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.

[1] They based groups in Michigan at Fort Gratiot (present Port Huron), Mount Clemens, Detroit, and Gibraltar.

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.

[2] Concerned that they would seize the U.S. arsenal at Fort Gratiot, U.S. General Hugh Brady ordered the weapons removed by boat.

Mason met with the Patriot leaders at Gibraltar, but the captured steamship Ann continued on to near Fort Malden on the Canadian shore.

The ship drifted until it ran aground, at which point the Canadian militia boarded it, encountered no resistance and captured the Patriot crew.

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.

This reply led General Brady to order a line of red flags to be placed in the ice on the river marking the border.

The Hunter Lodge at Port Huron with its Sarnia counterparts across the river planned an invasion at the beginning of December, but reinforcements from Detroit did not arrive.

British officials in Canada became aware of the plot and deployed troops and artillery along that section of the border, ending the plan.

Throughout November, some 300 Ohio and Pennsylvania Patriots assembled at a field south of the city of Detroit, joining a couple hundred locals and Canadians.

On December 4, 1838, at 2 am, the Patriots crossed the Detroit River into Canada on a captured steamboat, the Champlain, and engaged in an unsuccessful battle at Windsor where the Patriots set the British barracks on fire, burned the steamer Thames and several houses, and killed four militiamen before taking positions at the Baby farm, which contained a large orchard.

At about 7 am, a 60-man company of Canadian militia commanded by Arthur Rankin from Sandwich repelled the invasion before the regulars arrived and captured several Patriots.

At 1:30 pm, a company of British regulars from the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot with a six-pound cannon and 20 mounted Aboriginals arrived at Sandwich and continued north to Windsor.

In 1966, the Archaeological and Historic Sites Board of Ontario erected a Provincial Military plaque on the grounds of the Hiram Walker Historical Museum: The Battle of Windsor 1838 - Early on December 4, 1838, a force of about 140 American and Canadian supporters of William Lyon Mackenzie crossed the river from Detroit and landed about one mile east of here.

No censure occurred there either as the Duke of Wellington steered the discussion away from Prince to the general topic of the need to use regular troops to defend Canada from American invasion.

Joshua Doan of Sparta, Upper Canada, was among the several dozen Hunter Patriots captured in Windsor, and he was later hanged for treason.