Not a day’s delay occurred from start to finish, though our base of supply was more than 500 miles from our objective. The excellence and carefulness of the scouting almost precluded any chance of disaster, and quickly discovered the position of Big Bear, who was immediately attacked, the result being that, although the numerical inferiority of our force prevented the capture of his position, his band was broken up and demoralized, the majority of the prisoners released, and the subsequent pursuit by the cavalry of this force, under major Steele, completed the surrender of the remainder of the prisoners, the total dispersion of his band, and his ultimate surrender. Not a shot was fired in connection with these results, except by the Alberta Field Force, with only a loss of six wounded. Plainly drawing attention to these results is a duty I conceive due to the officers and men I feel it an honor to have commanded. By their patient endurance, sense of duty and steadiness under fire, these results were produced. Your obedient servant,

(Signed) T. B. Strange,

Major-General, Late Com., Alberta Field Force.

On the suppression of the rebellion, he received the Saskatchewan medal and clasp, and once more, like a modern Cincinnatus, beat his sword into a ploughshare and resumed the cultivation of the arts of peace at his home at “Namaka,” near Calgary, where he continued to reside until a broken leg, by a kick from a horse, followed by a second fracture, obliged him to resign the active management of the Military Colonization Ranche. Before leaving the phase of his eventful career connected with the Canadian North-West, it should be stated that in January, 1887, he offered as an Independent candidate for the seat for Alberta in the Dominion parliament, but withdrew before going to the polls, the time having evidently not yet come for the election of representatives unpledged to either political party. He is a member of no society except temperance societies, of whose principles he has always been a warm and consistent advocate, though never a Prohibitionist. He has travelled over the greater part of Europe, visited North and South Africa, the United States, Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the East and West Indies, and crossed the Himalaya mountains into Thibet and Central Asia. He has also been a prolific writer, especially on military questions. Besides editing the Canadian Military Review, he has published an “Artillery Retrospect of the last Great War, 1870-71,” “Military Aspect of Canada,” and a work on “Field Artillery,” besides his reports on militia matters, defence of British Columbia, etc., which have been printed in the Canadian Militia Reports, and for the most part acted upon. His wife, who has been a true helpmate to him and followed his fortunes with loving devotion from India to Canada, was a Miss Eleanor Taylor, daughter of Captain R. Taylor, of the East India Company’s service, and to her he was united at Simla, East Indies, in October, 1862. By her, he has had issue, seven children, five of whom, including the two sons already mentioned, survive.

[10] Another member of the family, Strange of Burn House, raised a company of militia for the Hanoverian cause.
[11] As the capture of an enemy’s guns by artillery unsupported by cavalry or infantry is perhaps without precedent in the annals of war, it may be explained that a rapid advance left the infantry in rear, and a thick wood prevented the action of cavalry. On the road (the only open space through the wood) the enemy’s guns were suddenly overtaken and captured by the charge of the mounted gunners, who sabred the Sepoy gunners before they had time to fire. A moment’s hesitation would have been fatal. Had the British guns halted to unlimber, the enemy, who were already unlimbered, would have had first fire, with inevitably annihilating effect.
[12] “A” battery was first organized by Lieutenant-Colonel French, who subsequently commanded N.-W.M. Police force.
[13] Among others the establishment of a Canadian cartridge factory, without which the suppression of the North-West rebellion would have been indefinitely prolonged had it been necessary to supply cartridges from England, as the manufacture of the Snider cartridge had ceased there on the change of rifle to Martini.
[14] As military equitation is of little value without practical application in the field, a pack of foxhounds was kept at the Citadel, Colonel Strange being M.F.H., Captain Short, huntsman.