Editing Battle of Windsor (section)

==Beginnings==
In December 1837, Thomas Jefferson Sutherland was commissioned by the rebellion leaders on [[Navy Island]] in the Niagara River to head to Detroit to raise a force there. After the Navy Island base was evacuated, other Patriots came to Detroit. Public meetings were held in Detroit and an invasion force was organized. Men came to Detroit from as far away as Illinois and Kentucky to join the movement.<ref>"[http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/52/bonthius.html The Patriot War of 1837–1838: Locofocoism With a Gun?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011033836/http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/52/bonthius.html |date=2008-10-11 }}", Andrew Bonthius, ''Labour/Le Travail'', No. 52, Fall 2003</ref> Concerned that they would seize the U.S. arsenal at Fort Gratiot, U.S. General [[Hugh Brady (general)|Hugh Brady]] ordered the weapons removed by boat. The steamship, however, became stuck in the ice at [[St. Clair, Michigan]], and the journey to Detroit had to be completed by wagon. On January 5, 1838, the Detroit jail was raided and the Patriots seized the 450 muskets which had been stored there to keep them away from the rebels. The rebels were reported to have later stolen another 200 weapons from the unsecured office of the U.S. marshal in Detroit, perhaps with his help.<ref name="Ross">''[https://books.google.com/books?id=8d8BAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22patriot+war%22+michigan+militia&pg=PP5 The Patriot War]'', Robert B. Ross, 1890, The Detroit Evening News and the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society</ref>