_At Port Colborne. Officers of Volunteers from St. Catharines and
London urge Capt. Akers R. E. to obtain orders to remove Booker
from command. The midnight alarm. Morning of 3rd June. Capt
McGrath’s Statement. Booker at Hamilton. Returns to Colborne. His
telegrams to Col. Lowry commanding Niagara force. Col. L. refuses
to restore him to command of the 13th Battalion. Court of Inquiry.
Suppression of truth. Perversion of facts._
Capt. Akers stated in his report, after relating what he knew of
occurrences at Fort Erie: “I arrived at Colborne between 6 and 7
o’clock in the evening. The troops that had been engaged in the
morning were considerably exhausted from want of rest and food. Col.
Booker appeared quite overcome with fatigue and anxiety. He begged
me to undertake all necessary arrangements, and later in the evening
requested me to take the command out of his hands. _Finding this was
the wish of other volunteer officers of rank superior to myself_, I
telegraphed for instructions, and was desired by Col. Lowry to take
the command.”
The troops which had arrived at Colborne since the morning were seven
volunteer companies of Prince Arthur’s Own, from London C. W. Four of
the 22nd Oxford, with the Drumbo company attached, and two companies
of Home Guards from St. Catharines.
Added to these were now the Q. O. and 13th battalions, York and
Caledonia companies, in all about 1,400. Brigadier-General Booker
who last night asserted his seniority and took command, was now in
a condition of maudlin imbecility. He should have taken command of
this force of 1,400. There it was, for aught that any mortal could
tell, exposed on one of the most important strategical points of
Canada to a reinforced enemy from Fort Erie; and to invasion by
water from southern ports of Lake Erie. Nobody in command. That man,
whom a court of inquiry subsequently pronounced to have behaved
as a soldier, now going about in a condition of idiotcy. Had he
surrendered to his next in command in the 13th measures of precaution
would have been taken. But Major Skinner knew nothing of Booker’s
resignation. The garrison was without a responsible head. Lt.-Col.
McGiverin, M. P. P., arrived at 5 p. m. and assisted.
About midnight an alarm was sounded. The troops who lay accoutred
rose, fell in, stood to arms, threw out patrols, and strengthened
piquets. Booker was lying among the men in the school house, weary no
doubt, as all were. He was shaken, rolled over, and violently pulled
in efforts to arouse him (men’s statement). Then he arose staring
wildly, calling, “Where are they? Where are they? What shall I do?
What can I do?”
CAPT. McGRATH’S STATEMENT.
At one o’clock, a. m., Sunday morning, 3rd of June, 1866, sixteen
hours after the combat with the Fenians, at Limestone Ridge, Capt.
McGrath, General Manager of the Welland Railway, received at St.
Catharines the following telegram from Port Colborne.
“Men at Station, Hurry up. A new attack expected here.” This was
signed by Dr. Mack, of St. Catharines, who was then at Colborne. The
meaning of the message was obscure. But a train was placed upon the
track without delay, and certain companies of Volunteers carried from
St. Catharines to Colborne, Mr. McGrath accompanying the train. While
backing to clear the crossing of the Buffalo and Lake Huron line,
and while it was yet barely daylight, a person came on the Welland
line platform, at a running pace, carrying a cloak, and a sword
and belt loose in his arms. This was Colonel Booker. In manner and
language, excited and incoherent, he cried; “For God’s sake send back
this train to St. Catharines. I want to go—to go now. We are attacked
in the woods a mile back, the alarm has just sounded, I want to go to
St. Catharines at once, send this train special!”
Capt. McGrath replied that the train could not go then, the wounded
and sick were to be carried in it and he must wait for them. To which
Colonel Booker rejoined, “Hold my cloak! what shall we do? we are
attacked, hold my cloak.” “I cannot hold your cloak, sir, I have
other business to attend to, some of these men about the platform can
hold it.” That was the response of the General Manager. Then said
Colonel Booker, “Take my sword, hold my sword”. On which Mr. McGrath
responded, “Really, Sir, I have no time to hold your sword, I am
busy”. Colonel Booker again murmured incoherently, something about
the Fenians being in the wood, and that he wanted to go a passenger
to St. Catharines by the train.
His words, action and look, suggested that he was in a condition of
violent mental aberration.
An alarm had just then, or shortly before, been sounded by the
bugles, and the 13th battalion of which Booker was Lieutenant
Colonel, as well as the other volunteers which with the 13th he had
commanded as General of brigade on the previous day, had turned out
and were standing under arms.
An attack was expected. He had left them to their fate.
Either Colonel Booker was in a condition of temporary insanity in
relation to his duty, on one hand, and in relation to his personal
danger on the other, or he was sane, and wanted to escape the
supposed danger of another Fenian fight. Which of these conditions do
his friends elect to judge him by.
The foregoing statement was first published when the Court of Inquiry
was about to meet at Hamilton. In August it was again submitted to
Capt. McGrath to know if lapse of time, or newer information had
led him to modify his first impressions. He said this was true, and
various other occurrences of that morning and of the evening before,
not related in that statement, confirmed the opinion that Booker was
on those days wholly unfitted, physically and mentally, for military
command.
