_Words of warning in 1862, and 1863, from Colonel Lysons,
Quarter-master General of Her Majesty’s Forces in Canada. Olden
signals of War. The alarm on June 1st, 1866. The quick response.
Give us arms, lead on. Conflicting telegrams on 1st of June. The
cry is still they come. Sons of Canada, come home to fight for
mothers and mother land. Americans at Oil Springs enrol for defence
of Canada. Home Guards organized. The cry is still they come.
Volunteers for the field. How are they equipped? The Queen’s Own.
Tenth Royals. York and Caledonia Rifles. Hamilton Field Battery.
Welland Field Battery. Hamilton Thirteenth. All defective in
equipments. “Authorities” in a lethargy. Enemy “thundering at the
door.” Courage of the people. Little else ready._
“It will be too late to speak of organizing and equipping your
Militia when the enemy is thundering at your doors” [Valedictory
letter of Lieut.-Colonel Lysons, C. B. Royal Artillery, to the
people of Canada, 1862, on his leaving the Province after an effort
rendered fruitless through Canadian parliamentary factions to
organize and equip a Provincial Defensive force.]
“What the Province is doing is worse than nothing, as yet.
Her Majesty’s Government have furnished arms for an effective
Provincial Militia, and what do we see? The arms after six months
are still lying in boxes kicking about at railway depots, rusting
and going to destruction. No armories provided.” [Extract of a
letter from Lieut.-Colonel Lysons, C. B. Royal Artillery, after
returning to Canada as Acting Quarter-master General of H. M.
Forces, June 1863, addressed to Alexander Somerville, then Editor
of the CANADIAN ILLUSTRATED NEWS, writer of CANADA A BATTLE GROUND,
published May, 1862].
An enemy within the frontier line! Canada trodden by the foot of
hostile forces vowing to be avenged on the peaceful, industrious
people of British America, for the grievances of Ireland,
accumulating through the long historic ranges of seven centuries.
The land we live in invaded. Whatever may be the incentives to war
growing out of the traditions of seven hundred years, there is no
questionable sentiment, within the living community which hears
the tread of the armed stranger within its borders. That is the
aggression of to-day.
What is the note of alarm? What is the signal? Who are the messengers
to carry along the lake and river shores a thousand miles east
and west, and north into the far interior, to citizens, artizans,
husbandmen, and lumbermen, the intelligence, “Stand to your arms,
an enemy is within the frontier; he has broken in on upper Niagara;
he threatens to come in on lake and river shore, and all along the
faintly defined line of Lower Canada!” Who is to carry this message,
and diffuse it, proclaim it, be eloquent to enforce it?
Electricity, secret, instant, is the messenger. But the matter of
the message itself is electric, even when carried by men on foot.
It thrills through body and soul, limb and life, of all the people;
youngest, oldest; citizens of all professions, rural husbandmen,
forest lumberers, lake and river raftsmen, sailors; sons and
daughters of every national parentage, dwelling in these Provinces.
No prompting of eloquence, no invocation of patriotism is needed.
The enemy armed and hostile, supposed to be in league with some
among ourselves; how many none can tell; some among ourselves but
not very many. That possibility of an enemy in our own city, or
street, or house, inspires to prompt action. In all ages of mankind,
among all races, in all lands, the alarm of—“the enemy within your
borders!” was diffused by the agency of light and fire and sound;
and messengers swift of foot. Read Jeremiah, chapter VI. verse I.
“O ye children of Benjamin, blow the trumpet in Takoa and set up a
_sign of fire_ in Beth-haccerem!” Read the extract from an act of the
Scottish parliament of the year 1455, C. 48, and find, that Scotland
fought the invaders in the day of their evil visitation, not waiting
for Scottish posterity to be avenged on English posterity, and other
inoffensive posterities, in another land, living in fellowship under
a system of happiest liberty, four thousand miles away, seven, or
five, or three, or one hundred years after the evil occurrences.
It was directed that one bale fire of faggots on crag, or hill, or
mountain summit, should be warning of the approach of the “English
in any manner.” That two bale-fires of faggots should be the alarm
that, “the English are _coming indeed_.” That four bale-fires should
be decisive intelligence that, “the English are within the borders in
great force.”
