The Royal Newfoundland Regiment

The Royal Newfoundland Regiment. . , In 1795, Captain Skinner founded the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in St. John's. By the summer of 1805 the regiment had grown to 683 men strong. , During the War of 18 12, detachments from the regiment were sent to Upper and Lower Canada where they served as sailors and marines on Lake Ontario, Lake Erie and the St. Lawrence River. Two companies were also sent to reinforce Fort Michilimackinac on Lake Huron. , In February of 1814, 6 officers and 130 men from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, accompanied by 11 artillerymen and a naval party of 21, marched overland with supplies from Kingston to York (Toronto), north to Holland Landing, across the ice on Lake Simcoe and along the Nine Mile Portage to Willow Depot where you are today. Once at Willow Depot, they felled trees and built 29 batteaux, which they then rowed along the Nottawasaga River and across Lake Huron to deliver supplies to the starving garrison at Fort Michilimackinac by May. Only one boat was lost on the treacherous 580 km trip across the ice-choked lake. , The regiment continued their military successes throughout the summer of 1814, repulsing an attack by American forces on Fort Michilimackinac with no losses in August and, working with Indigenous allies, capturing the American warships Tigress and Scorpion in September. , In June 1815, following the end of the war, the regiment began to return to St. John's; they were formally disbanded on June 24, 1816. , The Royal Newfoundland Regiment was raised again at the outset of World War I, and still exists today. , [photo caption] Reenactment of the Relief of Fort Michilimackinac, 1814