Fight at the Fort Erie Docks

Fight at the Fort Erie Docks. . , The Battle , At this place, on June 2, 1866, the Welland Canal Field Battery and the Dunnville Naval Brigade, under the command of Captain Richard King and Captain Lachlan McCallum, landed from the W.T. Robb tugboat. Approximately 80 Canadian volunteer soldiers defended the shores at Niagara and Murray Streets where they faced 400 to 500 insurgent Irish-American Fenians returning from the Battle of Ridgeway 12 kilometres to the west. The tugboat's crew, under the command of Lieutenant Walter Tyrie Robb of the Dunnville Naval Brigade, joined in action from the boat while holding over 50 Fenian prisoners captured along the river earlier in the day. The vicious battle extended down Niagara Street to the Catherine Street dock. All the Canadians who fought at the dock were taken prisoner and held at the Old Fort, except Captain King. Laying wounded on the dock, he rolled off into the water after firing all the rounds in his revolver. The Fenians retrieved Captain King and he was taken to Buffalo for medical attention. , J.W. Lewis House , Across the road from where the fight at the dock raged was the J.W. Lewis House, a former hotel. A number of Canadian volunteer soldiers put up a strong defence at the house, including Lieutenant Angus McDonald of the Dunnville Brigade, Lieutenant A.K. Scholfield and second Lieutenant Charles Nimmo of the Welland Canal Field Battery. Fenian insurgents surrounded the house pelting it with bullets that penetrated through its thin walls; the volunteer soldiers held firm until they ran out of ammunition and the Fenians started to set fire to the house. All the men were then taken prisoner. , After the Battle , Captain McCallum along with 2 men of the Dunnville Naval Brigade and 13 men of the Welland Canal Field Battery escaped down river, fiercely pursued by the Fenians. They were rescued approximately five kilometres into their journey by Lieutenant Walter Tyrie Robb aboard the tugboat. After arriving in Port Colborne the captured Fenian prisoners were later put on trial in Toronto with British subjects tried for high treason and Americans tried for violating the Foreign Aggression Act. The Canadian volunteer soldiers taken during the Fenian Raid were released the same night. After setting out for Buffalo on a barge, the Fenians were immediately arrested by the American gunboat USS Michigan. The following day, Fort Erie was occupied by thousands of British and Canadian troops where they remained for several weeks guarding the frontier until the Fenian threat was over. Confederation and the formation of Canada as a country took place one year after this influential Fenian raid ended.