Indians in America, Kaffres, Hottentots and Bosjesmens in Africa,
light their war-fires, some adding on elevated ground signs of an
extended hand with club, two extended hands with clubs, a blanket,
a skin, or several skins; in the whole a species of telegraphing
which was not much improved until the semaphore was invented in
France in 1794, introduced to England about the same time, by which
intelligence was carried long distances and secretly, by signs,
numerals, and letters.
The oldest Fenian tradition, a dim glimmer of uncertain light seen
through a tunnel more than two thousand years long, by way of
ancient Greece, and Phoenecia, leads the idea to war-fires lighted
in Ireland to warn the owners of the soil, cultivators and herdsmen,
of those remote centuries that Phoenician invaders were within the
Irish coasts. Other dim lights shew the Fenian descendants of Irish
Phoenicians burning war-fires of alarm to announce the approach of
Danes, Normans, and Norman English, as the Scotch did. The feudal
system oppressed and paralyzed the industrial arm of Scotland,
Ireland, England, France and all Europe. But it was indeed grievous
in Ireland.
“Man’s inhumanity to man—
Makes countless thousand’s mourn.”
The Fenians were, in Ireland conquerors of the land from an older
proprietory. The colonists of Massachusetts, and of the American
Atlantic coast invoked in 1757-58-59, the aid of their mother
country, Great Britain, to capture the castle of Louisburg on
Cape Breton, Quebec in Canada, Fort du Quesne, now Pittsburg in
Pennsylvania, to repress or expel the French in North America, for
the sake of the ocean fisheries and the fur trade. Thus it was that
English, Irish, and Scottish colonists, came to occupy the Provinces,
now claimed by Fenians and by such of the Americans as sympathize
with Fenianism on the ground that Britain was not justified in
subduing the French to gratify the colonies of New England, New York,
New Jersey, Virginia and the Carolinas, in 1757, 1758, 1759. Contrary
to the prayer of Massachusetts and the conjoint colonies, Great
Britain did not seek to expel the French from Canada, nor to suppress
their language by legal enactment, as the United States subsequently
did in Louisiana and region of the Mississippi; but gave the French
co-equal rights political and religious with English, Irish, Scotch
and German or any other colonizing race in British America.
And thus it was, that enjoying equal rights, laws, and privileges,
with a freedom of speech and of publication, as generous and
universal, as summer sunshine and fertilizing rain, the people of
Canada, French, British, Irish,—all, except perhaps some thinly
scattered adherents of delusion led away from better judgment under
the fascination of secrecy and hope of future adventures—leapt to
their arms, demanding to be led to the frontier, demanding to be
armed and placed under responsible leadership.
And not alone these, but native Americans now resident in Canada who
under other influences might think annexation of the two countries
desirable. At Oil Springs, township of Enniskillen, Lambton County,
Canada West, situated twenty miles from Sarnia, a strong Volunteer
Company was enrolled in a few hours to aid in repelling the invaders
of which a third were Pennsylvania oilmen and other Americans. Mr.
Read a lawyer; Mr. Robert Mathison printer and editor, both graduates
of the Canada military schools, were chosen captain and lieutenant.
Mr. Perry, a merchant, was ensign. On remote tributaries of the
Upper Ottawa, lumbermen, raftsmen, heard the news through the fleet
hurrying of messengers and faster paddling of canoes, and thronged
down the streams to the river and upon the river to the cities of
Ottawa and Montreal, offering their services, their lives—gifts to
the Province. Sons of Canada resident in the United States left
employment and social ties, and hastened to their own land to defend
it, to assert that British America will remain British. A goodly
number of these came from Chicago to Toronto, five hundred miles.
Many more would have quickly followed if wanted.
Who is she, that elderly woman on the railway platform, looking
eagerly to the cars, into the circles of friends, crowding around
the men as they alight? She is looking if her son has come. “Yes!”
she exclaims, embracing the youth, loyal to his mother, loyal to his
native land, “I knew you would come to fight for Canada and for me.”
