A CLOSE VIEW OF FENIAN RAID

Sometime Allanburg Man Tells Experiences of Historic Days

[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 8 December 1925]

             A very interesting relation of the Fenian Raid experience of a native of Welland County is conveyed in a letter given the Tribune and Telegraph by J.A. Ramsden of Port Colborne, written to Mr. Ramsden by John R. Vanderburgh, born at Allanburg and now a resident of Powell, Ohio.

             The letter follows:

             “I was greatly interested in reading the various letters printed in The Welland Tribune and Telegraph that you have been sending me regarding the Fenian Raid of 1866.”

             “I had a little knowledge of the fight or rather aftermath of the fight myself but I don’t think I ever gave you any particular account of it so I will do so now.”

             “At the time of the Fenian invasion of Canada I was learning to be a boot and shoemaker with Miles Vanalstine at Allanburg and when I heard that the Fenians were in our country, having crossed Niagara River at Fort Erie, I was working on a pair of boots. I immediately threw them down and started for Ridgeway at 7 o’clock and when I got there, the battle was just over. I walked down to the battleground and they had all left, and I walked about the battleground and found two dead Fenians lying on the ground, of them had been shot in the abdomen and one of his socks was shoved partly into the hole to stop the blood. Near there I found a prayer book and a whiskey flask, one that you could take the bottom off and use to take a drink. I picked up one of their rifles and pretty soon afterwards I came upon two dead men of the Queen’s Own Company. I saw two men quite a way off and I went to them and asked them to come and help me carry them off the field as they laid right in the sun. They came back with me and we carried them to a shady spot and left them. One of those men was a Mr. W.F. Tempest and the other was a Mr. Woodruff, but they would not help to move the Fenians. I started to go away and was met by a doctor and he told me that two of the Queen’s Own men were lying badly wounded in a house close by and I went with him and found one shot in the hip and both were badly wounded. The doctor then asked me to stay with them and I stayed all night with them. He put a pitcher of water where it was handy and I kept the pitcher full of cold water and they drank considerable through the night. Some people came in the morning and offered to stay in my place until the young doctor came. I then went back to Ridgeway early in the morning. I had only been there a few minutes when four Fenians came to the railroad. There was a box car empty lying on the siding and I told them to get into that but one of demurred and I pulled a revolver on them and you would have laughed to see them pile into that car. I was at the car about an hour when along came six more and unarmed, in charge of some fellows, and they were also shoved into that car with the other four. I left them in the care of the fellows who brought the last lot that were put in the car. I then trudged back towards Uncle John Ramsden’s on my way home. Aunt Mary gave me a good lunch and I asked for you, and she told me she did not know where you were as you had gone off on horseback with some officials to carry dispatches as the telegraph wires had been cut and there was no way to get the news from Ridgeway except by messengers. I tell you that was a good lunch I had there, and I was hungry and had no money with me, having left my money in the pants I took off, but I had my revolver all right. I traded the Fenian rifle the day before for a chunk of bread. I was in such a hurry leaving Allanburg the morning before that I left my money in the pants I took off. When I arrived back to Allanburg I found the whole village had been looking for me.”