THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. 233 



tion beset with such difficulties, and where any 

 serious mistakes on the part of those who conducted 

 it would most probably have led to disastrous results. 



II. 



The force consisted of the 1st Battalion 60th Eifles, 

 two battalions of Canadian Militia, a detachment of 

 Royal Engineers, and a detachment of Royal Artil- 

 lery, with four 7-pounder guns. 



^Navigation opens usually on Lake Superior about 

 the 8th or 10th of May ; and it was essential that the 

 troops for the Red River Expedition should rendez- 

 vous at the earliest possible date in Thunder Bay, on 

 the western shores of that lake. 



As described in the previous chapter, all ships sail- 

 ing from Collingwood for that place must pass through 

 the canal at the Sault Ste Marie, which runs exclu- 

 sively through United States territory. To send sol- 

 diers through that canal had never been contemplated. 

 They were to be landed on our side of the Ste Marie 

 River, below the rapids, to march up the Canadian 

 bank about three miles, and then embark again in the 

 same steamers in which they had sailed from Colling- 

 wood, and which in the mean time were to have 

 gone round through the canal. During the war be- 

 tween the Xorth and South, we had never made any 

 remonstrances when the Washington Government 