At Hamilton the Mayor issued this proclamation: “I hereby request
all able bodied men who are willing to turn out in defence of their
country to meet this evening at 7 o’clock in their respective wards
for the purpose of enrollment and forming a Home Guard.” They met,
they enrolled, they formed the Home Guard; were armed and for some
months exercised in the use of rifles and bayonets, and nightly
perambulated the city in squads. These were merchants, store
keepers, artizans, professional men, clerks. In other cities, towns,
villages similar associations were formed. At Toronto, said the
newspapers; “Without exaggeration we may say we have never seen the
city so intensely moved as it was last night (June 1.) when the news
indicated a probable battle on the line of the Niagara river. The
streets were crowded with thousands of men and women eager to obtain
the latest scrap of intelligence from the front and every extra was
perused with feverish anxiety. It is to be hoped to-day’s news will
relieve the deep suspense which may be said to have rested on the
city last night.”
All reports were not true, but they occupied official time; and
complicated military plans. The following reached Toronto by way of
Buffalo. “It has been reported that Port Sarnia and Windsor have been
captured by the Fenians. It is also reported that they have taken
possession of the Welland canal.” [Not true]. Buffalo, 12 o’clock
noon, June 1. “The Fenians at Fort Erie have opened a recruiting
office, and are now enrolling volunteers. They have seized the
Newbigging Farm and made it their head-quarters. When opposition is
offered by people of the town, the Fenians at once set fire to their
houses.” (Not wholly true.)
That was from the American side. The following came from St.
Catharines a town on Welland canal, Welland railway and Great
Western, in Canada, twelve miles inland from Niagara bridge. “A
portion of four companies from Grimsby and Beamsville arrived here
this morning at eight o’clock. Col. Currie is in temporary command.
Forty or fifty more will arrive in a few hours.” “Col. McGiverin has
procured one thousand stand of arms, to be sent from Hamilton, to arm
the citizens, and also ammunition. The home guard under Col. McDonald
is called out. There is no ammunition for the Spencer rifles.”
The following dated Buffalo June 1, 1.30 p. m. was circulated
in Toronto and all Canada in the afternoon. Exaggeration in the
estimates of Fenian numbers had not then been corrected by better
information. Military plans of defence were formed on the highest
estimate, not the lowest.
“I have just returned from Lower Black Rock, 4 or 5 miles from the
city, and had a view of the Fenians encamped on the opposite bank;
some say to the number of 2000 or 3000. A tug boat carried over
a large number, and cheers for the new arrivals were distinctly
heard on this side. The ferry-boat is now stopped, but the Fenians
appear to have full liberty to ply in tug boats as often as they
please. A man on a white horse appeared to be very active, he
being distinctly seen on the bank of the river riding amongst
his men. About half past six the host of the Fenian army proper
went over in canal boats and took with them twenty wagon loads of
munitions of war. They have sentinels posted for miles around their
encampment, and are enjoying their favorite occupation of stealing
all the horses in the locality. The stars and stripes float from a
flag-pole at Erie, opposite Black Rock, but the general impression
here is that if the Canadians have the least spark of that
spirit they are supposed to possess, the Fenians will soon have
to skedaddle. It is said that they intend going on to Chippewa
forthwith. The steamer Michigan has steam up to prevent the Fenians
coming back.
“All kinds of rumors are afloat here—_one_ that Windsor has been
burnt down. Another that a force was advancing from Albany. They
had tickets for Rome, and probably were destined for the St.
Lawrence region. They had no arms. The Fenian leaders in this city
are very active and more men will leave to-night for the Canadian
frontier.”
More news arrived from the States and flew on wings of a free
press through the Province. The people not dismayed one shade of
countenance, but on the contrary fired with newer, bolder energy
to muster, march, give battle and conquer. This was circulated at
Toronto, after noon. Cincinnati, June 1. The _Commercial’s_ Columbus,
Ohio, despatch says that 450,000 rounds of ammunition were shipped
from that place to New York, and 150,000 to Chicago, and 30,000
muskets to Buffalo, within a few days, which it is reported were
intended for the Fenians.
Also came information from Boston telling of Fenian forces forwarded
from there and in the same paragraphs of United States forces sent to
the frontier to intercept them. Canadians were ready to believe the
Fenian items true; slow to rest confidently on what U. S. authorities
would do; for, said same reports; “Fenians and U. S. regulars are
fraternising.” Boston June 1. “Two companies United States regulars
left Fort Warren this morning for St. Albans, under the command of
Col. Livingstone. An additional detachment of about 100 Fenians also
left, it is supposed for the Canada border. Fifteen hundred men is
the alleged Fenian quota of Massachusetts for the present enterprise.
