MOBILIZING
Perhaps the startling story of "The Massacre Ground" at Cypress Hills,
some 40 miles north of the boundary line, and kindred stories were the
last straws which, added to the weight of evidence for the necessity of
an armed force in the West, moved the Dominion Government to active
organization work. This Cypress Hills event is a gruesome story enough,
but it is part of the setting for the entrance of the Mounted Police on
the stage of Western life.
It appears that a party of men--we call them men by courtesy as they
were human beings of the male persuasion--crossed over from Montana on a
trading expedition. They were white men, but perhaps of various races,
for they were mostly adventurers who had served in the American Civil
War and had not much regard for human life. These men deluged an
Assiniboine Indian Camp with deadly whisky in return for every valuable
thing the Indians had to trade. And when the Indian Camp was ablaze with
the light of campfires and was a mad whirl of dancing drunkenness the
miscreant traders from the South, in a spirit of utter wanton devilry,
got under cover of a cut bank by the creek where the camp was, and
proceeded to shoot the Indians who were defenceless in their orgy. A
volley or two accounted for two score killed and many wounded, only a
few escaping to the hills. And this carnival of bloodshed was witnessed
by an American trader, Abe Farwell, who, being alone, was helpless to
prevent, but who testified as to the frightful occurrence.
Nor was this very far from the general order of the day. Bloods,
Piegans, Blackfeet, Crees, Assiniboines and the other tribes maddened
with doped liquor from outlaw traders, fought each other whenever they
met. And some cases were known where Blackfeet and Crees, implacable
enemies, happening to meet at some trading post, struggled with fierce
brutality, while the Hudson's Bay trader in the fort had to barricade
his gate and let them fight it out amongst themselves. I have myself
seen Indian braves with half a score of scalps dangling from their
belts, and others with no end of nicks in their rifle stocks to indicate
the number they had slain. Buffalo-hunters from the white and half-breed
settlements by the Red and the Assiniboine Rivers only ventured westward
in large companies heavily armed. Explorers ran great risks, and the
famous Captain Palliser had to hunt one whole winter with Old Sun, the
Chief of the Blackfeet, that he might become as one of that fighting
tribe and get leave to draw his maps.
Communication was difficult, but the news of these events of
frightfulness percolated through to Ottawa and the order went out in
September, 1873, that officers already appointed should proceed to
recruit in the Eastern Provinces and rush some part of the force to the
far West, so as to be on the ground by the next spring. The principal
recruiting officer seems to have been Inspector James Morrow Walsh, who
became one of the noted men of the Force in later years. It is a
somewhat remarkable coincidence and a decided testimony to the
directness with which the Mounted Police when organized struck at the
very heart of the lawlessness in the West, that Fort Walsh, called after
this recruiting Inspector, was built as a Police post not many months
later practically on "The Massacre Ground" in the Cypress Hills country.
That Fort was a direct and visible challenge to every outlaw, white or
red, who expected to have his own way in British territory.
We shall meet Walsh from time to time in this story and his name simply
occurs here as one of the earliest recruiting officers. I knew him at
different stages in his career, but most particularly when he had
retired from the Force and entered the coal business in Winnipeg. Later
on he was the Civil Governor of the Yukon Territory. Clean-cut in
figure, athletic, wiry and always faultlessly dressed, Walsh was a
good-looking type and bore in his carriage the unmistakable stamp of his
cavalry training. In Winnipeg he was popularly known as the man who had
tamed Sitting Bull, the redoubtable Sioux of Custer Massacre fame, but
others of the Police also had a hand, as we shall see, in that
extraordinary experience.
There was no difficulty in getting men to enlist in the Mounted Police.
