The first two or three days were spent in hastening the arrival of reinforcements and in gathering arms. By the 7th Nelson had collected a force of about twenty-five hundred men, whom Hindenlang told off in companies and divisions. Most of the rebels were armed with pitchforks and pikes. An attempt had been made two days earlier, on a Sunday, to obtain arms, ammunition, and stores from the houses of the Indians of Caughnawaga while they were at church; but a squaw in search of her cow had discovered the raiders and had given the alarm, with the result that the Indians, seizing muskets and tomahawks, had repelled the attack and taken seventy prisoners.
On November 5 Nelson sent Côté with a force of four or five hundred men south to Rouse's Point, on the boundary-line, to secure more arms and ammunition from the American sympathizers. On his way south Côté encountered a picket of a company of loyalist volunteers stationed at Lacolle, and drove it in. On his return journey, however, he met with greater opposition. The company at Lacolle had been reinforced in the meantime by several companies of loyalist militia from Hemmingford. As the rebels appeared the loyalist militia attacked them; and after a brisk skirmish, which lasted from twenty to twenty-five minutes, drove them from the field. Without further ado the rebels fled across the border, leaving behind them eleven dead and a number of prisoners, as well as a six-pounder gun, a large number of muskets of the type used in the United States army, a keg of powder, a quantity of ball-cartridge, and a great many pikes. Of the provincial troops two were killed and one was severely wounded.
The defeat of Côté and his men at Lacolle meant that Nelson's line of communications with his base on the American frontier was cut. At the same time he received word that Sir John Colborne was advancing on Napierville from Laprairie with a strong force of regulars and volunteers. Under these circumstances he determined to fall back on Odelltown, just north of the border. He had with him about a thousand men, eight hundred of whom were armed with muskets. He arrived at Odelltown on the morning of November 9, to find it occupied by about two hundred loyal militia, under the command of the inspecting field-officer of the district, Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor. He had no difficulty in driving in the loyalist outposts; but the village itself proved a harder nut to crack. Taylor had concentrated his little force at the Methodist church, and he controlled the road leading to it by means of the six-pounder which had been taken from the rebels three days before at Lacolle. The insurgents extended through the fields to the right and left, and opened a vigorous fire on the church from behind some barns; but many of the men seem to have kept out of range. 'The greater part of the Canadians kept out of shot,' wrote Hindenlang; 'threw themselves on their knees, with their faces buried in the snow, praying to God, and remaining as motionless as if they were so many saints, hewn in stone. Many remained in that posture as long as the fighting lasted.' The truth appears to be that many of Nelson's men had been intimidated into joining the rebel force. The engagement lasted in all about two hours and a half. The defenders of the church made several successful sallies; and just when the rebels were beginning to lose heart, a company of loyalists from across the Richelieu fell on their flank and completed their discomfiture. The rebels then retreated to Napierville, under the command of Hindenlang. Robert Nelson, seeing that the day was lost, left his men in the lurch and rode for the American border. The losses of the rebels were serious; they left fifty dead on the field and carried off as many wounded. Of the loyalists, one officer and five men were killed and one officer and eight men wounded.
Later in the same day Sir John Colborne, at the head of a formidable force, entered Napierville. On his approach those rebels who were still in the village dispersed and fled to their homes. Detachments of troops were immediately sent out to disperse bands of rebels reported to be still under arms. The only encounter took place at Beauharnois, where a large body of insurgents had assembled. After a slight resistance they were driven out by two battalions of Glengarry volunteers, supported by two companies of the 71st and a detachment of Royal Engineers.
In these expeditions the British soldiers, especially the volunteers, did a good deal of burning and harrying. After the victory at Beauharnois they gave to the flames a large part of the village, including the houses of some loyal citizens. In view of the intimidation and depredations to which the loyalists had been subjected by the rebels in the disaffected districts, the conduct of the men, in these regrettable acts, may be understood and partially excused. But no excuse can be offered for the attitude of the British authorities. There are well-authenticated cases of houses of 'notorious rebels' burned down by the orders of Sir James Macdonell, Colborne's second-in-command. Colborne himself acquired the nickname of 'the old Firebrand'; and, while he cannot be charged with such a mania for incendiarism as some writers have imputed to him, it does not appear that he took any effective measures to stop the arson or to punish the offenders.
The rebellion of 1838 lasted scarcely a week. It was a venture criminally hopeless. Failing important aid from the United States, the rebels had an even slighter chance of success than they had had a year before, for since that time the British regular troops in Canada had been considerably increased in number. The chief responsibility for the rebellion must be placed at the door of Robert Nelson, who at the critical moment fled over the border, leaving his dupes to extricate themselves as best they could from the situation into which he had led them. As was the case in 1837, most of the leaders of the rebellion escaped from justice, leaving only the smaller fry in the hands of the authorities. Of the lesser ringleaders nearly one hundred were brought to trial. Two of the French-Canadian judges, one of them being Elzéar Bédard, attempted to force the government to try the prisoners in the civil courts, where they would have the benefit of trial by jury; but Sir John Colborne suspended these judges from their functions, and brought the prisoners before a court-martial, specially convened for the purpose. Twelve of them, including the French officer Hindenlang, were condemned to death and duly executed. Most of the others were transported to the convict settlements of Australia. It is worthy of remark that none of those executed or deported had been persons of note in the political arena before 1837. On the whole, it must be confessed that these sentences showed a commendable moderation. It was thought necessary that a few examples should be made, as Lord Durham's amnesty of the previous year had evidently encouraged some habitants to believe that rebellion was a venial offence. And the execution of twelve men, out of the thousands who had taken part in the revolt, cannot be said to have shown a bloodthirsty disposition on the part of the government.