_Lt.-Col. Dennis; Capt. Akers of Royal Engineers. Welland Field
Battery. Capt. McCallum, Lieut. Robb, Steam tug Robb and Dunnville
Naval Brigade on 2nd of June. Capt. Harbottle and Hamilton Naval
Brigade. Toronto Naval Brigade._
Let us return to Lt.-Col. Dennis who came to Colborne on June 1st
commanding the Toronto Q. O. Rifles. He made reconnoisances during
the afternoon in various directions; on B. and L. H. Railway twelve
miles east from Colborne, to a point five miles from Fort Erie,
where the Fenians had burned a railway bridge at 7 a. m. that day.
Lt.-Col. Booker having, as senior officer, taken command, Dennis and
Capt. Akers of the Royal Engineers, who arrived at midnight from Col.
Peacocke to advise and assist went on board the tug steamer Robb at 4
a. m. June 2nd. They took with them the Welland Artillery, with only
small arms (their heavy guns being at Hamilton), 3 officers, Capt.
King, Lieuts. Scholefield and Nimmo, and 50 men. Lachlan McCallum
Esq., owner of the tug, and captain of Dunnville Naval Brigade, with
Lieut. Robb, sailing master of the boat and 25 men were present.
Whatever may be said of the indiscretion of attempting to alter the
plans of Col. Peacocke who commanded in chief, it must be accorded
to the officers of this expedition that they evinced enterprise and
courage in seeking to find the enemy at the earliest moment, and
confront him in mortal combat when found. The same credit is due
to Lt.-Col. Booker. That he is not covered with honorable renown,
and known this day as Sir Alfred Booker, Knt. is due to his want
of perspicuity of judgment, allied with firmness in the crisis
of action, not to a want of preliminary boldness to advance and
encounter the enemy. Supported as he was by officers whose souls
were in the service, and whose souls were honour, and by men every
one of them worthy of such officers; and with an enemy before him
well armed and equipped and accustomed to arms and to field strategy
the most difficult to cope with, but a strategy affording the more
honour to him who circumvents and vanquishes it, namely: the wary,
hiding, creeping, advancing, retiring, slippery tactics of desultory
bush-fighting, Lt.-Col. Booker had that day a life-long renown within
his reach; but he did not grasp the glory flitting before him.
On passing down the river between Buffalo and Fort Erie, a patrol
boat of the U. S. steamer Michigan challenged the Robb, and after
explanations, permitted its passage, giving information that the
Fenians had quitted their entrenchments on French Creek during the
night. The Robb went down the river as far as Black Creek, nine miles
below Fort Erie village, eight miles above Chippewa. There they were
informed that the Fenians had turned westward, passing near New
Germany. Says Lieut. Col. Dennis in his report: “A message was at
once sent off to Col. Peacocke, we presumed then under previously
concerted arrangement to be near there moving up, and we returned
with the tug in accordance with that arrangement, to meet Col. Booker
and the Port Colborne force at the upper railroad depot at Fort Erie.
On our arrival there we could see or hear nothing of them.”
No. Had they come there, the Fenians would have slipped through
between both forces, Booker’s and Peacocke’s; done what damage they
chose to the Welland Canal, and have been, possibly, afloat on Lake
Erie before evening, in shipping seized at Colborne or Dunnville. Or,
still possibly, though not probably, they, daring much to obtain a
temporary success, might have arrived at the city of Hamilton. What
then, imagination declines to suggest.
The Robb then returned to Fort Erie village, where the Welland men
were landed. They were divided in two wings; the right with Lieut.
Scholefield; the left Lieut. Nimmo, the whole under Capt. King.
One wing took the lake shore road, the other the railway line, and
scoured the district northerly, collecting prisoners which the
farmers and customs officers and villagers had previously captured.
They were occasionally accompanied by Lt.-Col. Dennis and Capt.
