[CUMBERLAND] THE FENIAN RAID OF 1866 95 
had just escaped. They told us a little of the events, and that early 
that morning a large body of the Fenians had gone back to the American 
shore but that there were still many left about the town. Continuing 
our advance the company searched every haystack and building. In a 
little one storey and a half building it was thought there was a Fenian 
concealed in the attic, so notwithstanding the voluble protestations 
of the Irishwoman in possession, Captain (then private) J. G. Ridout, 
was hoisted up through the trap door to make search. He soon came 
down, not by the way be went up but through the ceiling, bringing 
with him, not a prisoner but a cloud of broken plaster and dust, and 
landing in the middle of the bed which doubled up and broke under his 
weight amid a volley of words from the proprietress. Luckily he 
didn’t land in the middle of the room on the bayonets of the men who 
had crowded into it, but the appearance of the burly ex-adjutant all 
covered with cobwebs as he extricated himself from the bed clothes 
was altogether too farcical to be serious, so the expurgations and danger 
were smothered in uncontrollable laughter. In searching another house 
a strong arm yanked a man out of a cupboard in which he was hiding, 
and sent him swirling into the middle of the room. He acknowledged 
himself to be Father McMahon and had been with the Fenians. 
He was tried at Toronto and sentenced to death but soon after- 
wards was released and sent across the border. 
In another room a dead Fenian was lying. This house we after- 
wards learned was that of a man named Canty, who had long been 
suspected as a Fenian and who when they had come over had brought 
out a sword and announced himself as a major in the “ Patriot Army.” 
On a table in the middle of a neighbouring barn was the body of a man 
(afterwards known to be Lieut. Lonergan of the Fenian forces), with 
his shirt open exposing the death wound in his body, and on the floor 
alongside another dead Fenian. 
The regulation Springfield U.S. Army rifles and accoutrements 
marked U.S. captured showed their official origin. When as was our 
wont, prodding with bayonets the hay and straw in the mows on either 
side, a rustle was heard and a faint voice saying, “ Don’t shoot, [ll 
come out,” when a poor wounded fellow with his arm in a sling emerged 
from the straw. 
These prisoners with others (some 12 or 13 in all), picked up as 
we worked forward, were left behind under guard; but alas when we 
reached the heights overlooking the town and river there before us lay 
the tug and scows with the Fenians close to the American shore with 
an American gunboat near by. 
The quarry had stolen away and we were disappointed of the fight 
we had hoped for. 