This was clearly not due to any mercenary motives on the part of men
enlisting. The remuneration for both officers and men was small, as it
remains comparatively speaking to this day, when we remember that the
work has always called for an unusual degree of endurance, initiative,
reliability and courage. But the Government no doubt placed considerable
reliance on the fact that the spirit of adventure is strong in the
hearts of young men and that the lure of a new land would draw them with
compelling magnetism. In this the authorities were not disappointed. In
fact, Colonel George A. French, a Royal Artillery Officer, then at the
head of the School of Gunnery at Kingston (who died recently after much
distinguished service to the Empire during which he rose to a
Major-Generalship and a Knighthood with many decorations), and who was
early given command of the Mounted Police with the title of
Commissioner, saw the danger of a rush for places in the new Force and
took steps to weed out undesirables. More than once in Toronto and again
at Dufferin in Manitoba when the great venture of the march out into the
unknown began, Colonel French put the matter before the men in a sort of
forlorn-hope admonition. They were to be one of the few forces in the
world constantly on active service and neither Garibaldi nor Bruce of
Bannockburn ever warned men more distinctly of what possibly lay ahead
of them. And the picture, as after events proved, was not overdrawn.
These men were to face cold and hunger and the perils of drought in the
various seasons of the year; they were to leave the comforts of
civilization and live under the canopy of the sky amidst the storms of
summer and the blizzards of winter; they were to be called to root out
nests of outlaws who had no scruples about taking human life, and they,
a mere handful of men, were to control and guide Indians whose brethren
to the south of the boundary were engaging attention of thousands of
soldiers in the endeavour to keep them in order. All this and more did
French tell the new recruits. But only a very few dropped out and
throughout the years the force has attracted a fine class of men both
from Canada and the British Isles. Young men from the towns and farms of
the old Provinces, University Graduates and younger sons of the nobility
in the Mother Land, men of birth and breeding and social advantage have
always been in the ranks. But once in the force there were no social
distinctions sought or recognized. Genuine manhood was the only
hall-mark allowed as a standard. The fine democracy of Robert Burns,--
"The rank is but the guinea stamp;
The man's the gold for a' that,--
has had right of way. There was an intangible but real atmosphere in the
corps which in some quiet but quite definite fashion, eliminated any man
who did not measure up to the mark which the members felt they ought to
reach. Mr. Charles Mair, the author and frontiersman, already quoted,
says finely, "The average Mounted Policeman was an idealist regarding
the honour of his corps; and if, as sometimes happened, a hard character
crept into it, physically fit, a good rider or a good shot, but coarse,
cruel and immoral, he fared ill with his fellows, and speedily betook
himself to other employment."
The men who first enlisted in the East, mainly in Ontario, in September,
1873, were sent away westward by the Great Lakes and the difficult
Dawson Route to the Red River country in order to be on the ground and
get down to work preparatory to the trek towards the setting sun. The
Dawson Route, so-called after the designer of it, was a trail which
utilized the water-stretches and on the whole was more suited to
amphibious animals than human beings. Some of the men now coming over it
with the police had travelled it with Wolseley a few years previously
and would have vivid recollections of the flies and mud and portages and
the need of manufacturing skidways over the bogs, but they would also
recall the irrepressible and uproarious spirit in which they used to
sing of their additional accomplishments in the rollicking "Jolly Boys"
chorus:
"'Twas only as a volunteer that I left my abode,
I never thought of coming here to work upon the road."
The Police, however, were coming in the fall of the year and escaped
some of the plagues of the earlier seasons. They duly landed at Lower
Fort Garry, the old Hudson's Bay post still romantically standing on the
banks of the Red River some 20 miles north of the present city of
Winnipeg. They came in three troops or divisions, "A," "B," and "C," of
fifty men each, which was the number of the Force which the law-makers
at Ottawa thought would be sufficient to patrol 300,000 square miles of
territory where lawlessness was beginning to be rampant. In the meantime
it was not very pleasant for the Police to land at the Fort near the
beginning of winter and to learn a few days afterwards that their winter
clothing had been commandeered by the weather and frozen in somewhere on
the Dawson Route. But this too was accepted with good grace by the men
who had declined to be sifted out of the Force by the warnings given
them as to hardships ahead.
