Some More On Joseph Willcocks-- Part 4: Commanded the Canadian Volunteers

By the end of August 1813, he had raised and was in command of a unit of expatriate Upper Canadians known as the Company of Canadian Volunteers.   Among his fellow officers were such prominent figures from the parliamentary  opposition in Upper Canada as Benajah Mallory and Abraham Markle.

Most of the unit's 120 members were from the constituencies the three men had represented.

For their part, the Americans valued Willcocks for his "zeal, activity and local knowledge."

In November and December 1813 1813, he led scouting and foraging parties to Stoney Creek and the Forty (Grimsby), aided in the burning of Niagara, and participated in the subsequent retreat to Buffalo, New York.

"Surpassed by none in enterprise and barvery," Willcocks commanded his volunteers at Fort George (Niagara-on-the-Lake) and Fort Erie until on 4 September 1814, he "received a mortal wound by a shot through the right breast" at Fort Erie.

--Brock-Perry