James Fitzgibbon British

James Fitzgibbon was a well-reputed guerilla leader, and an enterprising soldier. At one point, he disguised himself as a butter peddler in order to enter and observe an American camp at Stoney Creek. The group of devoted soldiers which he led, called themselves the Bloody Boys, and practiced what was considered unconventional warfare at the time. Fitzgibbon rose in the ranks due in part to the attention of his commander, Isaac Brock. Brock taught Fitzgibbon manners, diction and other forms of refinement, but he never lost his character. It was to Fitzgibbon that Laura Secord delivered her famous message of impending American attack at Beaver Dams. There, he bluffed the Americans into surrender though their force was twice the size of his own. Later, he and his Bloody Boys were prepared to take Black Rock on their own until Lieutenant Colonel Bisshopp and his troop of 200 men offered to follow. After the war, Fitzgibbon rose to full colonel and acting adjutant-general. He helped suppress Mackenzie's rebellion in 1837. He returned to England in 1846, where he was appointed a military knight of Windsor. He died in 1860.