Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont (11 page)

If Gabriel knew how troubled Middleton and his men are—the Canadians are hunkered down near Fish Creek, many of them fearful for their lives in this foreign land—he might have pushed beyond his night harassments. Middleton didn’t take into account how to deal with his wounded and is forced to try to create a field ambulance from nothing. He writes to Ottawa that the war skills of the Métis in that first confrontation were such that he is lucky his whole army wasn’t slaughtered. He also realizes that his troops’ initial rush to join in order to crush heathens has turned into something quite different now that they are on the Métis’ doorstep. The government’s propaganda—that evil Riel and his hordes are bent on the destruction of the commonwealth—was not at all borne out as the troops came into contact with farmers and families fearing for their lives, or encountered abandoned farmhouses, livestock still grazing the fields and clothes still in drawers, as the people fled the approaching army. These Métis live a tough but honourable life of backbreaking work. This much is clear from the simple, clean farms. It doesn’t stop many of the troops from ransacking them, though. After all, this is war. And even Middleton gets in on the action, collecting some of the finest pelts he can and shipping them back east. But to most of his men, it’s clear that these western people are not at all the animals they’ve been painted to be.

Regardless, they have begun open rebellion, and open rebellion must be crushed. On May 7, Middleton finally feels confident enough to begin a slow and careful march along the South Saskatchewan River toward Batoche with 850 soldiers and a 150 wagon–long line of supplies. Teams of horses pull four cannons and an American Gatling gun, a deadly weapon for the time that sprays an unending fire of large-calibre lead at the enemy. All of this is arrayed against fewer than two hundred poorly armed and equipped Métis hiding in rifle pits dug less than two feet into the ground. Gabriel prays that the miracle Louis speaks of will come to fruition. Apparently, it won’t come in the form of Indian allies. Poundmaker and his men are busy routing and defeating the contingent of Canadian soldiers sent to squash him near Battleford, but, like Riel, he doesn’t have the stomach for a full-on slaughter of the Canadian troops, even when the possibility presents itself.

What Gabriel probably doesn’t know is that a group of reporters from back east travels with Middleton and his army, reporting every move to the hungry masses who devour Ontario newspapers. This is not just a first test for the young country’s military against an enemy—an enemy from within, no less—it’s also the first time that the Canadian media travels embedded with its troops. Gabriel and Louis are becoming more and more infamous with every headline demonizing or romanticizing them in turn. One day the Métis fighters are snivelling cowards, the next marksmen and horsemen of such skill that surely more troops will soon be needed.

Soon after Middleton breaks camp, his troops begin looting and burning every farmhouse they come across, regardless of whether it is Métis or white-owned. The troops take special pleasure in demolishing the house they find sitting at Gabriel’s Crossing. It is thinly but nicely furnished and contains two oddities: a foot-powered clothes washing machine and, most interesting, a full-size handcrafted billiards table. After a few games they dismantle it and haul it away before burning down Gabriel’s home.

Middleton understands that word will spread as quickly as fire that nothing in his army’s wake will be left standing. It’s a message to the Métis, most of them women and children, who cower and wait in Batoche for what must feel like the approaching apocalypse. While Middleton forges his path of destruction, he also remains extremely wary and even fearful of Métis prowess. Twice they’ve whipped Canadian troops, and a third whipping will prove devastating. His plan is simple. It’s a two-pronged manoeuvre, and the first—and only—naval attack on the Canadian prairies. The steamer
Northcote
slowly plies its way down the Saskatchewan River, weaving its way around sandbars and crawling through the constantly shifting shallows. Middleton has ordered it fortified with wooden armour against Métis rifle fire and stocked it with Canadian troops and artillery. It drags two barges of armaments and supplies behind it. Middleton believes that word of the approach of the steamer will draw a large number of Métis out of their fortifications and down to the river to attack it. And that’s when his main army will sweep in from the south, overrunning Batoche quickly. If all goes as planned, the battle will be won within hours.

