In the Northern Department, Johnson's King's Royal Regiment
of New York, Butler's Rangers, Jessup's Loyal Rangers and
McLean's Royal Highland Emigrants 84th Regiment),were raised
from among the Loyalists of the northern frontier.The troops
of the Northern Department were stationed at posts from Sorel
east of Montreal, to Fort Michilimackinac. They fought in
General Burgoyne's campaign that ended at Saratoga and led
many excursions into the Mohawk Valley of New York Province.
In most of these forays they were joined by Iroquois Indians
led by such chiefs as Joseph Brant and John Deserontyn.

During the hostilities, Loyalists had left the colonies for
England, Florida, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Nova Scotia and
Quebec.It is estimated that 100,000 American colonists,loyal
to the Crown, were driven into exile by persecution,
confiscation of their properties and threats upon their
lives.

At the end of the war, Sir Guy Carleton, later Lord
Dorchester, was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British
forces and was responsible for the evacuation of the troops
and Loyalists remaining in New York City. Approximately
35,000 Loyalist troops and civilian Loyalists,'Incorporated'
or 'Associated' into groups,were transported to Nova Scotia
by ship. The influx of disbanded troops and Loyalists into
the St. John River valley brought demands for their own
government. In 1784, the 'Loyalist' Province of New Brunswick
was separated from Nova Scotia and Thomas Carleton, brother
of Sir Guy Carleton, was appointed Governor.

In the spring of 1784, 6,000 of the 10,000 disbanded troops
and Loyalists who had gathered in Quebec, were settled in
townships along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River,
west of Montreal, and around the Bay of Quinte. Some 900
'Associated' Loyalists, the Van Alstyne and Grass groups,
who were taken by ship from New York City to Quebec where
they wintered at Sorel,were settled at Adolphustown and
Kingston. Butler's Rangers, stationed at Fort Niagara, had
settled some Loyalists across the Niagara River in what
later became Ontario as early as 1781, and when disbanded
in 1784, settled mainly in the Niagara Peninsula and along
the north shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

Transportation, provisioning, and settlement of the
disbanded troops and civilian Loyalists was conducted by
the military establishment. The method of raising troops
and assembling the civilian groups had brought together
neighbours, friends, and relatives who were later settled
together for their mutual benefit.

On the 9th of November 1789, in Council at Quebec City,
Lord Dorchester, Governor-in-Chief of British America, gave
particular recognition to the 'First Loyalists' by
differentiating them from other Loyalists and settlers,
i.e. 'Late' Loyalists,'Treasury' Loyalists, 'Simcoe'
Loyalists, and from regular British and German soldiers who
were considered to be 'Military Claimants'. The 'Dorchester
Resolution proved by the Council-Defined the 'U.E. Loyalists'
as those "who had adhered to the United of the Empire, and
joined the Royal Standard in America before the Treaty of
Separation in the year 1783".

"Put a mark of Honor upon the
Families" of the U.E.
Loyalists.

Approved the granting by the Land Boards of 200 acres of
land (without fees) to the sons and daughters of the U.E.
Loyalists.

Accompanying the resolution to London to be laid before
the King, was attached a "Form of Militia Roll for the
Western Districts to discriminate the Families before
mentioned"which included the following heading:
"N.B. Those Loyalists who had adhered to the Unity of the
Empire, and Joined the Royal Standard [in America]before
the Treaty of Separation in the year 1783, and all their
Children and their descendants by either sex, are to be
distinguished by the following Capitals, affixed to their
names: U.E. Alluding to their great principle The Unity of
the Empire."

In the covering letter, Lord Dorchester explained: "Care
has been taken to reward the spirit of loyalty and industry,
to extend and transmit it to future generations…".

The Loyalists in the newly settled western part of Quebec
were not satisfied to be governed by the terms of the Quebec
Act of 1774. Their petitions for English civil law,freehold
tenure of land and elected assembly brought about the
separation of the Old Province of Quebec into Lower and
Upper Canada in 1791, with John Graves Simcoe, former
colonel of the Queen's Rangers (1st American Regiment), as
Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, now Ontario. From 1783
to 1812, the U.E. Loyalists of Upper Canada were joined by
many U.E. Loyalists from the Maritime provinces; by 'late'
Loyalists who may have supported the Crown but who were not
within the British lines until after 1783; and those who
came to swear allegiance to the Crown to escape what one
settler termed the "Chaos, Taxes and Anarchy" of the new
republic.

When the United States declared war on Great Britain in
1812, Upper Canada had a population of nearly 100,000,four-
fifths of whom were American-born. The Upper Canada Militia
and Indians who joined the British regular troops to resist
the invasion were defending their homes and farms, as had
their fathers and grandfathers in the American Revolution.
Their success in turning back the invaders who would have
severed the eastern provinces from the future western
provinces ensured the development of Canada as a nation.