One of these officers of volunteers whom Capt. Akers alludes to as of
superior rank to himself and who advised that Booker, for the safety
of all, should be removed from command of any, was on Sunday morning
witness of his frantic imbecility in clutching hold of Mr. McGrath at
the railway depot.
Lt.-Col. Booker went to Hamilton on Sunday 3rd June. Telegrams
published there on the 4th gave him information that the Fenians were
vanquished: had retreated across the Niagara river, after a fight
with the Welland field battery and Dunnville naval brigade on the
2nd and were intercepted by the U. S. steamer Michigan, which held
them prisoners for breach of the neutrality laws. On the evening
of Monday the 4th Booker re-appeared at Colborne. He telegraphed
to Col. Lowry as if nothing had occurred to interrupt his command,
“I am here awaiting your orders.” This was not replied to. But on
next day Col. Lowry, in a telegram to Lt.-Col. Villiers of the 47th
regulars who was there, inquired; “What does Booker mean? He says
he awaits my orders. He resigned his command on Saturday; it was
accepted; he cannot be re-instated.” On being informed of this Booker
telegraphed again that he had only resigned command of the brigade,
not of the 13th battalion. Col. Lowry did not answer, but sent to
Lt.-Col. Villiers saying: “Major Skinner commands the 13th battalion;
render him all the assistance he may require. If Col. Booker is not
satisfied he may apply to Major-General Napier.”
Booker on next day returned to Hamilton, went to Toronto, and
induced General Napier to telegraph to Lt.-Col. Villiers to assemble
the officers of the 13th, and submit a proposal that they should
sign a letter of solicitation, asking to have Lt.-Col. Booker
restored to the 13th battalion. The officers refused to sign any
such application. They unequivocally made known to the military
authorities, then and afterwards, that if Booker were restored to the
command of the battalion they would not serve under him. By him their
honor had been impugned; by him the battalion was maligned, and all
to cover his own unsoldierly, scandalous misconduct. Not alone on the
field, but by his desertion of them and misrepresentation at Port
Colborne.
He applied for a Court of Inquiry. It was granted. Three volunteer
colonels assembled at Hamilton on 3rd of July. Col. Denison of
Toronto, President; Colonels Chisholm of Oakville, and Shanly of
London C. W., members. The officers of the 13th were not permitted
to be present at the Inquiry neither in their own persons, nor by a
legal representative to examine witnesses, and keep them to lines of
truth, and to lead them to a development of truth, beyond the points
at which it suited Booker to interrupt them. And yet he, with the
assistance of a lawyer out of doors, had his choice of persons and
questions, and style of putting questions at his discretion. And the
Court acquiesced in that mockery of Inquiry. Witnesses who would have
given inculpatory evidence had they told truth, as they tell it out
of doors, were not called.
But the Court pronounced: “That so far as the courage and character
of Lt.-Col. Booker, with reference to his command of the force
engaged with the enemy at Lime Ridge, on Saturday the 2nd of June,
are affected, _there is not the slightest foundation for the
unfavorable imputations cast upon him_ in the public prints, and most
improperly circulated through that channel and otherwise.”
* * * * *
“And the Court lastly find that the whole of the wounded and sick
were brought with the retreating column.”
The wounded and killed were left on the field except in the cases of
slight hurts.
On 11th of August the official _Gazette_ announced that the command
of the 13th, battalion, resigned by Lt.-Col. Booker on 8th of May
had been accepted and that Major James Skinner was appointed to
the Lieut.-Colonelcy. Colonel Lowry as chief in Niagara District
had refused to re-instate Col. Booker on the 5th of June when he
begged to be re-appointed, he having been superseded on the 2nd.
Who re-instated him so that he should be gazetted out of command on
the 11th of August? But he remains commandant of Hamilton, of the
volunteer forces, the 13th included, naval brigade, and artillery. He
is a gentleman of good address, and looks well on holidays.
THE WOUNDED.—Lieut. Routh, of the 13th, has stated that when he and
other wounded volunteers were left in the house, (log house on the
map) Colonel O’Neil entered, and after enquiring about their wounds,
expressed hope that the Lieut. would recover. “Does your sword-belt
hurt you?” said the Fenian chief. “Take it off,” replied Mr. Routh;
“I am your prisoner; I suppose the sword is, by right of war,
yours.” O’Neil removed it, handling the wounded officer tenderly;
then said: “No, I will not take it, it’s possession may be a solace
to you; I will leave it by your side.” “Thank you,” rejoined Mr.
Routh, “but some one less kind may come and take it.” Said O’Neil
“Let me conceal it under the bedding.” And he placed the sword under
the mattress, where it might not be seen by any less honorable
visitors, and in mild accents said farewell. Mr. Routh has recovered,
but no one then thought him likely to recover.
