ABSTRACT
This chapter examines regular army officers' attitudes towards and relations with American and Canadian filibusters, American civilians, civilian authorities and the militia, and Canada and its inhabitants. An American citizen was killed in the raid, and American public opinion along the border erupted in anger and fear. United States Army officers seemed reluctant to think the Canadian population sympathetic to filibustering Patriots. The army was frustrated by the inaction of local civil officials, who like the local populace frequently supported the Patriot cause; but military commanders successfully maintained federal authority and contained incidents that might otherwise have led to war with Britain. By 1839 William Worth felt certain that the pervasiveness of Patriot sympathies had rendered the militia useless, and he feared that a call to arms in March was driven by Patriot supporters who hoped to precipitate clashes with the British.
