In the spring of 1870 an Anglo-Canadian military force embarked on
a 1,200 mile journey, half of which would be through the
wilderness, bound for the Red River Settlement, the sight of
present day Winnipeg. At the time the settlement was part of the
vast Hudson's Bay Company controlled territories which Canada was
in the process of purchasing. Today Canada is the second largest
country in the world, but at the time it was a recent creation made
up of three British North American colonies. The British government
of the day, focussed on financial retrenchment and anchored on
anti-imperialist values, would have happily severed its ties with
its North American colonies. The dynamic American republic,
resurgent after the cataclysm of the Civil War, aspired to take
control of all of the British North American territories, including
Canada and the Hudson's Bay Company lands. Canadian Prime Minister
John A. Macdonald knew that for his new country to survive and
prosper it would have to expand across the continent and
incorporate the Hudson's Bay Company's lands, and ultimately the
colony of British Columbia on the Pacific Ocean as well. The HBC
was in decline and wanted to give up the responsibility for its
vast territories. Macdonald would have preferred Britain to take on
this responsibility until Canada was ready, but Westminster was
unwilling. Ready or not, Canada would have to act or risk the
United States getting in ahead of them. In all of this, the
interests of the indigenous people received scant consideration,
and this included the residents of the Red River Settlement. The
population here, about 14,000 strong, was mostly comprised of the
descendants of the Kildonan Scots, farmers who had arrived under
the auspices Lord Selkirk earlier in the century, the mixed race
descendants of English speaking HBC workers and First Nations
women, and the mixed race descendants of French speaking North West
Company workers and First Nations women. The latter group, known as
the Metis, had long before the time of Canada's pending takeover
developed a distinct cultural identity, referring to themselves as
"A New Nation". In 1869 the Metis were nervous of the pending
Canadian takeover. They feared their property rights, the most
tenuous in the community, would not be respected. They also worried
that their culture would be overwhelmed by an influx of English
speaking settlers. Their concerns were reinforced when Canadian
surveyors and road builders arrived in the community. The Canadians
behaved exactly as the Metis had feared prompting the beginning of
an opposition with demands for guarantees. The man who rose to lead
the Metis opposition was Louis Riel, and while his demands were
just, during the winter of 1869/70, supported by the organized
military power of the buffalo hunt, he rode roughshod over the
views of the other communities in residence at Red River. These
included not only the Kildonan Scots and English-speaking mixed
race people, but also Metis opponents and the much smaller and
troublesome Canadian Party. Prime Minister Macdonald had been lax
in acting to accommodate the interests of the Red River residents,
but there was in fact little interest in Canada for the events
unfolding there. Matters were transformed when Riel approved the
execution of a member of the Canadian Party in March of 1870. Much
of English speaking Canada found its voice and demanded a vigorous
response. Macdonald, under considerable pressure, wanted a military
expedition dispatched and he was adamant that the British should
lead it. Even after a deal was completed, resulting in the creation
of the new province of Manitoba, he remained firm in his belief
that a force should be sent to assume control. Despite having
already announced the withdrawal of its Canadian garrison, the
British government reluctantly agreed to commit imperial troops to
the venture. The completion of the deal between Canada and the Red
River settlement was in fact a precondition of British involvement
in the affair. It was also critical that the British troops get to
the settlement and back again before the winter set in. Colonel
Garnet Wolseley was chosen to lead the expedition, and as such,
though in many respects an obscure and minor operation, it is an
important subject of study given that it was his first independent
command and he would rise to become Commander in Chief of the
British Army. It demonstrated an attention to detail that would be
fundamental to his rise up through the army hierarchy and utilized
a transportation technique that he would attempt to replicate in
his more famous Gordon Relief Expedition of 1884/1885. It also
introduced a number of the personalities who would later become
firmly entrenched as members of the Wolseley Ring. There was no
good route from Canada to the Red River Settlement. The expedition,
comprised of British regulars and Canadian militia, travelled first
by steamer to Thunder Bay on Lake Superior and then by an
incomplete road to Shebandowan Lake. The state of the road would
become one of the major talking points of the whole affair. From
Shebandowan Lake they went by row boat utilizing the old North West
Company's canoe highway, carrying all the supplies they would need
for the journey. They suffered the challenges of having to cross 47
portages, run multiple river rapids, and weather significant storms
on some of the larger lakes of the interior. It rained, frequently
torrentially, for roughly half of the days between their arrival at
Thunder Bay and their reaching of Fort Garry at the Red River
Settlement. On the days it didn't rain, they were feasted upon by
the billions of insects resident in the woods of the Canadian
Shield. Many historians have written on the events of the troubles
at Red River in 1869/70, but the expedition itself is usually
treated as a footnote and given a few lines or at most a paragraph.
The author has found only one relatively recent account (published
in the 1980s) that dealt with the expedition in detail and he has
frequently, though respectfully, disagreed with many of the
assertions and conclusions found therein. Consequently, it has been
found necessary to go to the expeditionary force documents and
first hand accounts of the men who took part, to properly
understand exactly what the Red River Expedition was about and what
the men who made up the force actually went through. By doing this
author believes he has come up with a lively and original
recounting of this little known story in British Imperial and
Canadian history.
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