A Coat Reveals Its Secrets

A battleground near the village of Queenston, in what is now Ontario, in October 1812. The roar of cannon and muskets. The acrid reek of gunpowder. Suddenly the  British commander collapses, the victim of a musket ball to the chest….  

That fallen commander was Sir Isaac Brock, known as “The Hero of Upper Canada.” When Sir Isaac received that fatal shot in the chest at the Battle of Queenston Heights, he was wearing a coatee (a type of close-fitting coat) now in the collection of the Canadian War Museum. In this short video, the War Museum’s Eric Fernberg explains what ultraviolet light revealed about the coatee’s remarkable owner.