After the British army and loyal militia crushed the first armed revolt in Upper and Lower Canada in 1837, many rebels fled to the United States and joined American sympathizers in the secret paramilitary Hunter’s Lodge. In November 1838, a group of Hunters planned to invade Canada at Prescott, expecting local people to join them in liberating the country from British control. Early on November 12, 1838, 190 Hunters, most of them Americans, landed at Windmill Point, but the local population did not rally to their side. By November 13, more than 2,000 local militiamen and British soldiers had surrounded the rebel position and, after a bitter and bloody skirmish, drove the rebels into the windmill and nearby stone buildings, which they could not assault without large cannons. November 14 and 15 passed without major action as the Hunters waited for help from the United States that never came and the British awaited artillery reinforcements. On November 16, British gunboats patrolled the river while field guns arrived by land, and in the afternoon the rebels were bombarded for two hours. Running low on ammunition, food, and water, lacking medical supplies for the wounded, and exhausted of both resources and hope by nightfall, the Hunters surrendered unconditionally. Twenty rebels were killed and another 20 wounded, while 15 soldiers were killed and 55 wounded. The captured rebels were tried, with eleven hanged, 60 deported to Australia, and the rest released. The rebellion expressed deep dissatisfaction, profoundly transformed political life in Canada, forced the British to review how they administered the country, and thirty years later Confederation was born.