These men at Lower Fort Garry had been on the pay-roll since their
enlistment in September, but they were not actually on service till the
3rd of November, 1873, when they were sworn in by Lieut.-Colonel Osborne
Smith, who was then in command of the Western Military District with
headquarters at Winnipeg. It is not generally known that Colonel Osborne
Smith, who had seen service in the Crimea and the Fenian Raid in 1866,
was really appointed Commissioner of the Police so as to give him full
authority until a successor was invested with the command. But I have
before me as I write the elaborate parchment which so appointed Colonel
Smith. It is dated September 25, 1873, and bears the signature of J. C.
Aikins (afterwards Governor of Manitoba) as Secretary of State as well
as that of Sir John A. Macdonald. Colonel Osborne Smith, whom I knew
well in later days and under whom I served in the Winnipeg Light
Infantry, brigaded in 1885 with some of the Police of this original
troop, was an ardent Canadian Imperialist, and I imagine it was he who
drew up the enlistment oath that was subscribed before him that day at
the old Fort. In view of the fact that the word "Canadian" has been
substituted in the name of the Force for the word "North-West" and that
the jurisdiction of the corps has now been extended over the whole
Dominion, it is suggestive of prophetic vision that the original oath
should have borne the heading "Mounted Police of Canada."
It is also interesting to note in connection with this oath, which
pledges faithful performance of duty and the protection and due care of
their equipment and other public property, that the first signature is
that of Arthur Henry Griesbach, who was then Regimental Sergeant-Major,
but who later on became one of the ablest Superintendents. He has
already been referred to as the special adviser of Sir John A. Macdonald
in Ottawa for some months prior to the organization of the Police, and
on this account shares with Sir John the designation of the "Father of
the Force." Griesbach's signature was witnessed by Samuel B. Steele, who
was then Troop Sergeant-Major, and who, after very notable service in
the Police and the Militia, was promoted to a Major-Generalship and
Knighted. Amongst other well-known signatures is that of John Henry
McIllree, then a Sergeant who, with much excellent work in the Force to
his credit, became Assistant Commissioner and is now retired with the
rank of Colonel and the Imperial Service Order. The list of men on that
first roll holds the signatures of many whose names became household
words in Western Canada and whose contribution to the Empire was of
far-reaching value. They were the real originals of a corps which was
looked on by many as an experiment in the beginning. But their work set
such a high standard for those who came after them that men who joined
in later years felt the pressure of prestige to which they must live up
if they were to hold their place in the organization. The result has
been that the reputation of this remarkable corps has grown with the
years and any writer of their history would be sadly lacking in the
historical sense if he did not see how profoundly they have influenced
for good the trend of life west of the Great Lakes.
It is worth while at this point to emphasize and illustrate this
statement for the sake of readers who may not know the history of the
West as some of us do who have lived in the country all our days and
have witnessed the developments throughout the passing years. Nothing
could be a greater mistake than to look upon the Mounted Police as a
body separate from the elements that have gone to the making of the
Canadian West. As a body, it is true, they were aloof from partisan
political strife, from class struggles in the social order and from the
activities of commercial endeavour, but their influence was felt
constantly on the pulse of the growing country which, like a boisterous
growing boy, needed restraint and guidance in reaching the fullness of
its powers. They were not party men, politically or socially, but they
saw that every person and every organization that was sane and
law-abiding and constructive, got fair play without interference from
anyone. The Police did not as a body engage in commercial activities
themselves, but they made it possible for the settler and the miner and
the railroad-builder and others in all lawful occupations to go about
their work in peace and develop the country under the shield of police
protection. In brief, the record of this famous corps is woven into
Western history to such a degree that without the fibre of that record
the present great fabric of a new land, strong, sound and unbreakable,
would have been impossible.