Akers. During the afternoon intelligence reached the village that
the Fenians had been engaged and were defeated. Capt. King expecting
them to retreat towards the Niagara, put his men on board the Robb,
and the prisoners under hatches, and was preparing to defend the
vessel by breast-works of cordwood on deck; the vessel to patrol the
river and prevent the enemy’s escape. But on Lt.-Col. Dennis who had
been for a time absent, returning and assuming command, the Welland
company were ordered on shore; for, says Dennis: “concluding that
the action which was known to have taken place had resulted in the
capture of the enemy, I,” &c. The enemy not having been captured,
made a sudden appearance, coming down the street from south, and
over the heights, only 100 to 200 yards distant from west. They
opened rifle fire on the Welland men at once, which was as promptly
returned. Capt. King was shot in the leg; several men were also
severely hurt. Dennis, at a run led them to northward, down the river
side. Most of the men, and Lieuts. Scholefield and Nimmo occupied
Mr. Leslie’s house, the post office, and for a time returned a sharp
rifle fire. Ultimately they capitulated as prisoners, being but as
one to twelve of their assailants. Windows and doors were riddled
with Fenian shot. Lt.-Col. Dennis continued his retreat a half mile
further. He entered the house of a friend, Mr. Thomas, changed his
clothes, shaved his beard, took a pipe and came out to the door
smoking, as if a resident of the house. The Fenians who came in
pursuit were told that no one else was there, and returned to the
village, not suspecting the man before them to be Lt.-Col. Dennis.
I heard language of severest censure used against Dennis by the
Welland company. Since then Capt. King has accused him of cowardice
and he has in turn demanded a court of inquiry on his conduct.
The Robb with 65 Fenian prisoners on board and only a portion of
the naval brigade fell down the river but afterwards steamed up,
exposed to a rifle fire from the shore. The Fenians knew their people
were captives on board, and therefore aimed to shoot the steersman.
Lieut. Robb stood by the helm, several bullets hitting near him. He
proceeded to Colborne and delivered the prisoners. They were carried
by railway to Brantford jail. From there to Toronto.
The prisoners whom the Fenians held were detained in the post office,
and in Dr. Kempson’s house, Fenian guards over them in the early
part of the night. At daybreak they saw no guards. After a time
some ventured out. Then all were informed that they were no longer
prisoners.
About the time when the Fenians arrived near the village on Saturday
afternoon, from Ridgeway, Capt. Akers was near the Fort Erie railway
station. He discovered his danger, and having a wheeled conveyance
drove away westward, and reached Colborne about seven in the evening.
In his report he speaks of finding the garrison there in disorder.
The Q. O. exhausted from the battle, and other newly arrived
volunteers, being billeted through the village, there was no doubt a
semblance of confusion. But Capt. Akers did not see the 13th. They
were quartered all in one building, the school house, outside the
village, and remained there in as good order as troops usually are
in after coming from a long march. I saw them next day and affirm
that they were orderly, soldierly, diligent in restoring their
accoutrements and clothes to cleanliness. Nothing unusual to the
best military regulations issued from their lips, except a unanimous
outpouring of scorn against Lt.-Col. Booker.
The Dunnville naval brigade under Capt. McCallum, and the steamer
Robb his property, under Lieut. Robb, continued their good service
to government and for public interests. They complained of being
overlooked in official thanks; and some newspapers intimated that
Capt. McCallum, offended at ill-treatment was about to sell his
property at Dunnville and leave the Province. They who said so,
little understand the patriotism of Lauchlin McCallum; or of his
Lieutenant. Their zeal for Canada, the new country adopted, and for
old country laws brought to consolidate amplest political freedom
with social stability in Canada, is too earnest, to be converted to
antagonism, by any temporary oversight, or neglect, or even rebuffs
of government.
Captain Harbottle at Hamilton organized a naval company in 1862.
He and his officers have twice supplied them with naval uniforms
to the number of about seventy; besides paying drill instructors.
During the crisis of June and July 1866, when the regular troops were
removed from Hamilton to the frontier, this volunteer naval brigade,
numbering then 55 men present, some of its members being as sailors
absent with their vessels, did all the garrison duty, and did it
well. They mounted guards on the stores, magazine, military hospital,
and drill-shed armory. They watched the bay. The Captain performed
the duty of commandant of Hamilton city in all its departments. He
and his men gave the citizens confidence in union with the Volunteer
Artillery, and Home Guard. Their services have been appreciated by
the people, yet not well rewarded. The uniform of the company instead
of coming from government has been provided solely at the expense of
the captain and his officers.
In Toronto a naval company was organized, with Mr. McMaster, a
merchant, acting as captain. They went to Lake Erie on service in the
steamer Rescue in June, which vessel was afterwards manned by British
man-of-war’s men from the Aurora frigate. The Toronto company is
dissolved. The reason why I have failed to ascertain.