The newly raised Fenian Cavalry regiment, under the command of Col.
Icartoi, late of Moseby’s guerillas, is a part of the expedition
from this city. The Fenians say that Gen. Fitzhugh Lee will command
the cavalry wing of their army of invasion. They further say that
the blow will be struck early next week probably on Monday.” And
again, BOSTON, June 1.—12, noon.—“In addition to the Fenian cavalry
regiment, the third Fenian Infantry, Col. Connor, 1,200 strong,
has left this city for the Canada border. Transportation for the
cavalry regiment was paid through to St. Albans by a citizen of
Boston. Detachments of United States troops from Forts Warren and
Independence, and also from Fort Preble, are under orders to leave
for the northern frontier.”
A despatch from Port Stanley [north shore of Lake Erie, terminus of
a railway from London C. W.,] said that forty schooner’s had been
in sight from one o’clock; their conduct very mysterious all the
morning. At London C. W., the volunteers were immediately ordered
under arms and preparations made in the garrison of Royal Artillery
and 60th Rifles of H. M. regular army, to move in any direction.
Colonel Hawley the commandant called in the detachment of the
60th from Komoka. The city council met to form a Home Guard. At
Port Hope and Cobourg, and all down the shore of Ontario lake the
organized volunteers mustered under arms. Intelligence arrived that
a suspicious steamer was moving on the mouth of Niagara river. At
Kingston the 14th battalion of militia, and the garrison of regulars
mustered; the militia on Garden island. At Ottawa, at Montreal
and throughout Lower Canada the same spirit of promptitude became
an instant thing of life, of action. Let the preceding items of
defensive preparation be multiplied by hundreds, with all the names
of towns, townships, cities, counties attached; and add that the
thoughts of the people had but one bent, defend the frontier, repel
the invader, pray to high Heaven, but remember that Heaven helps
those who help themselves.
And now stands out the question prominent above all thoughts of that
day—in the minds of some—What had the Canadian Government done to
equip the Volunteer Militia for this emergency?
At the beginning of this chapter two quotations are cited, which
though brief, afford a glimpse of what was the opinion of the
Quarter-Master General of H. M. forces as held by him in 1862 and
1863. After 1863, some change for the better was made in militia
organization. In all, about thirty thousand men had been enrolled,
armed, and less or more efficiently educated in military evolutions.
That portion of their equipment which is most conspicuous to the
eye—uniform and ornamental clothing—was perfect. Rifles, bayonets,
cross-belts and cartridge pouches, were also correct according to
army pattern. But equipments, equal in importance for the life and
efficiency of the soldier on active service, to his rifle, ball
cartridge, percussion cap, and bayonet, and greatly more important
to his life and efficiency than the make or material or color of
his clothing, were awanting, had not it seemed, by the event, been
thought of by persons called for want of a more distinct name, the
Authorities.
The political Authorities had given out from time to time, and up
to the day of invasion, when, as Colonel Lysons had said, the enemy
would be “thundering at their doors” that they were ready for any
emergency; but they were not ready. Not much was ready but the mercy
of heaven and the courage of the people.
The Volunteer Militia had been frequently inspected in Canada West by
Major-General Napier, Assistant Adjutant-General Durie, and by other
army officers. Their complimentary addresses, or at least newspaper
paragraphs purporting to be echoes of their addresses, led the public
to believe that the volunteers were organized, exercised, educated,
equipped for any emergency.
The Rifles of Toronto known as the “Queen’s Own,” were despatched
from that city on 1st of June, with a speech from General Napier
to the effect that they might be engaged with the enemy within
twelve hours, yet all save one company went without ammunition, and
without the equipments enumerated on another page as wanting by the
Thirteenth from Hamilton. The Tenth Royals from Toronto, were in like
manner deficient. Observe the result in the military fortunes of next
day. Referring to his bivouac at Chippewa, night and morning of 1st
and 2nd June, Colonel Peacocke, commanding on Niagara frontier, in
his official despatch, when relating the events of the 2nd, and 3rd
says, “_The Volunteers being unprovided with the means of carrying
provisions and of cooking them had not been able to comply with
an order I had sent the previous evening that they were to bring
provisions in their haversacks. I saw that the absolute necessity of
furnishing them with some would cause delay and I telegraphed to Port
Colborne that I should be one hour later in starting. We marched at
7, o’clock._” In the previous sentence he had named the Toronto “10th
Royals under Major Boxall,” 415 in numerical strength, and no doubt
referred to them, but the remark of having no haversacks to carry
provisions, no cooking apparatus, no provisions to be cooked, applied
to other volunteers besides the 10th Royals. That delay was more than
an hour. Had there been haversacks and provisions, the Queens Own,
Thirteenth, York and Caledonia men need not have been confronted
with the Fenians at Limestone Ridge alone. So small a matter as a
haversack to a volunteer, and a single atom of common sense to an
“Authority,” might have changed the history of that day.
