unarmed or but partially armed, without, any of the ideas of a soldier, without the feeling that they had embraced the duties of a soldier, and that their business was to fight, without the esprit de corps of a regular force, without the feeling of confidence which a small patrol will give to each other, formed but a sorry substitute for a cavalry scouting force. The consequence was that the information brought back by them was very conflicting and in many cases very erroneous. The numbers of the enemy were magnified, and although the general weight of evidence fixed the location of the Fenian camp at Frenchman's Creek, the fears of the scouts and their local feelings led them to imagine or to report upon very slight foundation that the whole force of the enemy were coming to Chippawa.[1]
In planning his campaign, therefore, it will be seen that Colonel Peacock was at Chippawa on Friday Night with 400 regular infantry and a battery, and that he expected to be reinforced in the night or morning early, at Chippawa, by the St. Catherines volunteers, Lieut.-Col. Currie, the 10th Royals, Major Boxall, and 150 men of the 47th, under Lieut.-Col. Villiers, in all about 1500 men; at Port Colborne he had the Queens Own, Lieut.-Col. Dennis, and the 13th Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Booker, and the York and Caledonia Rifles, in all about 850 under command of Lieut.-Col. Booker; and as above stated the information was that the enemy were roughly entrenching at Frenchman's Creek, and were marching or
- ↑ To show the value of scouts improvised in this way, an incident worthy of mention is said to have occurred in New Germany; while scouts were being gathered up a man volunteered to ride down to the Fenian camp and bring back valuable information if he was provided with a horse; being very enthusiastic in his loyalty and offers of service, a horse was pressed for his use, and he went off to the Fenian camp and gave them all the information possible about Colonel Peacock's force, and gave them the horse to use. He has not since been seen, the horse was found a day or two afterwards thoroughly used up, and our government have paid the value of it.
commands, to do duty which would be done better by a small force of cavalry, at a smaller cost, is so striking, that I suppose I will only have to hint it, to have it acted upon in the future.
