Had they followed their “later and more reliable information,” they would have reached Frenchman’s creek eight hours after the Fenians left it. Colonel Peacocke did not know precisely which route his enemy might pursue inland towards the Welland canal, but strategical prescience led him to provide against the Fenian advance in that direction, and he planned accordingly. The event proved that he had judged correctly. A strange predicament was that of Colonel Peacocke. At Chippewa his advisers and scouts gave contradictory information. His subordinates dividing the command of a distant detachment, set themselves up as superior to him. Major Denison tells the story, thus: “We must go back a little and give an account of what happened at Port Colborne until the arrival of Capt. Akers. It will be remembered that Lieut.-Col. Dennis was sent there on the morning of Friday with 400 men of the Queen’s Own, and directed to occupy and, if necessary, entrench a position there and wait for further orders before an attack was made. He arrived at Port Colborne about noon and hearing that the enemy were not very near the village, billeted the men to enable them to get their dinners, and sent out scouts during the afternoon to discover the position of the Fenians. The day and evening was occupied in this way. In the evening about 11 p. m. Lieut.-Col. Booker arrived with his battalion, the 13th from Hamilton, and being the senior officer took command of the whole force. “At 10 p. m. Mr. Graham, the collector of customs at Fort Erie, arrived with information of the exact position of the Fenian camp. This was at Frenchman’s creek a mile below the Lower Ferry, on Mr. Newbigging’s farm. He had been in their camp at 6 o’clock that evening, and was of opinion there was not more than 700 men, and that as they had been drinking hard during the day they would certainly fall an easy prey to any force that might attack them. Lieut.-Col. Dennis’s _orders were positive not to attack until further orders; the same orders were binding on Lieut.-Col. Booker_, and consequently they could not move to the attack which Mr. Graham urged them on to make, and which he stated would certainly be successful. In order to induce them to move at once to the attack, he suggested that, probably, Colonel Peacocke _was endeavoring to keep the volunteers back in order that the regulars should have all the credit of capturing the Fenians_.”