The County of Lincoln sent forth a squadron of Cavalry, good men and
true, with faultless horses, but without Cavalry equipments. The
York and Caledonia rifles like the Toronto Queen’s Own went without
ammunition. The Hamilton Field Battery of artillery, comprised a
body of men equal to any that ever assumed the name of soldiers but
their harness was decayed, had been condemned over two years, and
government had not replaced it. It was unfit for field exercise.
The battery could not go to battle. And yet the local newspapers,
reporting Colonel Peacocke’s inspection of that battery on 8th
March, 1866, published to the Province that he had said, “The
Hamilton battery was in a state of highest efficiency, ready for any
emergency.” Had it been ready for service it might have been on the
field of Limestone Ridge on 2nd of June: and thus, again, the history
of that day might have read differently from what it does.—The
Welland Field battery was at Port Colborne on the morning of 1st of
June, and would have been on Limestone Ridge, but its officers and
men had no cannon. Their guns had been removed to Hamilton where
there was no harness. They embarked on the steamer Robb and went to
Fort Erie. There we shall meet them in due time, in combat with the
Fenians on the afternoon of 2nd of June.
If the volunteers engaged with the enemy on 2nd of June are brought
under the readers eye in this narrative more frequently than others
equally worthy of popular record, it is the circumstance of their
having been mortally engaged that brings them now prominently out for
comment. The soul of the old soldier when he looked upon the 13th,
mustering for frontier service on that morning, bounded with joy to
behold the olden youthfulness, buoyancy, and confidence of the race
reproduced in this newer country, newer generation. But, because he
was an old soldier and knew the exigencies of active war in a wooded
country his heart sunk within him at seeing those gallant youths go
forth carrying, in the negligence of governmental authorities their
death with them. Addressing the public immediately after the events
of the 2nd, the writer said: “I assert that had the 13th been exposed
day and night for one or two weeks in such work as that of June 2nd,
half would have perished of diseases induced by thirst, bad water, no
water, hunger, fatigue, and through exposure to marsh malaria without
overcoats.” The coats having been lost for want of, with each man, a
pair of straps to fasten them when folded on the back. They had no
pioneers, no spades, axes, nor other entrenching tools. The Fenians,
as was seen in chapter II. looked for spades and axes first thing on
touching Canada. They had not been taught how to fold their overcoats
so as to carry them on their backs without impeding the action of
loading, capping, aiming, and firing. From the American Bull Run of
1862, they had profited nothing in the matter of advancing upon an
enemy in a wooded country, carrying no water, no food, nothing but
bold confidence, which in war is something but not everything. For
want of their coats they mounted guards at night exposed to rain, to
swamp fogs, chills from the lake and the canal, wearing only their
red tunics and shirts, and all because they had not each a pair of
shoulder belts, to carry that first of a soldier’s life preservers,
the overcoat. Was no superior answerable for this neglect?
They were sent out without canteens to carry water when on the line
of march or on the battle-field. On the field of action and on the
retreat they drank from swampy ditches, lifting the water in their
shakos and caps and shoes; many were in consequence sick—their
intolerable thirst having been aggravated by the ambrosial breakfast
of a red-herring which the military genius of their commander,
administered to them at 4.30 a. m., preparatory to a long march
without water and the hazards of a battle.
It has since been ascertained that he had beef-steak for breakfast.
