When the Lower Canada Rebellion broke out in the Fall of 1837, Sir Francis Bone Head sent the British troops stationed in Toronto (formerly York) to help suppress it. With the regular troops gone,William Lyon Mckenzie and his followers seized a Toronto armoury and organized an armed march down Yonge Street, beginning at Montgomery's Tavern (on Yonge Street just north of Eglinton Avenue the present-day site of Postal Station K) on December 4, 1837.
Later that afternoon, Mackenzie led his troops farther down Yonge Street towards the city, where their advance was stopped by a party of 27 loyalist volunteers, led by William Botford Jarvis. The loyalist men fired a volley then dropped to reload their guns. Mackenzie's men ran towards them, believing they had killed the loyalists. They met the loyalist fire unprepared.
