But I feel bound to suggest that such cases must have been exceptional. If these western Fenians were experienced cavalry men, as said to have been, they would know the worth of horses too well to abuse them. It had been part of the tactics of O’Neil to mount his entire force on horses, provided he had met, in Canada, the friendly contingents which he expected but did not meet. Yet still there was wanton spoliation. Farmers saw their sheep shot in the yards, and out on the pastures. The family of Mr. Thomas Newbigging, whose house stands on the south side of Frenchman’s creek, and about forty yards from Niagara shore, and on whose hay field and orchard, on the north bank of the creek, O’Neil and his main force planted themselves about eleven o’clock a. m. 1st of June, saw their cows driven into the yard from a distant pasture, and two or three Fenian warriors around each cow struggling to have the first privilege of milking. The restive cows were subdued as the horses were, by hobbling them with telegraph wires. When the beasts had been teased and milked all the afternoon and evening, with nothing to eat for the night, and men were heard talking of killing one or more to roast on some of the many fires which they had made of fence rails in the orchard field, one of the sons of Mr. Newbigging asked Colonel O’Neil to give him permission and a pass to the lines of sentries to drive the cows to the pasture field. The answer was, “certainly, tell every man who questions, that it is Colonel O’Neil’s order that none of your cows shall be injured or molested.” The young man drove the beasts forth. At a gate four hundred yards in the rear of the house, a sentry demanded to know who he was, and where he was going with those cattle? The name of Colonel O’Neil was given, but the sentry responded by bringing his rifle and bayonet to the charge, and swearing that he would stick the bayonet through him for the cursed lie, that he was not taking the cattle to pasture but attempting to escape with them into the wood; and if he dared go one step farther his “mouth would be filled with a live bullet.” The sergeant of the picket came and inquired what was the matter. On being told he called other men to come and assist to make a gap in the fence and put the cows in the field. When this was done, he, assisting to replace the rails, and at the same time charging the men of the picket to see that the cows were not injured, turned to Mr. Newbigging and said, “This occupation of your premises and farm by us is, no doubt, very disagreeable, but we have stringent orders from Colonel O’Neil to injure no one who quietly submits, nor destroy property, nor to appropriate anything beyond what is required for subsistence.” That sergeant and his picket being left behind, when the Fenian main body marched at midnight of Friday June 1st, were made prisoners next day; but some escaped across the river early on the morning of Saturday.
CHAPTER IV.
Midnight in Fort Erie village. Kerby and Rutherford’s store plundered by Buffalo thieves. O’Neil’s letter denouncing theft. Young ladies seek safety on the American side. Newbigging’s farm. Half a hundred horses collected. Stockdale’s farm plundered of provisions. Mr. Penny, and Mrs. McCarty, robbed of money. Fenian positions and defences at Frenchman’s creek. Fenian sentry shot by his picket. Rifle bullet screens, how made by Fenians. Bridge set on fire. O’Neil marches at midnight June 1st. Eighteen thousand cartridges afterwards found in the creek. Also rifles and bayonets. A night of sensations. “Worst looking blackguard of the whole was a Scotchman.” Bivouac at Krafft’s farm. March at daylight, June 2nd. Limestone rocks and house on Ridgeway road. Fenian head-quarters. O’Neil’s conversation with Henry Angur. Stoneman’s three little Boys, they ran to the woods.
It was about 11 a. m. on June 1st, that the Fenian main body were aroused from slumber, in Waterloo village, and marched to northward, three miles down Niagara shore road. Their absence relieved the anxieties of the village corporation as to getting another mess for one thousand men. But unhappily, a residue, not of military Fenians, but of Buffalo, and other American city thieves was left. They had followed the invaders to pursue their professional vocation.
One was a woman. She sought to win confidence, and thereby attain to friendly familiarity with native Canadians, by weeping for a husband, who “without intending it, had come from Buffalo with the Fenians, not knowing what he did, with a drop too much to drink;” that he and many more were about to desert and return to the American side.
Her assumed sorrow hardly deceived any one; and not at all, after a Fenian officer came upon her at a house and ordered her off to the other side on pain of being thrown into the river. He said; “We have been followed by thieves, who are no part of our force, and this woman is one of the worst: watch her.”
In the village, near the hour of midnight, the military body of the Fenians being then at Frenchman’s creek, three miles north, the landlord of the Forsyth House, was, with his wife, at an open window inside of the verandah, anxiously observing parties of men who were seen, by the moonlight to come across Niagara river, land at unusual places of wharfage and go prowling about the village. Some he saw come to the store of Kerby and Rutherford clothiers and general dealers, next door to his house. It was shut, Mr. Rutherford only being within, and as he afterwards stated, asleep. The men outside broke open the door with billets of cordwood. Mr. Rutherford, when aroused by the noise confronted them. He was seized and thrown on his back across the counter, revolvers pointed to his head, and sternly admonished to remain quiet. Some cases of champagne had been left there for sale by a St. Catharines merchant. The plunderers quickly discovered that part of the stock, and drank freely. A young man who keeps a grocery store lower down the village was passing. He entered, calling, “Rutherford, what is the matter?” One of the thieves struck him with a champagne bottle across the face, cutting him frightfully, and exclaiming, “That’s what’s the matter!” The grocer ran out calling “help!” and “murder!” He was overtaken at the hotel door and again struck. He ran across the street and attempted to get into a house there. But no one dared open a door. He was followed by one who threw him down, and with threats of shooting him dead, ordered him to be quiet. The young man pleaded for life and said he would be quiet. Then he ran south along the railway track, and obtained entrance to a house at the south end of the village, where the bleeding gashes in his face were dressed. The robber returned to his comrades, who deliberately carried out bales of cloth, ready-made clothing and other goods, and loaded their boats with which they departed across the river. American customs officers were on watch and seized the goods. The plunderers returned to the Canada shore. Two of them were afterwards found among Fenian prisoners and identified. They are said to have been known as thieves in the city of Hamilton.
On the subject of plunder the following letter, published in a Buffalo daily paper, shows the terms in which Colonel O’Neil disclaimed and denounced theft and thieves. It was dated June 5th, 1866, on board the U. S. steamer Michigan: