Canadian Regiment, Second

CANADIAN REGIMENT, SECOND. Massachusetts-born Moses Hazen was an effective and brutal captain of rangers during the final French and Indian war (1759–1760), after which he settled in Montreal. Not immediately pro-American at the outset of the Canada invasion, he soon chose the American side and, after serving at the siege of Quebec city, was sent to Philadelphia to persuade Congress to reinforce the American army in Canada. Congress commissioned him as a colonel of the Second Canadian Regiment on 22 January 1776, and sent him back to Canada to recruit his regiment. The regiment, recruited first in Quebec and, after the American retreat, among Canadian refugees at Albany and Fishkill, New York, was organized on a unique scheme of four-battalions with five-companies-per-battalion scheme that echoed French practice. It fought at Staten Island, Brandywine, Germantown, and Yorktown, and earned a reputation for its staunch fighting qualities. Created by Congress independent of any state regimental line, and thereby deprived of any state's support, the regiment was nicknamed "Congress's Own" and "Hazen's Own." It absorbed James Livingston's small First Canadian Regiment in early 1781 and remained in service until the men were furloughed in June 1783. The regiment was formally disbanded in November 1783.

SEE ALSO Canada Invasion; Canadian Regiment (First); Hazen, Moses.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wright, Robert K. Jr. The Continental Army (Army Lineage Series). Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History, 1983.

                            revised by Harold E. Selesky