CHAPTER XIII.
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.
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 volunteerofficers 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?”
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, andwhile 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 thatstatement, 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 ofToronto, 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 himin 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 officialGazetteannounced 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.”
“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 boundbehind 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.
“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 boundbehind 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.