But Middleton is so cautious in his advance on Batoche early on the morning of May 9 that the steamer arrives a full hour early, and Métis scouts announce its approach. Gabriel himself rides down to the bank and orders his marksmen to fire on it from both sides of the river. He sees that the
Northcote
is clearly well armed and it pulls barges of sorely needed resources. As his men fire from the two banks, Gabriel dashes along the river on horseback, shouting for his men to drop the ferry line at Batoche landing. The heavy cable will rip the top half right off the steamer and with any luck, it will then ground itself in the shallows where Gabriel and his men can pirate away much-needed supplies.

Gabriel watches as the cable is lowered just in time, grazing the pilothouse and ripping off the smokestacks, sparks and ash pouring out, which in turn starts a fire on deck. But the steamer, no longer under power, spins around a sandbar and drifts off uselessly for two more miles downstream before it catches and holds on a spit, too far for Gabriel to plunder it, but also too far away to be any use to General Middleton.

When Middleton finally comes within eyesight of Batoche, word of the
Northcote’s
fate reaches him. His surprise two-pronged attack has been nullified. He takes the high ground of the rise, placing cannon and the Gatling gun upon it, and begins firing at the houses in town, civilians be damned.

In his desire to take the
Northcote,
Gabriel is too late in using a time-honoured plains warfare tactic of setting the prairie grasses on fire in the path of the invaders. The long stretch of
la belle prairie
on the outskirts of Batoche is left unscathed but for the trampling of humans and of horses and wagons. Gabriel doesn’t worry about this too much. It would prove only a minor setback for the approaching Canadians anyway, despite its being a fine chance for Métis marksmen to take down some of the weepy-eyed soldiers. He awaits the miracle of which his friend and prophet speaks.

Early on in this first day of battle, a group of Métis sees the chance to take a Canadian field gun and rush the position. The inexperienced Canadian troops almost flee, but their officer rallies them and turns the Métis back with fire from the Gatling gun. The Métis slip back into their wellcamouflaged rifle pits, so carefully constructed that many of Middleton’s troops have no idea where they are positioned. The day plays out into a stalemate of wasted gunfire, the Métis firing lightly, the Canadians in useless barrages. Cannons set a number of houses on fire, and the dreaded Gatling gun’s rat-tat-tat keeps the heads of the Métis low.

Beyond the crippling of the steamer
Northcote,
the most stunning event of the day occurs when a white flag appears at the church door; the Métis watch one of the priests, Father Moulin, emerge when the firing stops and march directly to the Canadian troops to confer with Middleton. Whispers travel that the priest has surrendered. But more than this, he has taken the side of the Canadians. He has become a traitor, giving away the positions of Métis rifle pits, field strength and weaknesses, and especially their lack of ammunition and food. To add to the insult, Father Végréville also abandons his people and shares vital and damning information with the general. For the Métis who fight for their land and way of life, the priests have most certainly betrayed them. This day and this action inflict a wound that never heals.

Well before nightfall, General Middleton orders his troops to withdraw to a hastily constructed stockade at a nearby farm. Although the day’s casualties are light, Middleton knows how the approaching darkness will certainly work against his troops, offering the sneaky Métis opportunity to pick them off in large numbers. While Middleton is willing to burn down homesteads, loot property for personal gain, and fire cannon and small arms onto homes where frightened women and children cower, he subscribes to the strange nineteenth-century notion that gentleman soldiers do not fight after dark.

But it’s this type of guerrilla warfare that Gabriel excels at. All night his men fire into Middleton’s camp, their war whoops and animal screams keeping the soldiers awake and afraid. The Métis try to scare the hobbled horses into a panic, and the constant fearful whinnying adds to the terror. Few of the Canadian redcoats are able to doze, never mind sleep, and when reveille is called the next morning at 5 A.M., the men are exhausted and nervous. To worsen their misery, the night has been cold, falling below freezing, and the sun’s full but weak May heat is still hours away.

