01/17/2026
The “Hunters” become the hunted: The 1838 U.S. invasion of Canada.
The Battle of the Windmill National Historic Site is located an hour’s drive from Ottawa. It’s where, in 1838, some 250-armed American invaders (hunters) rode the momentum force of manifest destiny northward, only to meet a violent end at the hands of British regulars troops and Canadian militia.
At 18 metres high, the windmill tower stands like a sentry over the St. Lawrence River. It’s an impressive structure for the time it was built (1832) and, notwithstanding its conversion to a lighthouse in 1872, its base appears much the same now as it did in 1838.
The battle itself is overshadowed by the War of 1812 and geographically by nearby Fort Wellington.
The question is, why would hundreds of Americans pick up their rifles, cross an international border and invade a country that they were not at war with?
The American raiders, Hunters as they called themselves, had originally planned on seizing Fort Wellington, 2.5 kilometres away, to use as a base to liberate Canada. The landing, however, was botched and they arrived at Windmill Point instead.
At the time of the battle, there was a large stone tavern and several dwellings creating an outer perimeter around the tower. With walls a metre thick that were largely impervious to small cannon fire, the stone stronghold wasn’t such a bad plan B for the would-be liberators.
Its windows provide sightlines in all directions. From its upper floors, American snipers had unobstructed views of the battlefield and would have been able to see every British move as it happened. At the outset, this served the Hunters well.
On November 12th, 1838, the Hunters entrenched themselves, the next morning, British infantry and militia units attacked but they were thrown back.
Sources from the battle show the Queen’s professional soldiers had to restrain the Canadian militia when American prisoners were taken. If there was any sympathy for the Hunters, or pirates as they were often called on this side of the border, it wasn’t present during or after the battle.
For four days the martial contest played out in front of American spectators and sympathisers who had come to watch the battle. They were close enough to hear the thunder of cannons, muffled shouts and cracking muskets, but not close enough to see the brutal reality of war.
During the first day of the raid, small American boats brought supplies and reinforcements, including cannons, to the docks at Windmill Point. By the second day, this supply line over the St. Lawrence had been severed with the arrival of British and American naval vessels, as well as the presence of American regulars in Ogdensburg who were tasked with upholding U.S. President Martin Van Buren’s official policy of neutrality.
With resupply across the river blocked, the Hunters, who had been intended to be the vanguard of a much larger force, found themselves trapped in a hostile land.
The surge of Canadian volunteers anxious to join the American cause amounted to nothing more than lies.
The Hunters, now ironically the hunted, were surrounded and forsaken. Their salvation on the American shore may well have been 100 miles distant for all the good of its proximity.
The siege ground along for a few more days, while British reinforcements swelled the ranks of its forces to 2,000 men.
On November.16th an attack pushed the Hunters from the outlying buildings, some of which were torched, and into the tower and shoreline.
All the while, the windmill was bombarded from land and water. Casualties mounted. Finally, a white flag of surrender appeared from one of the windows, and the invading American force withdrew in defeat.
