VI.
1861–1870.—NORTH AMERICA. RED RIVER.
[Sidenote: 1861, TRENT AFFAIR.]
In 1861 the 4th Battalion was hurriedly despatched to Canada at the time of the Trent affair, when war with the Northern States of America seemed imminent, and Fenian raids were threatened. This Battalion—commanded for fourteen years (1860–1873) by Lieutenant-Colonel Hawley,[37] an officer of commanding personality and ability—achieved at this period and later the highest reputation for its system of light drill and of organisation then far in advance of the age, a system which has gradually been adopted by the whole Army. The Regiment, both individually and collectively, is deeply indebted to Hawley. Sir Redvers Buller[38] and Lord Grenfell[39] owed their early training to his tuition; and there are few Riflemen of our generation who have achieved distinction who do not directly or indirectly owe their success to his inspiration and teaching, and his influence is still generally acknowledged in the Regiment to-day.
In 1869 the 4th Battalion returned to England, and was quartered at Aldershot, where its high state of efficiency was universally acknowledged.
Upon the death of Lord Gough, on the 3rd of March, 1869, Field-Marshal H.R.H. George Duke of Cambridge,[40] the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, was appointed Colonel-in-Chief.
[Sidenote: 1870, RED RIVER EXPEDITION.]
In 1867 the 1st Battalion, under Lieutenant-Colonel Feilden,[41] was moved from the Mediterranean to Canada, and on the outbreak of Riel’s Rebellion in 1870 was selected by _Colonel Wolseley_[42] to take part in the Red River Expedition. The force, numbering 1200, consisted of two guns, R.A., the 1st Battalion 60th Rifles, and two specially raised battalions of Canadian Militia. After a journey of 600 miles by land and lake, it reached Thunder Bay, on Lake Superior. Leaving Lake Shebandowah, fifty miles from Lake Superior, on the 16th of July, the Expedition then traversed in boats 600 miles of a region of rivers, lakes, and forest, practically unexplored and trackless, and after six weeks of incessant toil, on the 24th of August reached Fort Garry (now the city of Winnipeg), the headquarters of the rebel forces under Louis Riel. _Wolseley_, by a brilliant _coup de main_, pushed on with the 1st Battalion in fifty boats, and took Riel and his followers completely by surprise. Hurriedly the insurgent leader abandoned Fort Garry, and the rebellion collapsed.
The direct effect of this achievement, in which the Regiment was fortunate enough to take so prominent and decisive a share, has been the unification of the Dominion of Canada and the opening up to a great and prosperous future of the whole wide region of the great North-west, destined to become one of the most populous and most important portions of the Empire.
Thus for a second time has the 1st Battalion of the Regiment been privileged to play a direct and almost single-handed part in the addition of vast regions to the British Crown in North America: first, in 1758–1764, under Bouquet, in conquering those territories west of the Alleghany Mountains, now some of the most prosperous States of the American Union; and, second, in 1870, under _Wolseley_, in crushing a rebellion, the overthrow of which has enabled the prairies of the North-west Territories of Canada to be welded into what are now among the most flourishing Provinces of the Dominion.
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Footnote 37:
Afterwards Lieut.-General Hawley, C.B., Colonel Commandant, 1890–98, _vide_ Biographical Sketch, _Regimental Chronicle_, 1909.
Footnote 38:
Afterwards General Right Hon. Sir Redvers Buller, P.C., V.C., G.C.B., G.C.M.G., Colonel Commandant, 1895–1908. Born December 7th 1839, died June 2nd, 1908. His qualities as a distinguished soldier are well summed up by the inscription upon his Memorial Tomb recently erected in Winchester Cathedral, “A Great Leader—Beloved by his Men.” _Vide_ Biographical Sketch, _Regimental Chronicle_, 1908, p. 157.
Footnote 39:
Now Field-Marshal Right Hon. F. W. Lord Grenfell, P.C., G.C.B., G.C.M.G., Colonel Commandant, 1898. Born April 29th, 1841.
Footnote 40:
H.R.H. George Duke of Cambridge died upon the 17th March, 1904, and was succeeded as Colonel-in-Chief by General H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, now His Majesty George V.
Footnote 41:
Afterwards Lieut.-General Feilden, C.M.G., died 1895.
Footnote 42:
Now Field-Marshal Viscount Wolseley, K.P., etc.
## PART III.—1871–1902.