Wolseley expedition

Wolseley expedition
Part of Red River Rebellion
Red River Expedition at Kakabeka Falls by Frances Anne Hopkins, 1877
Date 1870 Location Fort Garry (modern-day Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) Result Bloodless Government victory; Government forces capture fort Louis Riel escapes
Belligerents
British Empire Canada	Métis
Commanders and leaders
Garnet Wolseley	Louis Riel
Casualties and losses
None	None

The Wolseley expedition was a military force authorized by Sir John A. Macdonald to confront Louis Riel and the Métis in 1870, during the Red River Rebellion, at the Red River Colony in what is now the Canadian province of Manitoba. The expedition was also intended to counter American expansionist sentiments in northern border states. After a journey of months in arduous conditions, the Expedition arrived at, and captured, Fort Garry, extinguished Riel's Provisional Government and eradicated the threat of the U.S. being able to easily wrest western Canada from Confederation.

History

Major General Wolseley

Under the leadership of Colonel Garnet Wolseley, the expedition set out in May 1870 from Toronto, Ontario, in an attempt to interdict Riel. The U.S. government had refused permission for the troops to cross U.S. soil, and many thought it impossible to move a military force into western Canada via an all-Canadian route, the Dawson Road having been mapped out only three years earlier and the railway still many years away. But the difficulties were overcome, and the force arrived at Winnipeg in August.

Cairn in Sault Ste. Marie commemorating the Wolseley Expedition's portage around the St. Marys Rapids.

The expedition travelled to Georgian Bay, then by steamer across Lake Huron to the U.S. Sault Canal where men and materiel had to be transported on the Canadian side of the river, across Lake Superior to the Department of Public Works station at Thunder Bay which Wolseley named Prince Arthur's Landing on May 25, 1870, in honour of Queen Victoria's third son. From there the troops carried small boats to Lake Shebandowan. Travelling further westwards, they passed through Fort Frances to Lake of the Woods. They proceeded down the Winnipeg River and across the south basin of Lake Winnipeg to the Red River finally arriving at Fort Garry in late August.

Wolseley formed up his troops and immediately began his advance on Upper Fort Garry. Riel and his followers abandoned the fort with the result it was taken in a "bloodless" action.

An eyewitness account of the expedition's arrival at Upper Fort Garry, provided by a member of the expedition, William Perrin, appeared in the Manitoba Free Press in August 1900 on the 30th anniversary of the arrival. Perrin was a regular British soldier of the 60th (The King's Royal Rifle Corps) Regiment of Foot.

The expedition is considered by military historians to have been among the most arduous in history. Over 1,000 men had to transport all their provisions and weaponry including cannon over hundreds of miles of wilderness. At numerous portages, corduroy roads had to be constructed. As these jobs were being done, the troops had to endure life in the bush for over two months, in summer heat and the inevitable plagues of blackflies and mosquitoes.

Following the successful completion of the expedition, Wolseley penned a tribute to his men in recognition of their extraordinary efforts.

Imperial military forces in the Red River Rebellion

• 60th Regiment
• 1st Ontario Rifles
• 1st Quebec Rifles
• Detachment of Royal Artillery
• Detachment of Royal Engineers
• Detachment of Army Service Corps
• Detachment of Army Hospital Corps

The North-West Mounted Police, established three years later in 1873, did not take part in the expedition.

References

• Canadian Campaigns, 1860-1870 (pub Osprey 1992, ISBN 1-85532-226-9)
• Sir Garnet Wolseley: Victorian Hero (by Halik Kochanski, pub 2001, ISBN 1-85285-188-0)
• The British Army on Campaign, 1856-81 (pub Osprey 1988, ISBN 0-85045-835-8)
• Toil & Trouble: Military Expeditions to Red River (by George F.G. Stanley, pub 1989, ISBN 1-55002-059-5)

External links

• Plan of Route Followed by Red River Expeditionary Force From Lake Superior to Fort Garry During the Summer of 1870 (1871)
• A Chronology of Events in the Life of Louis Riel 1844 - 1885