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FENIAN RAID OF ‘66 (Part 5)
EXTRACTS FROM THE TRIBUNE OF FORTY-TWO YEARS AGO, TELLING OF THE NOTED INVASION.
[People's Press, 26 May 1908]
“Early Saturday morning the Fenians broke camp, started westward, and then turned and almost doubling on their track, took the road leading south past Buck’s tavern and proceeded on towards Ridgeway. Before reaching the Black church, however, their ammunition wagon had stuck fast in a mudhole, and they abandoned some 3,000 cartridges, which were on Sunday taken possession of by a detachment of the 10th Royals. When nearing Ridgeway, and between that place and Stevensville, the volunteers from Port Colborne under Col Booker were encountered, and here the Battle of Lime Stone Ridge took place, the principal fighting being done on the farms of Messrs. Teal and Anker. Our forces numbered about 800, comprising the Queen’s Own of Toronto, under Major Gilmore, and the Thirteenth Battalion of Hamilton, with the York and Caledonia Rifles. Had this engagement, which was brought on by mismanagement on the part of the officers, been avoided, a junction of Booker’s and Peacock’s forces would have been formed, and the main body of the Fenians no doubt bagged on Saturday.”
The above was taken from the Welland Tribune, dated June7, 1866. Next week we reprint the account of the battle of the Ridge, as described by an eye-witness.
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