Guns Across the River

The story of the 1838 American invasion of Canada at Prescott by the "Patriot Hunters", a secret terrorist organization. This book explores the background of the political unrest in Canada and the rise of the "Patriot Hunters" on the American side of the border. One of the most ambitious expeditions was the attack in November 1838, when 250 members of the "Patriot Hunters", armed to the teeth, sailed down the St Lawrence River and landed near Prescott, Ontario, where they occupied a stone windmill. It took five days of bloody fighting by British regular troops and Canadian militia to crush this invasion and capture the invaders. The prisoners were taken to Fort Henry at Kingston, where there was a mass trial, resulting in 11 executions and 40 deportations to Australian penal colonies. It describes the comic-opera Hunter flotilla that sailed down the St Lawrence and gives a detailed, minute-by-minute reconstruction of the military action, told from both sides.