Page:History of the Fenian raid on Fort Erie with an account of the Battle of Ridgeway.djvu/40

Rh arranging a junction with Col. Peacock. Capt. Akers was sent to go with Lieut.-Col. Booker, and consult and advise with him on Col. Peacock's plan, and assist him in carrying it out. Col. Dennis was sent to command the "Queen's Own," and yet, before receiving any answer from Col. Peacock, both these officers, in disobedience of orders, went off in the tug to carry out their own plan.

The only way in which their conduct can be accounted for is, that they were so confident that Colonel Peacock would at once fall in with their plan of operation in lieu of his own, that they never, for one moment, calculated that his answer would be in the negative. Being imbued with this idea, it can readily be imagined that Capt. Akers would not be very particular in going into details, and explaining minutely to Lieut.-Col. Booker the plan which they both looked upon as virtually abandoned, it can also be conceived, even if Capt. Akers did enter minutely into the details of the plan laid down by Col. Peacock, that Lieut.-Col. Booker, believing that it was a useless precaution, would not give so close attention to it, or be able so clearly to remember it, as if he felt when he heard it that he was about setting out to put it in execution.

It also happened, unfortunately, that Capt. Akers, fearing the delays which so often occur in the movements of a large number of men, as a matter of precaution, directed them to start an hour earlier than they should, and to be an hour earlier at Stevensville, thinking that in all probability at least an hour would be lost in setting off or on the march, and that if they were before the time they might be kept back a little on the way. If he had staid with them to have kept them back, it would have been all right, but unfortunately he was away when he was wanted.

Lieut.-Col. Dennis and Capt. Akers, as stated in the report, without receiving any answer from Col. Peacock, left Port Colborne about 4 a. m. in the tug " Robb" which had at that time arrived, taking with them the Welland Garrison Battery under command of Capt. Richard S. King, and a few men of