They had no knapsacks in which to carry changes of underclothing, or
the usual military necessaries. They had no mess tins in which to
divide food, and carry it when not all at once consumed. They had no
haversack to carry bread and small articles indispensable to personal
cleanliness and health, and not second to these, indispensable in
keeping the rifle in working order. They had not a wrench in the
battalion to unscrew locks, nor a worm screw, of which every man
should have one wherewith to draw charges from rifles. The nipples of
some were, after the action, plugged with dirt and could not be fired
off. There was no battalion armourer. They had no oil for springs,
or to protect burnished steel from rust. They had no portable camp
kettles, to cook food which should have been supplied by a Government
commissary. There were commissary agents who had no stores. The
Government were said to be ready for any emergency. The 1st and 2nd
of June proved that they had made no adequate preparation. And the
question remains for the time of present writing, month of August.
Has any better provision, or equipments for a campaign yet been made?
With all those wants the 13th carried with them their colors to the
woodlands. No commanders of practical experience permit colors to
be carried into forests, where the war from nature of the enemy and
contour of the country is likely to prove desultory. General Sir De
Lacy Evans, in Spain, than whom no soldier of riper and more varied
experience has lived in this century, never permitted his troops to
carry colors before the enemy in that country of woods, orchards,
rivers, and ravines.
I come now to the Toronto Volunteers, The “Queen’s Own” were thus
described in a local journal, the _Leader_. The first call to arms
referred to was when companies of Volunteers were sent to the
frontier to prevent raids into the United States by American refugee
rebels, or desperadoes calling themselves such, during the great, the
calamitous civil war. (See further on this subject, ensuing chapter.)
The second call to arms of the volunteers has been responded to
with even more enthusiasm than the first. The order for mustering
the “Queen’s Own” only reached here late on the afternoon on
Thursday, and at the appointed hour (four o’clock yesterday
morning) over five hundred men assembled in the drill-shed ready
to receive orders to proceed to the point where the Fenians were
congregating. At that hour the fire bells rang out as a signal for
the men to assemble, and in less than an hour the number we have
mentioned were under arms. Under the command of Colonel Dennis,
Brigade Major 5th military district, the men were marched from the
drill-shed to the Yonge street wharf, where they were embarked
on board the steamer City of Toronto, at half past six o’clock,
for Port Dalhousie, where they were to take the Welland railway
to Port Colborne. The men were in the highest spirits, and one
and all expressed the hope that the Fenians who have been so long
threatening would at length give the volunteers an opportunity
of meeting them in open conflict. Notwithstanding the early hour
at which the steamer left, the wharf was crowded with people who
lustily cheered the brave fellows as they took their departure.
About 120 men of the battalion had been left behind, some of whom
had not been notified of the arrangements that had been made, and
others who had not heard the alarm of the fire bells and had slept
too long. The boat left half an hour earlier than was stated,
and many of the men had reached the wharf just as the steamer
was moving out. It was therefore deemed advisable that the men
so left behind should assemble at drill about noon and be ready
to proceed by special train to join their comrades. The men were
punctually at their post, and after being inspected by Major Smith
and their names called over, they were marched, under the command
of Capt. Gardner, of the Highland company, to the Union Station,
followed by an immense concourse of people. Nothing could exceed
the delight which evidently filled the breast of every man of
them. Upon arriving at the station it was ascertained that they
were not to go by railway, but to take the City of Toronto upon
her return from Port Dalhousie at two o’clock. They were then
marched back to the drill-shed, and there awaited the hour of
embarkment. When the order to again “fall in” had been given, they
formed into two companies marched to the Yonge street wharf and
immediately proceeded on board the steamer which was lying at the
wharf ready to receive them. Besides the officer in command—Captain
Gardner—they were accompanied by Lieut. Bevan, Lieut. Campbell,
and Ensign Davis. At this juncture the crowd of people and the
excitement among them, along the way between the drill-shed and
the wharf, were tremendous. Previous to the volunteers going
on board many were the warm greetings that they received from
relatives and friends. Many a kind word of encouragement, and many
a heartfelt wish for their success and their safe return were
expressed. While bales of blankets and canvass for tents were being
placed on board, the men were engaged in singing songs, and as
the steamer was leaving her moorings, they were lustily cheered
again and again by the crowds of people on the wharf and as warmly
returned by the volunteers.
