Demobilization
New Preparations
Hasty Military Build Up in Canada
Caption: Volunteers, Québec Light Infantry, 1837-1838
In Canada, as in London, the authorities were shaken by these two insurrections. With navigation on the St. Lawrence blocked by ice when they broke out, the 34th, 43rd and 85th regiments stationed in New Brunswick were sent to Quebec City through the woods in the middle of winter. But as soon as navigation became possible again, ships full of British soldiers arrived at Quebec. In mid-1838 there were more than 10,000 British soldiers in garrison in the two colonies, four times the number the previous year. But the increase was more spectacular still in the corps of volunteers created and raised in Canada itself. Approximately 6,200 volunteers, on foot and mounted, were mobilized for six months of service in Lower Canada, and some 3,500 volunteers throughout Upper Canada had been equipped with weapons.
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