The Book of the West: The story of western Canada, its birth and early adventures, its youthful combats, its peaceful settlement, its great transformation, and its present waysKennedy, Howard Angus
History
The Book of the West: The story of western Canada, its birth and early adventures, its youthful combats, its peaceful settlement, its great transformation, and its present ways
Kennedy, Howard Angus
Northwest, Canadian
Do you wonder what it feels like, to find yourself suddenly for the
first time in the middle of a whistling concert of bullets, knowing that
any one of them may get you? Well, some are scared for a moment, and a
few stay scared. Others are exhilarated by the joy of fighting. On
Cutknife Hill that day, I suppose nearly all, though tired with the long
night ride, quickly recovered from the shock of surprise, and felt
little anxiety except to do their duty as well as they could.
Personally, I felt too much interested to be afraid; nor could I be
upset by the sight of death in ghastly forms, for my calling had
hardened me to that in time of peace. My chief feeling was just a keen
desire to see and understand everything that was going on, to gather up
all the incidents of the battle into a living and accurate story, so
that others could read and realize what I had seen.
The volunteers, whatever they felt, seemed in action cool as veterans;
cool of nerve only, for the sun beat down upon them with all its western
might. They wasted a monstrous lot of lead at first, but presently
settled down to more systematic work, and even imitated a favorite
Indian trick—one man holding up a hat as target and his comrade picking
off anyone who rose to aim at it. Those clerks from Ottawa and students
from Toronto were as steady under the deadly hail as if they had fought
through a hundred battles.
A most heroic scene was enacted by a pair of theological students from
Toronto. Three of the Battleford Home Guard, trying to clear out the
enemy from the creek-bed in our rear, were cut off by a bunch of
Indians. Their only way of escape was by reaching and climbing a
perpendicular earthen cut-bank. Two of the University Company in the
Queen’s Own, Acheson and Lloyd, who had themselves got separated from
their comrades, caught sight of the Battleford men from the top of the
bank and realized their desperate strait. Acheson stretched himself over
the edge and hauled up the refugees by main force as soon as they
reached the foot of the cut-bank, while Lloyd took aim in turn at every
Indian that rose to fire at the rescuer—took aim, but dared not let
fly, for he had only one cartridge left.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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