgotten military action, and the undeclared war of which it formed part. Donald E. Graves traces the background of the political unrest that gave rise to the Patriot Hunter movement in the northern United States; he describes the invaders' odyssey down the St. Lawrence, their landing at Prescott, and provides a detailed account, day by day and hour by hour, of the five-day battle that followed. Guns across the River is packed with fascinating information about a colourful time in North American history and about the two opposing forces who fought at the windmill -- their personalities, tactics, weapons, uniforms and even the songs they sang.

Excerpt from Guns Across the River
copyright © Friends of Windmill Point 2001

Repel the Midnight Assassins! Prescott, Upper Canada, 12 November 1838. Warned about an possible attack on Prescott, the local British commander, Lieutenant Colonel Plomer Young, had doubled his guards. At about 2 AM, the sentries posted at the wharf of the forwarding company Hooker & Henderson, peering through the mist on the St. Lawrence, spotted something drifting toward them on the current. ......

They alerted Young, who caused the alarm bell to be rung, and in the words of Alpheus Jones, the village postmaster, "a general muster was made of all who could procure arms, pitchforks, or anything which would repel the midnight assassins." Young and Jones ran down to the wharf in time to see two small schooners, lashed together, bearing directly at them. The vessels made no response to Young's hail but, as they came closer, their pilot realized that he could not dock because the wharf was torn up for repairs and he therefore bore off for Fraser's wharf at the foot of St. Lawrence Street, a short distance downstream. Young, Jones and "a few straggling townsmen, with arms, who were on the alert," followed on land and saw a man leap from one of the vessels and attempt to make a line fast to Fraser's wharf.

This was Hunter John Cronkhite who had volunteered for this hazardous duty. A "man of few words but ever ready in action," Cronkhite timed his jump nicely and, ignoring warning shots fired in the air by the two sentries on the wharf, secured the two Charlottes. As his rope was frozen and stiff, this proved difficult but Cronkhite finally accomplished his task and jumped back on board. Unfortunately, the line broke from the strain of the current and the weight of the two schooners, and they moved past Fraser's wharf toward McMillan's, the next anchorage. Young, Jones and their men arrived at Fraser's just as their prey moved down the river. Again, Young hailed but again got no response so his party followed the mysterious vessels down to McMillan's wharf, where Cronkhite tried to repeat his feat. Exasperated, Young shouted that he would open fire unless the two vessels identified themselves and this threat brought the response "Charlotte of Toronto, George, master," but that was all because, failing in their third attempt to dock, the two schooners separated and made for the American side of the river, disappearing in the darkness and mist.

Painting by Douglas Anderson, courtesy Parks Canada

Certain that he had frustrated an attack by the Patriot Hunters, Young immediately sent dispatch riders to inform Dundas at Kingston and alert the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence between that place and Prescott. It was now well past 3 AM and the ordinary citizens of Prescott, roused by the alarm bell, the shots, shouts, the sound of men running in the streets -- all of which, of course, set the village dogs to howling -- were wide awake and fearful.

Most of the menfolk were in the streets by now and, it being a cold night and defending the Crown always thirsty work, one hopes the tavern keepers on Water Street did their patriotic duty by opening a little early or that John Buckley, purveyor of fine groceries on the same thoroughfare, allowed the village's gallant defenders to avail themselves of the keg of beer with its attendant chained wooden mug that stood square in the centre of his store. No one, it seemed, knew what the morrow would bring -- as one resident later recorded, the "intense anxiety for daylight" was
"not to be described." ......

 

 

What Reviewers say about Guns Across The River

"... a well-researched and well-written chronicle that will appeal to a wide audience of readers interested in the military and political history of Upper Canada. It is also a handsomely produced volume that is richly illustrated. ..... It makes a significant and welcome contribution to the historiography of Upper Canada."
Michael Stevenson, Canadian Historical Review, 83, No. 4, December 2002

Donald Graves has established a reputation as one of the foremost historians of Canadian tactical operations from the War of 1812 to the Second World War. His depth of research, attention to detail and fluid prose style are well known. Guns Across the River focuses on an 1838 attack [by restless American] "young men looking for money, work, land, adventure or an escape from law, debts, wives or boredom." (p. 34). ...... Complementing Graves's excellent narrative are numerous contemporary illustrations, Peter Rindlisbacher's modern historic paintings, Chris Johnson's maps, that characterize Robin Brass Studio books."
David C. Skaggs, Journal of Military History, Vol. 66, No. 2, April 2002

