Page:History of the Fenian raid on Fort Erie with an account of the Battle of Ridgeway.djvu/44

 CHAPTER V.

THE BATTLE Of RIDGEWAY.

We have already seen that Capt. Akers, acting upon the information received from the Customs officer as to the position of the Fenians, had decided that the best route from Port Colborne to Stevensville, was by rail to Ridgeway and from there to Stevensville by the road. The information was, that the Fenians were encamped at Frenchman's Creek at 6 p.m. But that was no proof where they would be at 7 a.m. next morning. Hereafter, in describing the Fenian line of march, it will be shewn that they were on the march to Ridgeway on Lieut.-Col. Booker's arrival there.

Lieut.-Col. Booker was, on this eventful morning, for the first time in his life, in command of a Brigade. He was an old volunteer officer, although still young in years. He had served in the Hamilton Field Battery for some time before the Volunteer force of 1855 was organized, and from that time to the present has been an enthusiastic and zealous officer. He was appointed commandant of the active force in Hamilton, in 1857, and a few years ago, while still holding that position, he organized the 13th Battalion of Volunteers in Hamilton. He always had the reputation of being a good officer, and was the first to obtain a first class certificate from the Board for examining Volunteer Officers. During his whole military career he had never commanded a Brigade of Infantry, even at a review, and was sent to the front merely as commanding his regiment, the 13th, and not in any other capacity. Chance threw him into the position of a Brigadier General on the morning of a battle, without any staff, without any mounted orderlies, without artillery, or cavalry, and without a mounted officer in the field but himself. Such was the position in which he found himself when forming up his command at the village of Ridgeway, after taking them off the cars.