CHAPTER XII.
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.
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 tookwith 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 theychose 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.