Mr. Lawson of Colborne, who was present near the fight and remained
among the wounded, relates that O’Neil or some other Fenian officer
gave him a written protection to go over the field and collect the
wounded into the houses. Major Denison on this, pp. 69, 70, says:
“Before closing this chapter I must mention that from all accounts
the Fenians, except in so far as they were wrong in invading a
peaceful country, in carrying on an unjustifiable war, behaved
remarkably well to the inhabitants, I spent three weeks in Fort
Erie and conversed with dozens of the people of the place, and
was astonished at the universal testimony borne by them to the
unvarying good conduct of this rabble while among them. They
claimed food and horses, but they can hardly be blamed for that
as an act of war, but can only be blamed because the war itself,
which alone could give them the right to take these things was
unjustifiable and wicked. They have been called plunderers, robbers
and marauders, yet, no matter how unwilling we may be to admit it,
the positive fact remains, that they stole but few valuables, that
they destroyed, comparatively speaking, little or nothing and that
they committed no outrages on the inhabitants but treated every one
with unvarying courtesy.
“On taking a number of the Welland Battery and the Naval Company
prisoners they treated them with the greatest kindness, putting the
officers under their parole and returning them their side-arms,
taking them down to the wharf on their departure and releasing
them, bidding them adieu with expressions of good will.”
But the treatment of the University rifleman, the youthful student,
J. H. Mewburn, was by evidence of surviving associates, not tender
nor chivalrous.
“John Herman Mewburn, who fell at Lime-ridge, a member of the
University College Rifles, was a student of three years standing,
and had distinguished himself very highly at Upper Canada College,
and also at the University of Toronto where he carried off four
scholarships, and although in ill health from hard study, and unfit
for service, he hesitated not a moment at the call of duty to join
his brave comrades. In the retreat he fell, struck by a rifle
bullet on the temple, which fractured the inner plate, and produced
delirium and convulsions. He was made prisoner by the enemy,
robbed, and very roughly if not cruelly used by them. His hands
were bound behind him and he was thrown on his face, but at the
earnest request of a wounded comrade, Mr. Rupert Kingsford, he was
turned on his back, and his hands unbound half an hour before he
died. Loved and esteemed by all who knew him, and deeply regretted
in death, the inhabitants of his native township honored him with
the highest honors it was in their power to bestow, viz: a public
funeral. The deceased was a grandson of the late Dr. Mewburn of
Danby House, Stamford, County of Welland, and had just attained his
twenty-first year.
PRISONERS OF WAR.—When two parties come into mortal combat, and each
holds prisoners taken from the other, a law of expediency arises out
of present circumstances, over-riding all other laws. The United
States, during the war of 1861-65, held rebel prisoners who by the
national laws had forfeited their lives. Yet in view of the fact
that the rebels held prisoners taken from the army of legitimate
authority, that authority was by expediency forced to treat its
captives as prisoners of war. To have hanged them as traitors would
have led to the rebel power hanging prisoners in retaliation.
By the laws of civilized communities the Fenian invaders of
Canada are pirates and liable to the penalties for repression and
punishment of piracy. Humanity may plead for them on one hand.
Indignant vengeance may denounce humanity and demand execution of
the laws against piracy on the other. But while passion and abstract
principles are thus at issue, expediency arises and presents the
subject of contention in another aspect, this is the practical
aspect. The time is 4 p. m. June 2nd. Lt.-Col. Dennis, Capt. Akers,
Capt. King, Lieut. Scholefield, Lieut. Nimmo and seventy-five men
had, at their mercy, fifty-nine piratical prisoners an hour ago. The
fifty-nine are under hatches on board the steamer Robb. By the laws
against piracy they have forfeited their lives. But now, through
the fortunes of war, in one hour, Capt. King, Lieuts. Scholefield,
Nimmo and fifty out of the seventy-five are captives to Fenians. Had
the seventy-five Canadians slain the fifty-nine Fenians when first
captured, might not the fellow Fenians of the fifty-nine slay the
disarmed fifty now? For the present there is no power to prevent
them. But happily the fifty-nine were uninjured after surrendering to
the seventy-five. The fifty being captives in their turn are unhurt.
The higher law, the law of expediency, which is in this case the law
of humanity, has interposed.
And the circumstances of one day may be the chances of war on another
day. Heaven forbid that day should come.
I write on this subject with a military experience as to prisoners
of war not acquired by many now alive, and known to but few in
Canada. When I served as a soldier on the side of Queen Isabella and
constitutional government in Spain, 1835 to 1838, our enemy in the
field fought under the banner of the Durango Decree of Don Carlos
which was, “Death to every prisoner taken in arms.”
All prisoners taken from the British Legion were without mercy
executed, and in some cases tortured before execution. That decree
was carried into effect. But did it deter, as its diabolical authors
intended it should, the British Legion, (English, Irish, Scotch,
twenty thousand of them,) from engaging in the hazards of such a
conflict? No; the Durango Decree of, “Death to every prisoner,”
transformed ordinary men into extraordinary devils. And I was one of
them. Of a mild type, yet one of them.