61 YEARS AFTER THE FENIAN RAID

Four Survivors of the Original Highland Co. Queen’s Own Renew Old Memories

[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 19 May 1927]

             The following reminiscences from the Toronto Telegram will be interesting reading to many readers of the Tribune and Telegraph as told by four octogenarians’ survivors of the Fenian raid, members of the Highland company of the Queen’s Own of Toronto, at the battle of Lime Ridge, near Ridgeway, in the township of Bertie, on the morning of June 2^nd, 1866. The names and ages of the veterans are: Henry Swan 86, Andrew Lauder 83, Andrew Black 83 and Geo. H. Leslie 86. They are all residents of Toronto and are still hale and hearty.

             “How are you, Andrew? You’re looking pretty well.”

             “Oh, I’m fine George, and I’ll be 83 in August,” was Andrew’s answer as he gripped his friend’s hand.

             “Well, I’ll be 82 next August, so you’re only a year older,” was the upstanding reply of George.

             “And how are you?” asked George and Andrew in almost one breath a little later when they were joined by a third merry old gentleman whom they also addressed as “Andrew.”

             “Oh, I’m all right,” declared he, “and I’ll be eighty-three this June. I was twenty-one when I was at Ridgeway.” He seemed a bit uncertain over the identity of “George,” whom he hadn’t seen for many a year.

             “Why, I was the left hand man in rear rank of our company and the battalion at Ridgeway. They put the tall fellows at the end always, explained George.

             The floodgates of memory of these three once youthful comrades in arms were soon opened and incident followed incident in a rush always preceded with the query, “Do you remember”- as they vividly recalled this and that event of those days when as youths they stood in the path of the Fenian invaders. Vivid as though there were no sixty long years between, they re-pictured the hot June sunshine of that Saturday, the 2^nd of June, 1866, when after a hungry day and a sleepless night they rushed the woods at the Lime Ridge amid the spattering of bullets in leaf and tree, and saw the first of their comrades fall.

Reunion of Veterans

             It was the Telegram’s high privilege to be present at and have a small part in bringing about recently a reunion of four gallant gentlemen, octogenarians all, who as far as can be ascertained are the sole local survivors of the Highland Company No. 10, in the 2^nd Battalion Volunteer Militia of Canada, Queens’s Own Rifles, of Toronto, when it went to Ridgeway to meet the Fenian invaders in 1866.

             The three who first foregathered were Andrew Lauder, Andrew Black and Geo. H. Leslie, and they proceeded to the home of Henry Swan, the fourth survivor of that historic company, who but recently decided that in his 86^th year it was time to retire from active business.

Tartan at Ridgeway

             Few Toronto people who glory in the record of the Q.O.R. know that at Ridgeway one of its companies, largely Scots, wore the tartan plaid of the 42^nd Black Watch, albeit they had doffed the kilt and wore trews instead. These four survivors recall with pride the wearing of the tartan in that historic company. The tunic was of a dark green.

             The Q.O.R. battalion was formed in April, 1860, by the uniting of four Toronto companies that had been formed in the fifties when the Crimean War had called away the British regulars from Canada. Under the Consolidated Militia Act the 1^st Rifle Company, Toronto; the 3^rd Rifle Company, Toronto, the Highland Rifle Company, Toronto, the Rifle Company, formerly Foot Artillery, with a Barrie company and a Whitby company, were organized into the 2^nd Battalion, Volunteer Militia. Captain A.T. Fulton, of Fulton & Michie, was the first officer of the Highland company.

             When in 1861 the Trent affair created excitement and fear of United States attack other independent companies were formed. The Merchant’s (2), the Civil Service, the Trinity College, the University, the Victoria and on Nov. 21, 1862, a reorganization took place and these companies entered the Q.O.R. also. They wore diverse uniforms and the battalion on parade was unique. Four companies had rifle green with red facings, four had light or dark grey, the Victoria Company a brown uniform and No. 10, the Highland Company wore the famous 42^nd Black Watch tartan kilt and plaid. At Ridgeway they wore trews instead of the kilt, but wore their plaids.

Memories of Fight

             At Ridgeway this 10^th Highland Company was at first in reserve with the 9^th Company, while the half mile advance was made. “Poor Malcolm McEachren was the first man killed. I remember when they brought him I,” recalled Mr. Leslie. “He died in a few minutes.”

             “Just when we were ordered out of reserve to skirmish I remember getting over that snake fence and falling and they thought I was shot too,” declared Andrew Lauder. “The bullets were coming thick then.”

             George Leslie recalled the moment when after the two-hour march in the early morning from Ridgeway Station to where they expected to meet Col. Peacock’s regulars, the word came that the enemy had been sighted and the order was given: “With ball cartridge load.” “It began to look serious to us boys then,” he says.

Now All Passed On

             The vividness of the memories of that day recalled the names of many who had been with them. Alexander Muir was in that Highland Company, “He plucked that maple leaf from one of my uncle’s trees,” says George Leslie. And they named Captain Gardiner and Lieutenant Robt. Gibson of this company, and “Bobby” Bain and “Bob” Bryden.

             “He went to Virginia. I saw him once on a trip and he had a southern accent and said he had “raised right smart of a family,” recalls George Leslie again.

             Other names spring quickly to their lips. Peter Kemp and Bill Reid, and Steve Bryden, and Price Forbes and Willie Wallace the piper. They laugh over a memory of Wallace, but then one says, “They’ve all passed on.” “Every one of them,” is the comment of the four.

             “No, I believe Price Forbes is still alive in Buffalo, says one of them, and all hope it may be that a fifth still survives.

More Incidents

             Andrew Black asks if they remember the man on horseback who came to their headquarters and tried to mislead them. “He was a Fenian spy and they caught him all right.” He also recollected the first of the enemy dead they found in their first rush through the wood. “A big fellow lying on his back with his plug of tobacco resting on his chest.”

             Andrew Lauder recalled helping Color-Sergt. McHardy, shot through the arm and bleeding badly, over the fence when the “retire” order was mistakenly given. Another recalled seeing Charles Lugsdin shot through the arm and lung.

             (Mr. Lugsdin recovered from his wounds and conducted a drug business in Port Colborne for a number of years after.)

             The Highland Company did not share in the forming of a square “to prepare for cavalry.” That was one of the mistakes of the day. They were scattered in skirmish order but the four survivors all declare that despite mistakes, they had the invading Fenians beaten, and the retreat next day of the enemy proves it.

             Two of the Highland Company were wounded, Col-Sergt. McHardy and Pte. White. The latter lost an arm.

Muir Broke His Arm

             Alex. Muir broke his arm at Ridgeway and was sent home.

             Captain Ernest Chambers’ history of the Q.O.R. gives the names of seven killed and twenty-one wounded in the Ridgeway affair.

             After Ridgeway they went back to Port Colborne-“a hot, long march, carrying knapsack and the heavy old Enfield rifle and nothing to eat that day,” says George Leslie.

             They were sent later to Stratford, where they stayed for over a week in readiness to be sent where needed should the Fenians attempt other invasions, then home to Toronto and a great welcome.