When the Queen’s Own arrived at Port Dalhousie, Mr. McGrath, manager
of the Welland railway, was there with a special train to convey them
to Port Colborne. “Gentlemen,” said he, to some of the officers,
“where is all that luggage going?” This consisted of trunks, hat
boxes, and usual accompaniments of railway travellers when on long
journeys. “We are going to Port Colborne,” one replied. “That
luggage,” rejoined the manager, “will require a van for itself;
what is the meaning of it for this military train?” “We expect to
remain in garrison at Port Colborne.” “Remain there! It is likely
you will be engaged with the Fenians before you pass Port Robinson,
or somewhere between that and Port Colborne.” To which the officer
commanding said, “Good God! you don’t say that?” Someone observed
that General Napier had told them at Toronto they might soon be
engaged with the enemy. “Did he?” said the commander, “if he thought
so, why are we sent from Toronto and landed here without ammunition?”
Mr. McGrath had reason to suppose that the enemy might attack
this train. He warned Colonel Dennis that it was hazardous to run
the train into Port Colborne without first sending skirmishers to
feel the way; the enemy might be in the woods on either side. This
suggestion went unheeded. The battalion was disembarked at the
platform, scattering at once through the village, along the canal,
over the bridges, no guard mounted, no pickets, no sentries posted;
but all easy victims to any military enemy, had such been there.
When Mr. McGrath was giving car room for conveyance of the unmilitary
luggage, he asked to be informed of the space to be filled with their
provisions. The reply was that, “no provisions had been brought,
sufficient would be found at Colborne.” “That,” he rejoined, “is a
poor place for provisions. It is but a small village; other volunteer
forces will be there; you should take stores from St. Catherines.”
That town was on the way, but there was no commissariat arrangements
for purchasing, or obtaining stores by requisition. No cooking
utensils to dress food. They came as destitute of field equipments
from Toronto, as the 13th did from Hamilton, and in the vital article
of ammunition worse; only one company of the Queen’s Own had ball
cartridges; they were thirty rounds each with No. 5 company for
repeating rifles, which as the event proved were expended in a very
brief time and to small purpose.
Brave young men, full of hope, full of confidence, they went to the
front without suspicion that any requisite for an active campaign had
been neglected.
Let us return to Toronto for the volunteer 10th Royals, and
detachments of regulars. Newspapers of next day reported that:
The 10th Royals, in obedience to orders, mustered in the drill-shed
at twelve o’clock, and after having been inspected by Major Boxall,
who, in the absence of Lieut.-Col. Brunel, had assumed command of
the battalion, were ordered to be in readiness to proceed to St.
Catharines, by the Great Western railway, at four o’clock. Col.
Brunel, who was in Montreal, was telegraphed for to return to this
city immediately. At the appointed hour the 10th Royals assembled
at the shed. The excitement about this time became intense. All
kinds of rumors were afloat, some of which were that the volunteers
who had left at early morn, and some of the 16th regiment, were in
actual engagement with the Fenians, and had been repulsed. This
story made the men of the 10th still more eager for the fray. After
having been formed into companies and then four deep, the order to
march was given, and the battalion proceeded to the Queen’s wharf,
headed by their band. The whole consisting of eight companies,
under the command of Major Boxall. They were met by about two
hundred men of the 47th regiment, under Lieut.-Col. Villiers. Three
companies of that gallant regiment, under command of Major Lodder,
and the G battery of the Royal Artillery left at 12.40 o’clock by
the Great Western railway for Port Colborne. The two companies of
the forty-seventh and the tenth royals were marched to the cars,
which were in waiting to convey them to St. Catharines. The bridge
which spans the railway track at the Queen’s wharf and the hill
tops which surround the Great Western railway workshops, were
crowded with spectators. The greatest enthusiasm possible prevailed
among the troops—the men of the 47th and 10th Royals singing with
heart and voice, “Rule Britannia,” the “Red White and Blue,” and
other loyal songs.
Reverting to the departure of regulars and volunteers from Hamilton
on 1st of June. On the previous day about 4 p. m. the 16th of H.
M. army, the head-quarters, right wing, at Hamilton under Colonel
George Peacocke, was kept within barracks. Intelligence had then
arrived from the General commanding in chief that a Fenian invasion
was expected. During the same day a sergeant of the volunteer 13th
went to the dwellings of the members warning them to assemble at
the drill-shed at 6 a. m. next morning. They came; most of them
without breakfast. They were told, says Lieut.-Col. Booker, to get
breakfast for they were going to meet the enemy and he did not know
when they would return. [Statement to Court of Inquiry]. Some went to
breakfast; others did not. A few, about one-fifth of the whole—the
parade state of that morning being 265 of all ranks, had haversacks.
