b'Dewdney and their cohorts mobilized the minusculequite sound, were, in the dense Canadian forests and the Canadian Army, rapidly assembling a force of 3,324 menmountains of the Canadian West, not so easy to implement. ready to depart Toronto on the embryonic CanadianWorst of all, the most untrained Canadian militia were not Pacific Railroad, with at least another couple thousand onused to a territory where the native population, i.e., the the way, and appointing a British Major General, FrederickMetis and Cree knew practically every forest range, every Dobson Middleton, to lead the force. As early as Marchmountain slope, and every bend of the river. Middleton, 28th 1,000 of these men under the command of Coloneldespite his experience, had a "Colonel Blimp" attitude William Dillon Otter, almost all singing loudly thattowards the Canadian troops he commanded. In other famous American Cavalry tune, "The Girl I Left Behindwords, he was contemptuous of his own men and equally so Me," marched into the Toronto railroad station, boardedtowards his subordinates, a fellow British General named trains promised to be there by the American-born GeneralThomas Bland Strange and the only Canadian-born officer Manager of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, William Vancommanding troops, the aforementioned Colonel Otter.Horne, and proceeded west (Tanner, The Canadians, p. 206; Pierre Berton, The Last Spike,Anchor Canada, 2001,Strange, who had also fought in India before retiring to pp. 358-365) . a ranch in Alberta was called out of retirement by thecommanding general of the Canadian militia. He was The Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR), like the Metis andcompetent and thought highly of his combined Alberta the Cree, had been badly neglected even with MacDonald\'sField force of Rocky Mountain Scouts, militia and support and was on the verge of collapse. Even thoughMounties. The Mountie contingent was commanded by the railway had yet to move over the muskegs and rockyone of the most remarkable men in Canadian history, the terrain 750 miles west of Toronto, and far, far short ofbarrel-chested Inspector Samuel Benford Steele. Steele, the end of the line in Winnipeg - still a bit short from thewhose Royal Navy father fired the first barrage against Saskatchewan war zone, Van Horne promised - and keptthe U.S.S. Chesapeake in the run-up to the War of 1812 his word, that the cold, shivering troops that had marchedand whose Royal Army uncle died of exposure pursuing from station to station until they reached Lake SuperiorNapoleon after Waterloo, joined the Canadian militia. Six would not only be well-provisioned on the way, he wouldyears later Steele was one of the first original Mounties, make sure there would be trains ready to take them on thejoining up in 1873 in the original mission to suppress short distances from station to station until they reachedthe American whiskey traders, befriend the tribes and Saskatchewan. Van Horne, who would later be knighted,gain their trust, and police the West. He was one of the knew that the future of his railroad was riding on the lineCanadian officers who negotiated with Sitting Bull after in more ways than one, so he personally ensured that thethe Sioux fled across the Canadian border to evade the trains would get the troops out there and on time. And thatvengeful Americans in the wake of Custer\'s destruction. he did. The three very well-equipped Canadian battalionsAt the beginning of the Rebellion, Steele was further facing Riel, Dumont and the Cree chiefs would eventuallywest, getting out of a sickbed to suppress a strike by angry number 8,000 while the combined Metis-Cree forces,railroad workers against the CPR. Still sick, Steele hurried disunited, could only summon about a thousand men. east with his men to join up with General Strange, who,ordered by Middleton, set out in pursuit of Big Bear, while But even so, the tactics of General Middleton, a veteran ofMiddleton and Otter conducted a two-prong offensive British colonial wars against the Maoris in New ZealandFrancis "Frank" Dickens the youngest, almost deaf, ne\'er doagainst the Metis and Cree.and the Sepoys in India, though on paper seeminglywell son of the famed British Novelist Charles Dickens. continued on page 32PRIME RIBSATURDAYArizonaRealCountry.com November 2019 31'