A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River

by Barlow Cumberland

CHAPTER V.

On the Upper Lakes With the Wolseley Expedition and Lord Dufferin.

The way having been opened by the Algoma between Georgian Bay and the Sault, with sundry extra trips beyond, N. Milloy & Co., of Niagara, brought up from Halifax, in 1868, the even then celebrated steamer Chicora to increase the service to Lake Superior. No finer steamer was there on the Upper Lakes than the Chicora, and none whether American or Canadian, that could approach her in speed; she could trail out a tow line to any competitor. She had arrived opportunely and had greatly increased her renown by carrying the Wolseley Expedition, in 1870, from Collingwood to the place on the shores of the Thunder Bay where the expedition for the suppression of the Riel Rebellion at Fort Garry was landed.

It was in the arrangements for the movement of this Wolseley Expedition that some difficulties arose which were due to a want of harmony between the local government of the State and that of the National Cabinet of the Federal Government at Washington, a condition which is liable to occur at any time under the peculiar provisions of the American Constitution.

Having been compiled in the time of stress for the avoidance of an autocracy and for the development of the individual rights of the several component States, the relations between States and Federal authority were strongly drawn. While in the Canadian Constitution any power which has not been specifically allotted to the Provinces remains in the Dominion Government, which is thus the centre of all power, in the United States the reverse condition exists.

Speedy dealings with foreign nations are thus somewhat hampered on the part of the United States Federal Government.

The only canal lock at that time at the Sault by which the rapids of the Sault River could be overcome and the level of Lake Superior be reached from that of Lake Huron, was on the Michigan side, and owned and controlled by the State of Michigan. As an armed force could not be sent by rail through the United States, it was necessary that all supplies and the men of the Canadian forces for Fort Garry should be forwarded by this water route to the head of Lake Superior, from where they were to take the "Dawson Route" of mixed road and river transit to Lake Winnipeg and the scene of action. A cargo of boats, wagons, and general supplies for use by the troops had been sent up by the "Chicora" (Captain McLean), leaving Collingwood on the 7th May, but the steamer was not permitted by the Michigan authorities to pass through the Sault Canal. Owing to this action immediate steps were imperatively necessary, pending negotiations, to obtain additional tonnage to carry forward the expedition.

Col. Cumberland, A.D.C., M.P.P., was sent on a secret duty to Detroit, where he succeeded in chartering the American steamer Brooklyn, which was at once sent off with instructions to report for orders above the canal at Point Aux Pins, to Col. Bolton, R.A., Deputy Adjutant General. Being passed up the canal, without obstacle, the difficulty was immediately relieved. Fortunately the "Algoma" was at the upper end of the route and on Lake Superior. The supplies and stores were accordingly unloaded from the Chicora at the Canadian Sault, portaged across by the twelve miles road to the wharf at Point Aux Pins, on the Canadian side above the Rapids, and sent on up Lake Superior by the "Algoma," and "Brooklyn."

A similar course was obliged to be adopted with the cargoes of supplies for the expedition brought up on the Canadian steam barge Shickluna, and on the schooners Orion and Pandora towed by her.