Battle of St-Charles

ARTICLE CONTENTS:  |  Links to Other Sites

St-Charles, Battle of
On the morning of 25 November 1837, 2 days after Francis GORE's defeat at the Battle of ST-DENIS and the retreat to Sorel, the troops of Colonel Wetherall (about 350 men) left St-Hilaire and marched on the camp at St-Charles, Manoir Debartzch and its surrounding entrenchments, S of the village. The camp was at that time defended by some 100 men of the parish of St-Charles and others. As they approached, the soldiers exchanged gunfire with small groups of combatants.

Wetherall deployed his men some distance from the fortifications, then ordered them to charge. The fight was violent and unequal (the defenders by then numbered no more than 60 or 80), caused several deaths, especially among the PATRIOTES, who could not prevent their barricades and the manor both being taken.

While retracing their steps to Montréal via Chambly, the troops had a skirmish on November 28 (Pointe-Olivier, St-Mathies), but the defeat of the patriotes at St-Charles had potentially given the army complete control of the Richelieu region.

See also REBELLIONS OF 1837.

Author JEAN-PAUL BERNARD


Links to Other Sites
Political Polarization
A historical overview of the political turmoil and military action that engulfed Lower and Upper Canada during the Rebellions of 1837 – 1838. Many illustrations and interesting historical minutiae.

0
Feature Articles
Toronto Maple Leafs 1967: The Last Stanley Cup

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ victory in the 1967 Stanley Cup was a singular event. Who would have predicted that it would not happen again?

INSIDE TCE

Gallery
Browse the rich visual resources of The Canadian Encyclopedia through thematic galleries of Canadian Art, History, Nature, People, and Science and Technology.
Interactive Resources
Illustrations, lively text, animations, sounds and games help make learning about Canadian history, art, geography, architecture and other topics entertaining as well as informative.
Canucklehead
The ultimate test of your knowledge of Canada, trivial and otherwise. You can choose from more than 60 dynamic quizzes with visual or text clues. Your scores depend on the speed with which you answer and the number of clues you need. Results are sent to you by email and high scores are posted on the site.
Timeline
This unique resource includes more than 6000 events from Canadian and world history. It can be searched by era, subject, keyword or date. To find out what happened on your birthday, select the month and day of your birth.
100 Greatest Events
This selection of the 100 "greatest" events in Canadian history was made by editor in chief James H. Marsh to draw attention to events that have left an indelible memory in the minds of later generations.