|
Captain Runchey's Company of Coloured Men was a militia company of free negroes and indentured negro servants, raised in Upper Canada, which fought for the British during the early part of the Anglo-American War of 1812. In 1813, the company was transformed into a unit of the Provincial Corps of Artificers and attached to the Royal Sappers and Miners. It served on the Niagara front during the war, and was disbanded a few months after the war ended. The unit's history and heritage is perpetuated in the modern Canadian Army by the Lincoln and Welland Regiment. ==Origin== 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. Brock initially turned down Pierpoint's request as it was considered unnecessary. 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. He set in motion the very plan that Pierpoint had suggested a month before.〔Meylers, ''A Stolen Life'', p.83〕 In August 1812, Captain Robert Runchey, a tavern owner in Lincoln and formerly an officer in the 2nd Flank Company of the 1st Lincoln Regiment of Militia,〔 was assigned to form the militia corps that Pierpoint had proposed. 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. Referring to Runchey, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Clench of the 1st Lincoln called him a "black sheep in our Regiment, and with whom the Officers I believe would gladly part".〔Pitt, ''To Stand and Fight Together'', p.74〕 Runchey's son George, who was formerly a sergeant in the 1st Lincoln, would become the Coloured Corps' Lieutenant.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】) RUNCHEY, RUSH, ROBERTS, JOHNSON, BURLEY">url = http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CAN-ONT-BRANT/2000-05/0958354961 )〕 Men volunteered very quickly. The number who came forward varies depending on the source: 76,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.archive.org/stream/officersbrit00irvirich/officersbrit00irvirich_djvu.txt )〕 50,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://web.archive.org/web/20130208224512/http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/on/fortgeorge/edu/edua.aspx )〕 about 35〔Meylers, ''A Stolen Life'', p.85〕 or more than 30.〔 Other men transferred from other units, such as 14 men including a sergeant, William Thompson, from the 3rd York Militia in October.〔 Pierpoint himself signed up as a private even though he was 68 years old at the time. It also may have been that Pierpoint expected that such a unit as the Coloured Corps would help facilitate greater military responsibility and opportunities for blacks. However, black settlers would never be commissioned, and would rise at most to be non-commissioned officers (sergeants and corporals). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Captain Runchey's Company of Coloured Men」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|