Named to: Gr. H. Serviss Iroquois G.A.
Approximately 47 Canada General Service Medals awarded to the Iroquois Garrison Artillery.
The Volunteer Militia Foot Artillery Company of Iroquois was originally raised on May 8, 1862, following the Trent Affair war scare with the United States. Formed by local volunteer farmers and shopkeepers from Dundas County along the St. Lawrence River, it was led by local officers including Captain Alexander McDonell and Captain John Ross.
Reorganized as the Iroquois Garrison Battery in 1865, it was attached to the Provisional Brigade of Garrison Artillery of Prescott in 1866 (as No. 4 Battery, later renumbered No. 3). By May 1869, it was attached to the 56th Grenville Battalion of Infantry.
When the second major Fenian threat materialized in late May 1870, the unit was called out on active service. They were ordered to Cornwall and Prescott to garrison key coastal artillery points and guard against an expected armed crossing of the St. Lawrence River by Irish-American Fenian insurgents.
During the 1870 emergency, the Iroquois Garrison Artillery served alongside the 59th Cornwall Battalion, the 41st Brockville, the 18th Hawkesbury, and Ottawa artillery batteries, forming a defensive force of 1,027 men.
The Fenian threat in eastern Ontario dissolved after the Fenians were defeated nearby at the Battles of Eccles Hill and Trout River in late May 1870. The unit returned to independent battery status in 1872 before being formally disbanded on March 27, 1874.
Because the unit disbanded decades before the Canada General Service Medal was authorized in 1899, veteran roll claims were low—making an 1870 clasp to a named gunner in the Iroquois Garrison Artillery a prime piece of local St. Lawrence River / Eastern Ontario militia history.
