The general advance began at 11.45 a.m., Major Buchan of
the 90th leading the right wing, and Major Boswell of
the same corps the left. When the rebels saw this a number
of them rushed forward on the left of the ravine, and
the fighting for a time was carried on at close quarters,
the enemy not being over sixty yards away. An old log
hut and a number of barricades, formed by placing old
trees and brushwood between the boulders, enabled them
to make it exceedingly warm for our men for a time. At
this point several of the 90th were wounded, and General
Middleton himself had a narrow escape, a bullet going
through his fur hat. Captains Wise and Doucet, of Montreal,
the General's Aide-de-camps, were wounded about this
time. "C" infantry behaved remarkably well all through,
and bore the brunt of the general advance for some time,
the buckshot from the rebels doing much damage. The rebel
front was soon driven back, but neither here nor at any
other time could the rebels' loss be ascertained. The
Indians among them, who were armed with guns, appeared
to devote themselves mainly to shooting the horses. A
good many Indians were hit, and every time one of them
was struck the others near him raised a loud shout, as
if cheering. The troops pressed on gallantly, and the
rebel fire slackened, and after a time died away, though
now and then their front riflemen made a splurge, while
the others made their way back. Captain Forrest, of the
90th, headed the advance at this point, Lieutenant Hugh
J. Macdonald (son of Sir John Macdonald), of this company,
who had done excellent service all day, kept well up with
Forrest, the two being ahead of their men, and coming in
for a fair share of attention from the retreating rebels.
Macdonald was first reported as killed and then as wounded,
but he was not injured, though struck on the shoulder by
spent buckshot. Forrest's hat was shot off. At 12.50 the
rebels were far out of range, going towards Batoche's,
and the Battle of Fish Creek was practically over.
[Footnote: I am chiefly indebted to the Toronto _Mail_
for the foregoing account of the battle.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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