They were chiefly men who had been on previous frontier service.
Therefore the need of their having that article had long been known
to the commanding officer. He also knew they were without knapsacks.
He addressed the battalion in the drill-shed, when about to march,
in these terms: “Men of the Thirteenth, you are once more called out
for duty. You will now, as you did before, _follow me_. You have no
knapsacks, but I can promise that if you do not behave yourselves
before the enemy as soldiers should do, you will get plenty of
‘knapsack drill’.” [_Written statement laid before me by men of the
13th, who offered to attest it_]. There was nothing contrary to
good military rule in these words. But in memory of the fact that a
portion of the battalion had been five months on frontier service at
Windsor not under his command, but under an officer from another city
equally vigilant if less pretentious, and had not one defaulter all
the time, the taunt of knapsack drill, that is, punishment drill,
was not then in the line of discretion. The words _follow me_, were
afterwards remembered. This address on the morning of June 1, is
noted here, however, principally to show that Colonel Booker, for
several years Militia Commandant of the city as well as Lieut.-Col.
of the 13th, was familiar with the deficiency of field equipments.
This battalion, small in numbers, several men and officers having
been then absent from the city who afterwards overtook it on the
frontier, marched to the railway depot accompanied by many citizens
who heartily prayed for blessings on it. The Great Western cars were
ready. The train left at 10 a. m. going west to Paris, a two hours
journey; then on the Buffalo and Lake Huron track to travel eastward
to Port Colborne.
H. M. 16th, (right wing) went on board a train about 12 noon,
but remained at the depot two hours, many citizens crowded on
the platform. Again, the spirits of old soldiers who had known
campaigns in earnest, and who now looked on, were depressed to see
infantry—nothing yet but infantry, bound for the front. These were
not going without all necessary equipments, as the volunteer militia
had gone, but they were without canteens to carry water. Those
articles, indispensable to men on a campaign, had been reserved in
some army store, not at Hamilton. Thus in addition to the delay
caused at Chippewa, on the morrow, to give the 10th Royals breakfast,
they having come from Toronto without provisions, without haversacks,
“contrary to my orders” (_Colonel Peacocke’s report_,) the 16th
regulars marched without water canteens; “the day was very hot.”
(_same report._) And the men of the regulars, like the volunteers
were thirsty, exhausted, and did not reach the vicinity of the enemy
so soon by some hours as otherwise they might.
But strangest want of all; though there is in the Province a
Quarter-master General’s Department, whose special business is, with
other things special, to provide commanding officers with maps of
the country, and though county maps abounded in the Canada common
schools, and Normal School at Toronto, Colonel Peacocke, in command
of the forces in the Niagara District went out without a map showing
the roads upon which he would have to move the troops. He had a small
chart of the Niagara peninsula, but it did not show the Welland
roads. This want of a good map from which to question his advisers;
with want of breakfast for 10th Royals, want of water canteens for
both regulars and volunteers, delayed the advance of the main force
from Chippewa. Colonel Booker had no map of any kind, nor paper of
his own on which to write a message, which want became an event next
day.
But O’Neil in command of the Fenians had a map of the roads. And also
writing paper for his messages.
The narrative and narrator were at the Hamilton depot a minute ago.
The absence of such a common-place element in field equipment as the
best map which the Province could afford the commanders not then
known; yet the apparent absence of artillery, causing a tremulous
apprehension that the volunteers who had gone hours before, and the
regular infantry now on board to go, were to be exposed to the hazard
of——
No; not this branch of the army of the front. Here came the Royal
Artillery from Toronto; the Armstrong guns on platform cars; horses
in vans; men guarding guns, sentries guarding horses; detachment of
47th regulars. Hurrah! Loud was the shouting on the Hamilton depot
platform. Cheerful the military responses.
The time was 2.30 p. m. June 1st. The Toronto train with two engines
went ahead. Hamilton train followed. After a delay at St. Catherines
the two trains reached Suspension Bridge, Niagara river, about 6 p. m.
Another view of this large subject, public safety of Canada, lies in
the pathway of this narrative which cannot be here avoided. Let us
look it in the face.