 On 3 March 1813, the unit was converted into the Corps of Provincial Artificers under the command of Lieutenant James Robertson, a black settler formerly of Detroit who, like Pierpoint, had been a member of Butler's Rangers in the Revolutionary War, as well as the Corps of Provincial Artificers before joining the Coloured Corps sometime before the Battle of Queenston Heights.While this might have appeared to be a backward step, the scarcity of the sundry skills required of Artificers meant that they were paid two to four times as much as they would have been as private soldiers.In their new capacity, they were charged with constructing a battery on Mississauga Point to interfere with American ships resupplying Fort Niagara, a task impossible to accomplish from Fort George.