128 



CANADA, DOMINION OF. 



of forty-five men of the Northwest Mounted 

 Police, under command of Lieut.-Col. Herch- 

 mer; "B " Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery, 

 with two nine-pounders and a Gatling; the 

 Guards sharp-shooters, and the Queen's Own 

 Rifles. Owing to the repeated urgent appeals 

 for assistance from Lieut.-Col. Morris, the offi- 

 cer commanding the mounted police detach- 

 ment at Battleford, Gen. Middleton ordered 

 Col. Otter to conduct the advance with as 

 much rapidity as possible. To carry these 

 instructions out, wagons were procured for 

 the transport of the whole column, and the 

 march of 166 miles was accomplished in five 

 days. On arriving at Battleford, Col. Otter 

 found that the Indians of Poundmaker's and 

 Sweetgrass's reserves were ravaging the neigh- 

 boring country, and were in the habit of carry- 

 ing their raids to within musket-shot of the 

 barricade in the center of the village, which is 

 situated on a high promontory at the junction 

 of the Battle and North Saskatchewan rivers. 

 A building on the opposite side of the Battle 

 river from the village was roughly fortified to 

 keep the marauders in check. On May 1 Col. 

 Otter, in the hope of bringing Poundraaker 

 and his subordinate chiefs into subjection, 

 left Battleford for the great chief's reserve 

 at Cut-Knife Hill, with a flying column, con- 

 sisting of drafts from all the corps of his col- 

 umn. Early on the following day, while the 

 flying column was toiling up the steep slope 

 on the west side of Cut-Knife Creek, it was 

 suddenly attacked in front and on both flanks, 

 simultaneously, by the Indians, who had per- 

 fect cover in a series of little ravines running 

 in the shape of a horseshoe around the posi- 

 tion occupied by the forces. Hurried disposi- 

 tions for defense were immediately made. The 

 wagons were formed into a zareba. and the 

 troops extended in an irregular square. The 

 Indians fought with great spirit, and made 

 several attempts to take the guns of "B" 

 Battery, but were repelled, partly by the ef- 

 fective fire of a Gatling, and partly by counter- 

 charges led by Maj. Short, of "B" Battery. 

 Short, at the head of a number of men, includ- 

 ing some from every corps engaged, drove the 

 Indians out of the ravines, one after the other, 

 and had advanced close to the Indian tepees, 

 which were a considerable distance in rear 

 of the position first occupied by the Indians, 

 when he was ordered by Col. Otter to retire. 

 The whole column withdrew, and while re- 

 tiring down the hill was desperately assailed 

 by the Indians, whose fire at the time the 

 order was given to withdraw had been almost 

 silenced. The force withdrew to Battleford, 

 and was followed for some distance by the In- 

 dians. The troops lost on this occasion eight 

 killed and thirteen wounded. After this en- 

 gagement Col. Otter remained in Battleford, 

 and the Indians carried on their old depreda- 

 tions, but to a less extent. They were in this 

 condition when Gen. Middleton arrived, al- 

 though news of the rebel defeat at Batoche 



appeared to have reached Poundmaker, as an 

 envoy of his had reached Battleford to inquire 

 whether Gen. Middleton had yet arrived, and 

 had said that Poundmaker was anxious to see 

 Middleton. 



The day after Middleton arrived at Battle- 

 ford the information of his arrival was com- 

 municated to Poundmaker, and on May 26 the 

 chief and his whole tribe came into camp, and 

 he, with his leading men, was placed under 

 arrest. The whole of the Indians, as the half- 

 breeds at Batoche had been, were disarmed as 

 far as practicable. 



The only direction from which trouble was 

 now apprehended was in the neighborhood of 

 Fort Pitt, where Big Bear's nomadic band of 

 Crees was supposed to be. Maj.-Gen. T. B. 

 Strange was understood to have reached this 



Eoint about this time with his column, which 

 jft Calgary late in April. This column con- 

 sisted of a troop of mounted police under 

 Maj. Steele; a nine-pounder gun, manned by 

 mounted police ; the Alberta Mounted Rifles, 

 a corps raised in the Calgary district by Maj. 

 Hatton and Capt. Oswald, and composed large- 

 ly of cowboys ; the Ninety-second Winnipeg 

 Light Infantry, and the Sixty-fifth Mount 

 Royal Rifles (the French Canadians). It be- 

 ing understood that Gen. Strange was short 

 of supplies, a steamer was dispatched to Fort 

 Pitt with a quantity of provisions. "When 

 near Fort Pitt a canoe was met with two 

 scouts from Gen. Strange, conveying the in- 

 formation that an engagement had been fought 

 with Big Bear's band, and that Strange had 

 been short of ammunition. Gen. Strange had ' 

 had great difficulties in organizing his trans- 

 port, the distance to be covered being much 

 greater than that of either of the other 

 columns. The first objective point of the col- 

 umn was Edmonton, a post 194 miles to the 

 north of Calgary, which was threatened by 

 the Wood Crees resident in the neighborhood. 

 Edmonton was relieved on May 2. At this 

 place scows were constructed for the advance 

 of the column to Fort Pitt by river. A garri- 

 son was left at Edmonton, and on May 18 the 

 main body of the column left for Fort Pitt. 

 On the way down, a supply post was estab- 

 lished at Victoria, seventy-four miles from 

 Edmonton, and an advance party was pushed 

 forward to Frog Lake, about ninety miles far- 

 ther on, where the massacre already related 

 had taken place. Arriving at Frog Lake, the 

 mutilated remains of the murdered whites 

 were found in the charred ruins of the church 

 and other buildings. On May 24 the Sixty- 

 fifth Battalion had reached Fort Pitt in the 

 scows, and the day following the Ninety- 

 second Battalion and the mounted men joined 

 them, and the whole force, known as the Al- , 

 berta Field Force, was once more united. 



Fort Pitt, which had been evacuated by In- 

 spector Dickens, of the Northwest Mounted 

 Police, under somewhat remarkable circum- 

 stances, was found to have been completely 