Two things specifically might be said here in this regard. Butler, in
the famous report already quoted, dwelt eloquently, it will be
remembered, on the necessity for the organization of a force that would
be a protector and guide to the settlers who would flow into the West.
It is rather a curious coincidence that when the first of the Mounted
Police contingent came over the Dawson Route they assisted families on
the way to the Red River country who would probably never have got
through without the help of these kindly giants. And that was just a
prophecy of what was to be the rule. Settlers did not hesitate to go
where there was Mounted Police protection and the occasional patrol to
remote homesteaders to see whether there was anything required made the
lot of many a lonely household much more carefree and happy than it
would otherwise have been. There is absolutely no doubt that the tide of
humanity flowed freely into the vast new frontier land by reason of the
fact that the scarlet-coated riders had made the wilderness a safe abode
and a place of opportunity for the law-abiding and the industrious. Thus
did the Police fulfil the vision of Butler and make the settlement of
the great areas not only possible but speedy.
Another impressive way in which the Mounted Police made history was
their extraordinary handling of the Indian tribes who were the original
possessors of the soil. History, both ancient and modern, is full of the
bitter tragedies created by the way in which incoming people have
treated original inhabitants of the lands they were coming to possess.
In our own day just across the border, owing to mishandling by some
unfaithful Government agents and other causes, there was war for decades
between the Government and the Indians, who looked upon the cavalry and
other military bodies in that country as their enemies. This was never
the case with our Western Country. The first business our Mounted Police
did was to stand between the Indians and the vile creatures who would
give them drink and rob them of all they possessed. So that some two
years after the scarlet tunic had made its appearance in the foothill
country, Crowfoot, the famous Chief of the warlike Blackfeet, referring
to the Police, said in his beautiful imagery, "They have protected us as
the feathers protect the bird from the frosts of winter." The Indians
knew that they could not commit crime and go unpunished any more than
the white man, but the Indians also knew that the Police would see that
every man, whether red or white, got fair play. Hence the Indians
recognized the Police as their friends and not as their enemies. With
thousands of Indians, accustomed to almost constant war, thrown upon
their hands, the Police never had any real revolt on the part of the
Indians to deal with save only when the mad Riel inveigled a few of them
on the war-path by cunning guile. And with some personal knowledge of
that whole affair we venture to say that had the warning given by
Superintendent Crozier and other Policemen months before the outbreak
been taken, and had the Police Force been doubled and given a free hand,
there would have been no rebellion and no bloodshed. But when the
outbreak did come we are also ready to affirm, as amongst those who took
part in its suppression, that but for the missionaries and the Police
the rebellion would have been far more widely spread. And equally are we
ready to declare that the Police were the backbone of every brigade in
which they served, and this we say without any desire to minimize the
arms of the service to which we belonged.
It was the swearing in of the "originals" of the Mounted Police that led
to the writing of these special reflections. For on looking back over
the years of this West that I have known from childhood, it seems to me
that the day of that first enlistment oath was a pivotal point around
which much of the destiny of Western Canada would turn for the rest of
recorded time. Hence it is at this stage of the story that the formative
day at Lower Fort Garry should be noted.
That winter in the old stone-walled fort was a busy one for the new
recruits. After they were sworn in by Colonel Osborne Smith, that
officer returned to his duties at Upper Fort Garry. He had done a good
day's work, and if he addressed the men in the crisp, incisive style I
have often heard him use on patriotic occasions, then he had made
additional contribution to the considerations that inspired the Police
to determined endeavour. On his leaving Superintendent W. D. Jarvis, who
had seen service in Africa and became a very popular officer, took over
the duties of Adjutant and Riding Master, Griesbach took charge of
discipline and foot-drill, while S. B. Steele, popularly known in the
West to the close of his days as Sam Steele, looked after the breaking
of the broncos and gave instruction in riding, which latter proved to be
highly necessary. There were no eight-hour days, the only limit being
the daylight each way. Steele drilled five rides a day in the open, and
the orders were that, unless the thermometer dropped beneath 36 degrees
below zero, a rather cool temperature, the riding and breaking were to
proceed. The broncos were of the usual exuberant type, given to every
device to throw a rider, and falls on the frozen ground were not
infrequent, but by spring the men knew how to handle broncos so as to
become the pioneers of fine horsemanship amongst the riders of the
plains.
