The Battle of Windsor was a short-lived campaign in the eastern Michigan area of the United States and the Windsor area of Upper Canada. A group of men on both sides of the border, calling themselves "Patriots", formed small militias in 1837 with the intention of seizing the Southern Ontario peninsula between the Detroit and Niagara Rivers and extending American-style government to Canada. They based groups in Michigan at Fort Gratiot (present Port Huron), Mount Clemens, Detroit, and Gibraltar. The Patriots were defeated by British and American government forces, respectively.
Beginnings
In December 1837, Thomas Jefferson Sutherland was commissioned by the rebellion leaders on Navy Island in the Niagara River to head to Detroit to raise a force there. After the Navy Island base was evacuated, other Patriots came to Detroit. Public meetings were held in Detroit and an invasion force was organized. Men came to Detroit from as far away as Illinois and Kentucky to join the movement.<ref>"The Patriot War of 1837–1838: Locofocoism With a Gun? ", Andrew Bonthius, Labour/Le Travail, No. 52, Fall 2003</ref> Concerned that they would seize the U.S. arsenal at Fort Gratiot, U.S. General Hugh Brady ordered the weapons removed by boat. The steamship, however, became stuck in the ice at St. Clair, Michigan, and the journey to Detroit had to be completed by wagon. On January 5, 1838, the Detroit jail was raided and the Patriots seized the 450 muskets which had been stored there to keep them away from the rebels. The rebels were reported to have later stolen another 200 weapons from the unsecured office of the U.S. marshal in Detroit, perhaps with his help.
Schooner Ann
The schooner Ann was seized by the Patriots on January 8 and sailed to Gibraltar, Michigan. The governor of Michigan, Stevens T. Mason, along with a detachment of 200 militiamen, pursued them in two steamships. A hundred Canadian militia also followed in the steamer Alliance. Mason met with the Patriot leaders at Gibraltar, but the captured steamship Ann continued on to near Fort Malden on the Canadian shore. On January 9, the Patriots began shelling Malden and the town of Amherstburg from the Ann. The Canadian militia took up positions in the town while the Patriots moved 300 men onto the Canadian Bois Blanc Island opposite the town. The Canadian militia opened fire on the schooner when it tried to reach the island. The Canadians shot several of the ship crew and damaged the sails and rigging. The ship drifted until it ran aground, at which point the Canadian militia boarded it, encountered no resistance and captured the Patriot crew. The remaining Patriot forces quit Bois Blanc for the safety of the American side of the river. Several of the Patriots were wounded, a few killed, and the Canadians captured 300 muskets, two cannon, 10 kegs of gunpowder and various accoutrements.
After losing the Ann, the Patriots stole another ship, the steamer Little Erie. The head of the Detroit militia, himself, tried to prevent the boat leaving at swordpoint and the U.S. marshal's force was reported to have fired into the air, but the local crowd supported the Patriot movement and the boat was taken to Gibraltar. On January 27, three companies of U.S. troops arrived from Buffalo aboard the steamer Robert Fulton to help calm the area. Governor Mason met with the Patriots at Gibraltar on February 12, again to no avail. In fact, that same day, Patriots raided the U.S. arsenal in Dearborn, Michigan, stealing hundreds of weapons. This group of weapons was soon recovered, having been hidden near a tavern in Detroit.
Fighting Island and Pelee Island
On February 24, 1838, a group of Patriots began assembling on Fighting Island on the Canadian side of the Detroit River. Supplies were ferried over from Detroit and some 400 Patriots from Cleveland joined the Detroit area men. The larger force of 600 Cleveland men occupied Pelee Island at the same time. It was reported that the Patriots had only 50 muskets and one dismounted cannon among them on the island. The U.S. general informed his British counterpart of the assembly, announcing that he would wait for the Patriots to break up and arrest them upon their return for violation of American neutrality laws. The British commandant replied that he would attack the Patriot camp and pursue them into the United States. This reply led General Brady to order a line of red flags to be placed in the ice on the river marking the border. He deployed his men with orders to shoot any British soldiers passing the line.