The Coloured Corps

The Coloured Corps


Sometimes known as "Runchey's Coloured Corps" for its first commander, this militia unit was one of many which formed in Upper Canada in the wake of the American declaration of war on June 18, 1812. However, unlike its all of its counterparts, the Coloured Corps was composed entirely of black Upper Canadians, with the exception of its officers, as people of colour were generally barred from holding commissions in the British Army. Throughout its service, the Coloured Corps saw some of the harshest fighting in the War of 1812, but also had its experiences tainted by discriminatory treatment due to racial prejudice.



Militiaman, 1812 by G. Dittrick © Parks Canada.
 


 


 


 

Formation and early experiences

The notion of a militia unit composed entirely of men of colour had predated the outbreak of war, with prominent local black resident, former slave, and veteran of the Butler's Rangers Richard Pierpoint petitioning Isaac Brock for such a cadre a few months prior to the declaration of war in June. This request was rejected, however as the American threat came to quickly loom over Niagara, British administrators reconsidered the notion, and in late August, an all-black corps was established within the 1st Lincoln Militia at Fort George. The unit numbered 38 men in the Autumn of 1812, including a transfer of militiamen from the 3rd York Militia in October. Command of the corps was given to Captain Robert Runchey, a white militia officer, British Army veteran, and tavern keeper from modern-day Grimsby, while the corps' conceptual creator, Richard Pierpoint, remained a private. Runchey was known to rent out his men as labourers and domestic servants, much to the ire of the men, who found themselves demeaned in a manner which would have been unimaginable for a white militiaman.

The corps first saw action at the Battle of Queenston heights on October 13, 1812. Initially remaining at Fort George to guard against an American attack which never materialized. Furthermore, Captain Runchey, who had a reputation as a malcontent and ineffectual commander, was nowhere to be found, and command of the unit passed to Lieutenant James Cooper of the 2nd Lincoln Militia. Under Cooper's command, the unit marched to Queenston, arriving after Major-General Brock had been killed. Taking up a position alongside John Norton's Six Nations warriors on the western flank fo the British force, the Coloured Corps engaged in harassing fire and skirmishes with American pickets as the British forces advanced up the heights. Joining the British battle line, the corps took part in the firing of a volley at the American army of Major-General Stephen Van Rensselaer, which duly surrendered after being charged by British bayonets. The corps acquitted itself well in the battle, gaining the notice of several officers present at the battle, particularly for its ferocity in the culminating bayonet charge, a maneuver typically performed by hardened regulars, not provincial volunteers.

Following the victory at Queenston Heights, the Coloured Corps returned to Fort George for the winter, during which time it lost its first man to disease. During this period after the battle, Runchey was finally replaced by Lieutenant George Fowler, who oversaw the training of the unit with the aid of a British regular sergeant throughout the winter months.




The death of General Brock at the Battle of Queenston Heights by John David Kelly, 1896. This was the Corps' first engagement.
 


 


 


 

Defeat, retreat, and stalemate

Passing winter at Fort George, the coloured corps participated in the defence of Fort George on May 29, 1813. Fighting at the farm of Militia Captain James Crooks on the northern shore of Lake Ontario (present-day Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Course and Fort Mississauga) to repel the amphibious American assault, resisting two concentrated attacks of a superior American force before a third wave of attack proved too potent. The coloured corps took at least one fatal casualty in the engagement before withdrawing to Burlington heights with the rest of the British right division under the command of Major-General John Vincent. Suffering poor conditions at the encampment in Burlington, the coloured corps remained behind at camp while the bulk of the British force counterattacked the American invading army at Stoney Creek on June 6, 1813.

What followed the halt of the American advance was months of protracted low-level skirmishes and engagements, typically unplanned affairs which resulted from patrols and pickets of opposing armies accidentally running into one another, as well as minor raids to disrupt enemy operations. On July 11, a new. commanding officer, Lieutenant James Robertson, was assigned to the Corps to replace Fowler. Throughout the summer and autumn of 1813, the Coloured Corps suffered desertion and attrition to disease, and was greatly reduced in capacity by the time that the American forces withdrew from Fort George in December.


Transfer to Labour Duties

By late 1813, the Coloured Corps was reduced to less than 25 men, making its future as a combat unit untenable. At the same time, a shortage of artificers (construction units) plagued Niagara - militiamen were loathe to volunteer for work that was seen as menial and below their status as citizen-soldiers. The Coloured Corps, in its state of reduced combat effectiveness, was transferred to serve under the Royal Engineering officers in Newark in February of 1814. For the remainder of the war, the Coloured Corps would serve as a construction-labour unit and not see any more combat. The officer who ordered the transfer of the corps to its capacity as a support unit, Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Bruyères of the Royal Engineers, did not mention race in his decision to transfer the Coloured Corps to work under his officers, and his death in May of 1814 prevented his motivations from being known. However, the British Army widely used black soldiers as labourers, raising entire construction regiments from the black inhabitants of the West Indies in the Napoleonic era.

The unit was tasked with improving the fortification at the mouth of the Niagara River in March of 1814, including the captured Fort Niagara and the reconstituted Fort George. When Fort Mississauga was planned in 1814 to replace Fort George, the Coloured Corps was despatched to the battlefield where a year prior they had repelled two American assaults in the Battle of Fort George. Their work on Fort Mississauga would see the central tower begun and earthworks erected. As American Commodore Isaac Chauncey's formidable Lake Ontario squadron held superiority on the lake, the completion of land defences such as Fort Mississauga were essential in deterring American landings and raids, which were attempted later in 1814. Even during the Siege of Fort Erie, when engineers were badly needed to construct earthen defences, the Coloured Corps remained at Fort Mississauga, which was needed to secure the British position in Niagara. The unit was retained by the Royal Engineers for the remainder of the war, from whom they received a number of commendations.

The Postwar Era and Commemoration

Following the end of the war in 1815, the men of the Coloured Corps who had not deserted or been killed would return to their lives in Niagara and York. Having been promised land entitlements for their service like all militiamen, the Coloured Corps veterans were dismayed to discover that the colonial government only granted one hundred acres of land to the black soldiers, whereas white militiamen received double that. Many of the land grants were also a great distance from the mens' homes in Niagara, forcing them to choose where they would live. In 1821 Richard Pierpoint, who had been born in modern-day Senegal in West Africa and was at that point in his late 70s, petitioned the Lieutenant-Governor to be transported to his homeland by the British government. His request was rejected, despite his exemplary service in both the American Revolution and War of 1812. Most of the other veterans eked out subsistence lifestyles on the difficult plots of land which they had been granted for the purpose of agriculture.

On Victoria Day of 1902, a monument in Toronto was dedicated to those Canadian and British units which fought in the War of 1812. The monument is typical of the heady patriotic society in which it was created, however this national pride did not extend beyond the social confines of skin colour. At the very bottom of one of the bronze plaques which adorn each of the monuments sides, there is a dedication to "Coloured Corps & Indians," as if an afterthought in remembering the War of 1812. While the Coloured Corps never numbered more than 40 men and its battlefield contributions were not of particular significance, the unit's work in beginning the construction of Fort Mississauga, which would go on assert Canadian sovereignty and serve as an integral part of Camp Niagara in the First and Second World Wars. Perhaps more significantly, the Coloured Corps laid the foundation for the inclusion of black Canadians within the military.

Recently, a Heritage minute has been produced on Richard Pierpoint's life as an early loyalist and his role in the Coloured Corp's formation. Further scholarship on the Coloured Corps has proliferated in recent years, sponsored by federal agencies and heritage associations.


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