St Catharines Artillery

[Bill Smy]

Examining issues of the Canada General Service Medal for the 1866 Fenian Raid in the Niagara peninsula, there seems to have been be two militia artillery units headquartered in St Catharines, Ontario.

One, the St Catharines Garrison Artillery (sometimes known as Stokers' Battery), is known to have existed, but some other medal recipients are listed as belonging to the St Catharines Field Battery.

Were, in fact, these the same unit?

 

[FJAG]

I've just had a quick look into this and the answer is I'm not sure yet but it looks to me like there were two distinct batteries involved.

Standing Orders for the RCA Vol II Heritage and Lineage states at page 3-1/24 that as at March 1866 there were two batteries in the St Catharines area: St Catharine's Battery (Volunteer Garrison Battery of Artillery) and "Port Colborne" Field Battery.

http://www.artillery.net/beta/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/RCA-SOs-Vol-II-sm.pdf

The Facebook page for 56th Field Regiment mentions that its 10th Battery traces its lineage to the 10th (St Catharine's) Battery CFA which itself traces its lineage through the 7th "Welland Canal" Field Battery CA to the "Volunteer Militia Field Battery of Militia of Port Colborne".

https://www.facebook.com/pages/56th-Field-Artillery-Regiment-RCA/191908914176729?sk=page_map

and this thread

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-6389.html

From this I gather that there were two batteries in the region of St Catharines around 1866, a garrison artillery battery at St Catharines proper and a field artillery battery at Port Colborne - the two towns are approximately 20 miles apart and very much had a shared history as the primary connecting ports between Lake Ontario (Port Dalhousie/St Catherines) and Lake Erie (Port Colborne) via the original Welland Canal system.

Generally garrison artillery and field artillery were two distinct entities and therefore I don't think the two that you cited were the same entity. I would think that the field battery that you mentioned was in fact the field battery in Port Colborne which subsequently took on a "St Catharine" designation.

 

[Old Sweat]

I am not at home so I don't have access to my files, but FJAG is correct about two batteries in the Niagara area circa 1866. The Welland Canal Field Battery (WCFB), which is the parent of the 10th Field Battery, and the St Catharines Garrision Battery (not its correct name.) Both were called out in June 1866 in response to the Fenian invasion. The St Catharines Battery guarded the river crossing at Chippewa while the WCFB originally guarded the locks at Port Colborne. Both were acting as infantry at the time, as the field battery's guns had been moved to Hamilton to prevent their capture in a Fenian coup de main.

During the early morning hours of June 2nd, 147 years ago today, the WCFB was loaded on the steam tug WT Robb which then steamed into the Niagara River between Fort Erie and Buffalo to prevent Fenians from crossing in either direction. Unfortunately the senior officer on the Robb, LCol J Stoughton Dennis, had delusions of grandeur and decided to land the troops, totaling somewhere between 70 and 80, to take the Fenian surrender when they retreated to Fort Erie after having been defeated in battle further inland. It didn't work out that way as the Fenians had defeated a militia brigade at Ridgeway and retired to Fort Erie to plan their next step - either continue the fight or return to Buffalo. They engaged the WCFB which fought until it was overwhelmed and its members were taken prisoner. At the first shots Dennis ran away and hid in the woods, but escaped censure in a rigged court martial.

The Fenians attempted to return to the US overnight, but were intercepted and arrested by a gun boat, USS Michigan. They were released after a few days to celebrate the only victory of the Irish independence movement between 1798 and 1920. If, however, the WCFB had not been landed, the Fenians would not have been able to escape and would have been brought to battle on June 3rd. By then there were three British and five Canadian infantry battalions along with artillery and cavalry in the area, and the Fenians would have been defeated. That would have put quite a different light on the events of June 2nd, and we very well could still be celebrating the event to this day.

 

[Old Sweat]

For whatever it is worth, from about 1890 to 1930 Canada remembered her war dead on what was called Decoration Day on a weekend in early June, which was to remember the nine Canadians killed at Ridgeway and the 22 who died of wounds, disease or accident while called to the colours in the Summer of 1866. In 1930 it was decided to commemorate our war dead on November 11th to conform to the practice in the rest of the British Empire.

 

[exspy]

Brian,

Two things.  First, your knowledge of the history of Canadian Artillery is awe inspiring.

I am not at home so I don't have access to my files, but FJAG is correct about two batteries in the Niagara area circa 1866.

If you can present the amount of detail you did in your answer off the top of your head without referring to your files, it's staggering to think of what you could have provided with your files at hand.

Second, I don't understand the following:

If, however, the WCFB had not been landed, the Fenians would not have been able to escape and would have been brought to battle on June 3rd.

How did the landing of the WCFB allow the Fenians to escape?  It seems to me that the Fenians had complete freedom of movement after the battle.  They could have crossed the Niagara River back to the American side at any time.  Or am I misreading the situation?

Cheers,
Dan.

 

[Old Sweat]

The mouth of the  upper Niagara River was being patrolled by the gun boat USS Michigan. The  steam tug W.T. Robb had carried the Dunville Naval Brigade (probably the closest we ever came to marines) to Port Colborne where it also embarked the WCFB. It then proceeded to Fort Erie to prevent Fenian movement across the river. (The Fenian transport was all on the American side.) If the troops had not been landed, and the Robb had stayed on station, the Fenians could not have returned to the American side as any attempt to pick them up would have been interdicted. By the next morning there would have been three British and at least five Canadian infantry battalions in Fort Erie. The Fenians would have been overwhelmed.

As it was, as soon as they entered American waters, they were intercepted and arrested by the Michigan.

Edit: description of area patrolled corrected. In reply to Dan M's comment, I was born in Fort Erie and grew up in Ridgeway close to the battlefield. I wrote about the events in "Prepare for Cavalry" in "Fighting for Canada: Seven Battles, 1758-1945." A recent book by Peter Vronsky on the invasion generally supports my conclusions.

http://www.amazon.ca/Ridgeway-Peter-Vronsky/dp/0670068039/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307775404&sr=8-1