The company was formed at the instigation of a black settler in Upper Canada, Richard Pierpoint, who had served as part of Butler's Rangers during the American Revolutionary War.

On the outbreak of the War of 1812, he petitioned Major-General Isaac Brock, commanding the British Forces in Upper Canada, to form a militia corps from black settlers in the Niagara Peninsula.

However, by July, Brock was desperate for volunteer troops, who at that point were not coming forward from among the white population, causing him to reconsider the offer.

The loss to the Lincoln Militia of Robert Runchey was not considered a great blow as he was held in low esteem by fellow officers.

They were placed to the left of the main body of troops (consisting of the 41st and 49th Regiments of Foot) and to the right of John Norton's Grand River Warriors,[9] a positioning that suggests that the Coloured Corps was considered to be light infantry.

While this might have appeared to be a backward step, the scarcity of the sundry skills required of Artificers meant that they were paid two to four times as much as they would have been as private soldiers.

[18] The Coloured Corps retreated with the rest of the army commanded by Brigadier-General John Vincent along the Iroquois Trail to Head of the Lake by way of Queenston, Beaver Dams, DeCew House, the Forty and Stoney Creek before setting up camp at Burlington Heights four days later.

On 16 June 1813, three members of the Coloured Corps are listed as casualties in an action on that day[21] (probably at Sugar Loaf near present-day Port Colborne) when Buffalo surgeon-turned-raider Major Cyrenius Chapin led his force of irregular New York Mounted Militia on a raid to interfere with British lines.

The three are again listed as having deserted but given the improvement in British fortunes since the debacle at Fort George, this seems even less likely and it is more probable that the captured men were taken back into a captive life.

[22] Like most units of Upper Canadian militia, Captain Runchey's Company wore ordinary civilian clothes with a white armband to show their allegiance and service.