Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1885-05-13
ALPENA WEEKLY ARGUS.
Wednesday, May 10. 1885.
Canadian war-Fish Creek Battle.

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Canadian War-Fish Creek Battle.
The st. Paul Pioneer Press cor
respondent thus describes a visit tc
the Fish Creek battle field in the
Saskatchewan valley, on April 9th
1t proved an almost impregnable
stronghold. The bank nearest our
centre and left and right centres is
wooded very heavily (none the less
the Calling we expect on the steamer
from Swift Current would have let
daylight through it,, and is more pre-
cipitous than gable roof Our fell
lows shuddered when they saw how
near they had been to the very muz-
zles of the guns of their opponents
snugly lying in rifle pits dug like
steps all the way up the bank. The
Halfbreeds and Indians could see us
unless when prone to earth. but he
who had the hardihood TO peer over
the brink could see nothing but per-
haps the flash of shot gun or rifle.
Their pits were three and sometimes
five in a row, forming the finest of
coverts. These hastily constructed
safety trenches pointed up the hills
and over the edge, the Halfbreed or
Indian could rest his gun and
take steady and sure aim. Our fire
was always quadruple as heavy ms
theirs, but we fired at point of the
compass from which the killing bull
lets came. They saved powder, ex-
cept at the very opening of the fight,
and when they saw white man they
fired, not before. The rifle pits were
all along the declivity, and not few
were at the bottom of the gully to
their right. Further up the stream
horses, and fine ones, lay so thick
that we could walk from body to
body, as if on stepping stones. l
counted 80 dead animals in the ra-
vine, some of them quite high upon
the hill, others lying in the stream,
but larger share at the spot along
the creek. Many of the animals had
been tied to the trees by the owners,
who charged on foot in the open
ground in the early morning of Fri
day. In the woods in the rear of
this equine cemetery was the main
camp of the Indian allies, and here
they had killed an OK, pieces of
which, skewered aud stuck in the
ground before the fire, we found
where their intended eaters had left
them. On all sides there were evi.
dences of hurried retreat, and it
row seems probable that the twenty
five jeering Halfbreeds who showed
themselves late in the evening, were
not in the ravine at all, but among
those who made so determined an at
tempt to turn our right. Like en-
ough from p. m. onward not n dozen
of the enemy lay in the ravine, and
these left as soon as darkness had
fallen. Fortunately for them the
rain fell heavily all that night, and
the darkness was intense, SO that their
escape was easily effected. Although
their position as described was almost
impregnable, yet they must have
passed several evil hours. They took
away all their wounded, and of their
dead but four remain; one Teton
Sioux was shot. Before he could
reach the shelter of the hollow one
Cree, Beardy's son-in-law, was shot
through the heart, and held by a tree
trunk from falling into the ravine,
one Cree on the extreme left, and a
Halfbreed on the upper flank of the
right centre. AS stated above, fifty
two horses were killed. In three of
the rifle pits deep pools of blood re-
main, and in others lighter marks of
injury. Since we have been in the
ravine the general conclusion is that
the rebel force numbered nearly 800
(some Of them on the extreme right
and that they had ten to twelve killed
and wounded. They were led by
Gabriel Dumont, and had they been
provisioned with arms and ammuni-
ton as plentiful and good as our men,
our casualty list, large as it is, would
have been trebled. On our side, be-
fore the arrival of Mason's company
Of Royal Grenadiers from the other
side of the river, there we're about
three hundred in action. This in
cludes the Artillery, Goth Infantry,
and Boulton's scouts.
BATTLE WITH PoUNDMAKER's IN
dams.
The following dispatch to the To-
rento Globe gives description of the
battle between the Canadian forces
under Colonel Otter and the Indians
under Poundmaker, at the Indian re-
serve about 35 miles from Battleford,
on May End:
Colonel Otter with 800 troops start
ed to Poundmaker's reserve on Fri
l.. II