Those familiar with previous books by Donald E. Graves will not be surprised by the thoroughly enjoyable narrative account contained in his latest offering. ....... This is yet another rousing dose of history as it was meant to be written. Readers who are less aware of Graves's previously demonstrated strengths as an author and ... military historian of note will be suitably impressed by his readability, comphrensiveness and attention to detail. ...... This book is not built upon Graves's earlier works, as one would expect from an author who has focused almost exclusively on the War of 1812 and the Second World War. Rather, it is a fresh and insightful look at a significant yet nearly forgotten event ...... Despite the author's own concerns about attempting to go outside his period of recognized expertise, Guns Across the River is a solid work, well worth reading, and fills a definite void in the historical record. ...... If you are a lover of readable ... history, especially history that borders on the forgotten or more obscure, this is a book to be savoured. It provides a fresh point of reference for continued remembrance and understanding the chain of evenets that culminated in the Battle of the Windmill, and may already be a definitive piece on this nearly forgotten and poorly understood event.
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Dabros, The Army Doctrine and Training Bulletin, Winter 2001-2002

{The battle} is described with the competency we have come to expect from military historian Donald E. Graves [who] ..... describes an ill-concieved and appallingly executed landing near Prescott by Patriot Hunters -- mostly, but not all, Americans. Their purpose was to fan smouldering Canadian discontent back into the flames of revolution. The "Battle of the Windmill," as it came to be called, was a dismal failure, but makes a rousing tale.
Chris Raible, Beaver, December 2001

"Anyone who still thinks Canadian history is boring has not read the work of Donald E. Graves, whose previous books on the War of 1812 became underground classics for their battlefield narrative style and attention to historical detail. ...... Graves has a gift for puncturing historical mythology. ……Graves also has a keen sense of the absurd, which serves him well in describing the comic opera farce of the 1837 rebellion ...... His descriptions of the skirmishes and siege of the windmill have the pace and feel of fiction and his prose is sprinkled with detailed observations that help breath life into long-dead characters and give a certain immediacy to events of more than 150 years ago."
Chris Wattie, National Post, 11 August 2001

"Donald Graves, best known perhaps for his accounts of War of 1812 battles, applies his considerable analytic skills to retelling [the story of the battle of the Windmill] and, by way of providing context, recounting much of the whole sad but fascinating tale of the ill-fated war. Graves, as always, is thorough and fair, though he gives no doubt as to which side he is on -- indeed he has little sympath for the cause of the Canadian rebels or their "Patriot Hunter" cohorst. The book is ... splendidly designed and illustrated, as are all Robin Brass books."
Chris Raible, Ontario Historical Society Bulletin, 7 September 2001

There was a time, once before when Canadians were called to defend their soil against what Donald E. Graves calls "terrorists." ....... Guns Across the River is the story of the bloodiest battle in the fall-out from the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, and a nasty piece of business it was. Luckily, it's also an action-packed tale told with verve, enthusiasm and a rare combination of expert knowledge and imagination. [The "terroists"] found themselves trapped in and around an old riverbank stone windmill, later dubbed the "Alamo of the North." ...... The windmill, by the way, is still standing ... it's now a proud historic site at Windmill Point, just east of Prescott. Go visit it; but read Guns Across the River first."
Hans Werner, Toronto Daily Star, 7 October 2001

Donald Graves has produced a wonderful account of the battle [of the windmill which]. ..... is the centrepiece of the book, and Graves's description of the five-day battle is told in great detail but is always lucid and lively. He uses his sources effectively and writes with precision and with a fine eye for the colourful, the unusual, and the pithy quote. He finds irony and humour in the story and presents us with a cast of characters as unusual as the events in which they are involved ...... Over the past several years, Donald Graves has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the War of 1812 with his fine books on the battles at Crysler's Farm, Lundy's Lane, and Chippawa. Guns Across the River is cut from the same cloth -- well-written, based on solid research, attractively produced, and enlightening. The author should be congratulated for tackling an aspect of Upper Canada's history that all too often is treated as a mere postscript to the Rebellion. This book is an important addition to Ontario historiography, and, above all, in the hands of a storyteller like Donald Graves, it is a tale well told.
Glenn Wright, Ontario History, Autumn 2001

***** [Five-stars/Excellent]
"... while Donald E. Graves's book has a definite Canadian slant that U.S. readers may find slightly disorienting (Americans are not the heroes in this book) ... [Guns Across the River] ... engagingly recounts a forgotten 1837 instance of American terrorism visited upon Canadians. ...... the events are compellingly told and Graves skillfully integrates their significance into the larger picture."
Richard Asam, Amazon.com Reviews, 25 September 2001