Document Record

Creator

Lower Canada. Adjutant General's Office.

Title

Adjutant General's Office, Lower Canada : registers of officers

Identifier

lac_mikan_133522
185977
RG 9 I A 5
R1023-10-1-E
R1023-10-1-F
Government
Military
oocihm.lac_mikan_133522

Document source

Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada

Language

English

Description

The first Militia Act for the united Province of Canada, passed in 1846, altered little the existing structures and formations in the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. While there was a single Adjutant General of Militia, the Adjutant could call upon the assistance of the Deputy Adjutants General in Lower Canada and Upper Canada (the old provincial names were retained within the militia). The act gave them the power to issue Militia General Orders, to grant commissions, as well as the responsibility for the organization, training, management and discipline of the militia. They, and their small staffs, were the only full-time officers. The office was vacant for lengthy periods and the Deputy Adjutants General looked after matters in their respective halves of the Province. The Militia Act of 1855 permitted the formation of an Active Militia. The 5,000 volunteers were armed, equipped and paid 5 shillings a day for 10 days of training a year (20 days for those in the artillery). Captains were paid 10 shillings 6 pence a day. Initially set at 5,000 men, the Act's popularity forced the government to double its size to 10,000 men by 1856. Trained at the expense of taxpayers, the men had to provide their own uniforms.
This collection consists of registers containing lists of officers of the militia of Lower Canada. It includes lists of officers arranged by battalion, lists of officers arranged by rank and seniority, and lists of dismissed officers.

URL

https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_133522