Lieut.-Colonel French came in November, 1873, and assumed his command.
It did not take him long to see that a handful of 150 men, however
gallant, would be totally inadequate for the gigantic undertaking ahead
of them. The Force has always been too small in numbers, but at the
outset the proposed strength was absurdly below the mark. Fortunately
the news of the lawlessness that was abroad in the far West made it
possible for Colonel French to get the proposed number doubled and
brought up to the 300 which Constable T. A. Boys made famous in his
well-known poem "The Riders of the Plains," from which we quote the
following verses:
"We muster but three hundred
In all this Great Lone Land,
Which stretches from Superior's shore
To where the Rockies stand;
But not one heart doth falter,
No coward voice complains,
Tho' all too few in numbers are
The Riders of the Plains.
"Our mission is to raise the Flag
Of Britain's Empire here,
Restrain the lawless savage,
And protect the Pioneer;
And 'tis a proud and daring trust,
To hold these vast Domains,
With but three hundred Mounted Men,
The Riders of the Plains.
"And though we win no fame or praise
But struggle on alone
To carry out good British rule,
And plant old England's throne;
Yet when our task is ended,
And Law and Order reigns,
The peaceful settler long will bless
The Riders of the Plains."
Meanwhile down in Eastern Canada the left wing of the Force was being
recruited and, permission being obtained from the United States, three
divisions, rather over strength, left Toronto on June 6, 1874, and came
west via Chicago and St. Paul to the end of steel at Fargo in North
Dakota. Colonel French had gone back East to come out with them. It was
a motley outfit that dumped itself out of the train on that Dakota
plain. The men were a carefully selected and fine appearing lot, and the
horses were of the handsome Eastern type; but the wagons in pieces to be
assembled, and the saddles shipped from England in parts, were strewn
over the ground for acres. The Fargo people rather enjoyed the idea of
these men with their interesting mission being amongst them for a week
or so getting ready for the trail. But to the amazement of those
townsfolk the Police starting at four o'clock in the morning and working
in four-hour relays "hit the trail" within twenty-four hours and pulled
out their cavalcade for the trip to Canadian Territory. It had taken two
weeks from Toronto, including the rather testing experience for men of a
day off in Chicago and St. Paul, so that we like Colonel French's note
at this point saying, "I must say I felt a great load off my shoulders
at again being on Canadian soil." But the Police had begun early to
create a good impression, and he adds, "The conduct of the men had been
most exemplary, their general appearance and conduct invariably
attracting the favourable notice of the railway officials and others _en
route_." In preparation for the march westward to the foothills of the
Rockies the three divisions "A," "B," and "C" that had been quartered
for the winter at Lower Fort Garry left that point on June 7, 1874, and
were at the rendezvous at Dufferin near the boundary line to greet the
Commissioner and the three divisions "D," "E," and "F," which had come
through as related from Toronto.
Just before leaving Lower Fort Garry with the original divisions,
Inspector James Farquharson McLeod had been appointed Assistant
Commissioner of the Force. Thus one of the noted figures in the after
history of Western Canada came upon the scene of his future work and
triumphs. McLeod had served as Assistant Brigade Major in Wolseley's Red
River expedition and for his services then received the brevet rank of
Lieut.-Colonel and the C.M.G. He was originally from Calgarry in
Scotland (hence the name of the city of Calgary in Alberta in his
honour) and had all the judicial faculty of the Scot coupled with the
ardour of his Highland ancestry. His absolute reliability and fearless
fairness gave him an influence over the Indians in later days that can
only be described as extraordinary, and the time came when that
commanding power over the warlike Blackfeet stood Canada in good stead.
