Page:History of the Fenian raid on Fort Erie with an account of the Battle of Ridgeway.djvu/79

74 The column at Port Colborne being placed under the command of Capt. Akers, by Col. Lowry with the consent of the officers, was also ordered in the night to move down in the direction of Fort Erie to partake in the engagement which it was thought would take place on Sunday.

At 3 a.m. Capt. Akers ordered the réveille to sound, and arrangements were made for serving out rations and ammunition. At 5 o'clock he started by rail towards Fort Erie with about 1000 men, preceded by a pilot engine, leaving the 13th behind to guard Port Colborne.

Arriving at Shirks' crossing, he disembarked the men and threw out a line of skirmishers with supports from the 7th P.A.O., with orders for the flank supporters to wheel outwards and extend at once in case of any sign of flank attack. In this order he advanced to the Garrison road, and by that to Fort Erie. After resting the men for about an hour at the scene of the battle of the day before, the command marched quietly into Fort Erie, and were encamped on the high ground above the village, where the other corps had already been stationed. By noon on Sunday, about 3500 men were concentrated on the heights above Fort Erie, while the 13th Battalion held Port Colborne, and a battalion of 450 men under command of Lieut.-Col. Robert B. Denison were stationed at Clifton to hold the Suspension Bridge.

The force at Fort Erie was reduced during Monday and Tuesday the 4th and 5th June, to about 2000 men which were detained there for three weeks watching the proceedings of some 6000 or 8000 Fenians, who were said to have gathered in Buffalo and intended to effect another crossing, after some days these Fenians were sent to their homes, the United States Government furnishing their transportation, and thereupon the main portion of our force were sent home, 800 men and 6 guns, without cavalry, being detained on the frontier for some three weeks longer.