48 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
By the end of August, 1813, Joseph Willcocks had succeeded in 
enlisting about 120 refugees in the corps known as the Canadian Volun- 
teers, which during the next two months formed part of the American 
garrison of Fort George and was engaged in several affairs between the 
outposts. 
On leaving that post in November, General W. H. Harrison advised 
his successor, Brigadier-General McClure of the New York militia, “to 
make use of the zeal and activity which Colonel Willcocks certainly 
possesses to counteract the machinations of the enemy and ensure the 
confidence of our friends among the inhabitants.’’$ 
About the same time his command was considerably augmented 
by the arrival of a party from the Grand River under Mallory who was 
appointed second in command, with the rank of major. Some days later 
Willcocks led a reconnaissance of mounted men within sight of the 
British piquet line at Stoney Creek. A week after he again advanced 
as far as Grimsby, but was discovered and pursued so vigorously that 
his force was obliged to disperse to effect its escape. In the course of 
these raids he arrested several militia officers and other loyalists at their 
homes and carried them away as prisoners of war. On December 10 
a scouting party belonging to his corps was routed at the Ten Mile 
Creek, losing one man killed and four captured. Of the latter it was 
reported that one was tortured and killed by the Indians. 
It is not unlikely that exasperation over this check caused Will- 
cocks and his followers to take a remarkably active hand in setting fire 
to the town of Niagara that night. Lieut.-Colonel Chapin of the New 
York militia, who from a warm friend had become a bitter enemy, 
afterwards stated in a printed address to the public that:—“In the 
destruction of this town he (General McClure) was aided by the most 
active exertions of Joseph Wilcox, who had for a number of years 
resided in this pleasant village and had been patronised far beyond his 
merits; and at that time when it became his duty, as a man of justice 
and as a subject of His Majesty whom he had sworn to protect and 
defend, he like a cowardly sycophant deserted the cause of his country 
and actually led a banditti through the town, setting fire to his 
neighbors’ dwellings and cursing every American—applying the epithet 
of tory to every one who disapproved of that act of barbarity.’’! 
Two of Willcocks’ men were killed and several captured on the 
evacuation of Fort George and as his corps had become reduced by 
casualties to about sixty of all ranks, it was ordered to retire to Buffalo 
to recruit. “He (Willcocks) was among the last to leave the place,” 

3 Harrison to McClure, November 15, 1813. 
? Chapin, Address to the public, June 13, 1814. 