Commissioner French lost no time in getting his men into shape at the
rendezvous. From the divisions he brought with him he drafted fifty men
to bring the original divisions up to strength. He arranged the night
camp with the Eastern horses inside the zariba of wagons, and the
Western horses, mostly broncos, on the outside--an arrangement that
turned out well in view of a stampede that took place. The occasion of
the stampede (and there is nothing more fearful than a stampede of
maddened animals) was a terrific thunderstorm, which transformed the
prairie into a sea of electric flame and sent bolts crashing into the
zariba amidst the horses that were tied to the wagons. Sergt.-Major Sam
B. Steele (that was then his rank), who was riding near this enclosure,
thus vividly described the scene: "A thunder-bolt fell in the midst of
the horses. Terrified, they broke their fastenings, and made for the
side of the corral. The six men on guard were trampled under foot as
they tried to stop them. The maddened beasts overturned the huge
wagons, dashed through a row of tents, scattered everything, and made
for the gate of the large field in which we were encamped. In their mad
efforts to pass they climbed over one another to the height of many
feet. I had full view of the stampede, being not more than 50 yards from
the horses as they rushed at the gate and attempted to pass it,
scrambling and rolling over one another in one huge mass." Inspector
(now Colonel) Walker leaped on a passing horse and went out with them
into the night. He pursued the frightened animals for some 50 miles
across the boundary, and helped to round them up and bring them back
twenty-four hours after they had stampeded. Colonel Walker says: "The
horses did not get over their fright all the summer, and had to be
watched closely as any unusual noise would stampede them." This was
truly an exciting introduction to prairie life.
Commissioner French, who had been sworn into his office on December 16,
1873, was handling the situation with the thoroughness and ability of a
trained soldier. He believed in discipline and showed independence by
declining to tolerate any outside interference with the work of the
Force. Perhaps it was French who laid the foundations for the
non-partisan character of the Police by resisting anything which bore
the resemblance of using political pull to secure place and promotion in
the corps. He stood strongly for merit as the basis for preferment.
Evidence is not lacking to show that Ottawa was rather too much disposed
to run the Force by long-range activity on behalf of some favourites.
Dispatches came from the seat of Government, showing pronounced lack of
knowledge of local circumstances and requirements. To some of these
French replied so forcibly that interference with the internal
management of the Force largely ceased in time. In one case, amongst
French's books of letters, I found this recently: "Sub-Constable ----
has not as yet shown the necessary qualification to justify his
promotion to the position of Acting Constable, much less to that of a
Commissioned Officer." In another case he wrote: "I beg to point out
that if the members of this Force are encouraged to communicate with the
Department direct, thereby ignoring all those supposed to be placed in
authority over them, it will be very difficult to maintain anything like
proper discipline in the Force." Wise man, who saw a dangerous tendency,
and courageous man to point it out with frankness. At another time some
wise person suggested to pay by cheque, to which French replied, "Who
will cash them in the wilderness?" Similarly, he objected to members of
the Force being encouraged to write of their grievances to the
newspapers.
That French looked carefully into details for the sake of the men's
comfort is evidenced by letters in his book which protest against an
inferior kind of tea being sent out for use in the Force, and that he
was very watchful against the class of people who, on various pretexts,
try to get some of the Government property, is attested by the following
letter to a man whom I remember well to be of that shark type: "In
answer to your letter of the 28th of August, I beg to say that I do not
see the necessity of giving you a Government wagon, because, through
some carelessness in your business arrangements, you have lost one of
your own." There is wit as well as rebuke in that communication. On the
whole we repeat that, though he had a task of unusual difficulty, French
laid the foundation of the Force, and gave the superstructure a trend
that affected for good the after history of the famous corps. It was
this man who was now to lead his column on the longest march in history
for a column carrying its own supplies. He was leading it "out into the
unknown," but though many prophesied disaster, he was not to fail.