Captain Runchey's Company of Coloured Men

Runchey's Company of Coloured Men Canadian Provincial Corps of Artificers
Active	July, 1812-March 24, 1815
Country	British Canada
Allegiance	Britain
Branch	militia (auxiliary troops)
Type	infantry, artificers
Role	military engineering
Size	company
Engagements	War of 1812 Battle of Queenston Heights Battle of Fort George Siege of Fort Erie

Captain Runchey's Company of Coloured Men was a Canadian militia company of free blacks and indentured black servants, raised in Upper Canada as a small Black corps under a white officer, Robert Runchey, a tavern keeper from Jordan, Upper Canada. The unit fought in several actions during the early part of the Anglo-American War of 1812. In 1813, Runchey's Company was converted into a unit of the Canadian Corps of Provincial Artificers, attached to the Royal Sappers and Miners, in which sappers and miners performed specialized military operations. They served on the Niagara River front during the war, and were disbanded a few months after the war ended. The Company of Coloured Men's military heritage is perpetuated in the modern Canadian Army by the Lincoln and Welland Regiment.

The company was formed at the instigation of a black settler in Upper Canada, Richard Pierpoint, who had served as part of Butler's Rangers during the American Revolutionary War. On the outbreak of the War of 1812, he petitioned Major General Isaac Brock, commanding the British Forces in Upper Canada, to form a militia corps from black settlers in the Niagara Peninsula.