, which the regiment fought in The regiment was originally raised in Scotland in 1803, drawing its ranks from
Scottish Highlanders intending on emigrating to Canada. The unit was to see service only in British North America, however, misunderstandings regarding the terms of enlistment and rumours that the regiment would be sent to India caused the recruits to mutiny in Glasgow. In response, the men were all discharged in the fall of 1804. Subsequently, the commissioned officers and a skeleton crew of other ranks were sent to re-raise the regiment in the Canadas. Initially, the commissioned and non-commissioned officers were Scottish while the core of the regiment would be
French and
English-speaking
Canadians. Of the English-speaking Canadians who enlisted, many were the sons of Loyalists from the Thirteen Colonies, or were themselves
'late Loyalists' who had come more recently from the young United States. The regiment also had significant numbers of English-, Irish-, and German-born troops, most of whom had likely emigrated permanently in the years leading up to the outbreak of the war. Intriguingly, the regiment also had a
Baltic German drummer-boy born in
Riga in its ranks, and evidence from an honourable regimental discharge paper has suggested that there was also one soldier among them who had been born in
Finland. The Scottish roots of the regiment are evident in the regiment's coat of arms with a thistle. The regiment was reestablished in
Montreal in 1803, but did not begin recruitment until 1805. By the start of the War of 1812, the regiment's strength was at 600 men. The regiment was involved in several battles, including the
Battle of Châteauguay,
Battle of Crysler's Farm,
Battle of Lacolle Mills. The Canadian Regiment was disbanded in July and August 1816 at Kingston and Montreal. The Canadian
Fencibles first received significant modern attention when historian
John Prebble featured the regiment's 1804 mutiny in his 1975 book
Mutiny: Highland Regiments in Revolt. Canadian historian Robert Henderson also explored the history of the unit in a series of articles, several of which appeared in
Military Illustrated in 1991. More recently, Eamonn O'Keeffe has written about the regiment's fife and drum corps and band. In an article for
Canadian Military History, O'Keeffe also shed light on the inner workings of the regiment through analysis of the court martial of Canadian Fencibles Lieutenant John de Hertel, who was tried for assaulting a fellow officer in
Fort York's Blue Barracks in 1815. ==Perpetuations==