On October 23 and 24, 1837, people of Lower Canada gathered around it for the Assembly of the Six Counties with the structure bearing the inscription À Papineau ses compatriotes reconnaissants (To Papineau his thankful compatriots), referring to Patriote leader Louis-Joseph Papineau. During the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837, on November 30, Colonels George Augustus Wetherall and Bartholomew Gugy and their troops unearthed the column after the victory at the Battle of Saint-Charles and brought it to Montreal as a war trophy, along with a number of prisoners.