Just before noon on the second day of battle, with the Canadians trying to push back to the position near the church they’d reached the day before, Gabriel sets the prairie grasses on each side of them on fire. The Canadians, nervous in the acrid smoke, watch with stinging eyes as a few of their men are picked off by Métis marksmen. Captain A.L. Howard, the American with the Gatling gun, finds that his weapon is near useless when he can’t see the well-hidden Métis, some of whom are not more than thirty yards away. Instead, he settles on ripping apart the cabins in town as Canadian cannons focus on trying to destroy the rest. They are mostly successful, and few structures are left standing by the end of the second day.

Why Howard, this American from Connecticut, a career military man with no quarrel with the half-breeds, is trying to kill them in large numbers confuses and angers Gabriel and the others.

It turns out that Howard is not acting as a representative of the American military, nor, supposedly, of the Gatling company. Both organizations deny sending him. He’s volunteered himself and this new weapon to the Canadians. As Joseph Howard (no relation) explains in his wonderful depiction of the Métis in
Strange Empire,
the Gatling gunner is here because he regards himself as a scientist, a scientist who’s had no real chance to test and analyze this new deadly weapon that he’s fallen in love with. Sure, he’s tried it against bands of hit-and-run Indians, but not in a battle scenario such as this with two opposing sides in set defences against one another. The Battle of Batoche is proving the first real testing ground for the Yankee from Connecticut and his murderous weapon. The drumbeat sound of Howard’s machine gun as he cranks the handle deftly, spraying hundreds of rounds in mere minutes and ripping apart cabins, is as much a psychological weapon as a physical one. The Métis realize that they are up against a force that is far superior in equipment and numbers and especially in technology. In fact, a number of Métis are armed with old shotguns or single-shot muskets that are unwieldy to reload, and that’s if they have any ammunition left. Many of the men are already out of real bullets and now, on just the second day of battle, are forced to load their ancient guns with nails, old buttons from their jackets, even stones.
Please, Louis,
Gabriel prays,
show us the miracle you’d promised would come.
If any miracle happens on this Sunday, it’s that for a second full day the Métis in their shallow rifle pits are able not just to hold off but to absolutely confuse and stymie a force nearly five times its size, actually pushing them back a good distance from the church they’d so handily taken the day before. General Middleton is confused and angry. He at once fears the loss of his men to wily Métis hunters and is driven near mad that such a small force of desperate half-breeds continues to prove so difficult to crush.

Once again, well before sunset on this second day, Howard’s Gatling protects the Canadian troops as they try to retreat to the relative safety of their stockade, but many of the soldiers are caught out in the open field near the church and two are killed by Métis marksmen. While the numbers of dead and wounded remain low on the Canadian side, the Métis continue to inflict their own psychological damage on the redcoats. Their hit-and-run tactics are working.

On this second night, the Canadians sleep a little better. All day they’d laboured on strengthening their compound with earthworks, and the arrival of even more wagons and supplies makes them begin to feel invincible. Gabriel decides that his ammunition supply is too low to engage in another overnight campaign of terror, and so the Canadians are able to light fires and eat their first hot meal in two days before retiring.

Monday drags out much the same as Sunday had. Gabriel expertly moves his men, undetected, throughout the fields and gullies from rifle pit to rifle pit; to save ammunition the Métis fire lightly, but in such a way that Middleton is convinced the priests were wrong about how many men are really hiding like wild animals in their shallow dens.

Gabriel sends out one more desperate plea to Poundmaker and his warriors, begging them to join the Métis. If he could speak face-to-face with Poundmaker right now, he’d say,
Look! We have held off their force all weekend. If you join us now, it will not be too late. Together we can send the Canadians back east with their tails between their legs. We can reclaim our freedoms and you will never be told again to live on a reserve and to dig in the earth for subsistence. A new day approaches. Join us.

Poundmaker, nervous about entering into such direct conflict but impressed by the Métis’ ability to defend, finally breaks camp and begins to move toward Batoche. His men hold many different opinions of this action, from belief in its destructive folly to exaltation at the prospect of old freedoms returning. Poundmaker moves across the prairie with a slow determination. He will not be rushed to foolhardy action. Gabriel worries that the Cree chief travels too slowly. He also knows that something is very close to breaking, and most certainly that break will come tomorrow.