Page:History of the Fenian raid on Fort Erie with an account of the Battle of Ridgeway.djvu/9

iv I have taken every pains to make the story I have written as accurate as possible. The description of the scene of operations is to a great extent based on personal observation, as I am well acquainted with the whole of that section of the country. The account of the crossing of the Fenians was obtained partly from the newspapers, partly from the people living on the spot, and partly from an officer in the Fenian Forces who courteously gave me a great deal of information as to their crossing, their line of march, and their subsequent movements.

My information on the Plan of Campaign was obtained by personal observation, and from conversation with all the leading officers of each column, and there is no doubt as to its correctness.

The chapter on the Battle of Ridgeway gave me more trouble than all the others united. The accounts were so conflicting that I almost gave it up in despair; each person that I spoke to about it knew what had happened immediately in his own neighbourhood and with his own company; all that had occurred elsewhere he either knew nothing about, or else had heard accounts of it second hand. The great difficulty I experienced was in dividing what the relater knew of his own knowledge, and what he had heard; in some cases the information from both sources was so thoroughly knitted together that I failed, but after having heard about a hundred different stories, and cross questioned as many different people, I think I have arrived as close to the facts as is possible. I not only enquired of volunteers engaged, but went to the scene of the fight three different times, going over the ground and enquiring of farmers, some of whom had seen the whole fight from the Fenian lines, some from our own.