83rd Regiment at Fighting Island, Canada.

Officer of the 83rd Regiment.

In December 1838, the 83rd Regiment moved from Citadel Barracks, Quebec to Quebec Gate Barracks in Montreal, Lower Canada. The majority of the population of the Province of Lower Canada was French Canadian as the territory had been seized from the French following their defeat by General Wolfe in 1760. The area seethed with unrest and anti-British Americans constantly raided across the Canadian border to join with and support French Canadian rebels in attacking and looting Loyalist communities. These armed bands also murdered notable Loyalists, some of whom were French Canadians. The American 'Patriot' raiders aimed to drive the British out of all of North America. The 83rd had been engaged in many actions against rebels in Lower Canada and American raiders in Upper Canada too.

One such action took place in February 1838 when armed raiders, led by the self-styled 'General' McLeod,* seized Fighting Island on the Detroit River in Upper Canada. On 25 February, Lieutenant Kelsall of the 83rd Regiment led his company, supported by a company of the 32nd Regiment, to evict McLeod and his raiders from the Canadian island. His troops crossed the frozen river whereupon the enemy, leaving a field gun and a large number of new muskets, fled the island. Many of these new muskets were stamped as the property of the United States.

*
McLeod was reputed to be a former British Army sergeant and lately a schoolmaster.