expedition of the red river

1870 - 1877

140 COMMITTED.

No DEATH IN SERVICE

The enactment of the Manitoba Act incorporated Rupert's Land into Confederation and instituted laws and regulations that ensured the rights and practices of Métis families in the new province.

Under the command of Colonel Garnet Wolseley, an officer of the British Regular Army, the Red River Expedition was dispatched from Ottawa to Fort Garry (now Winnipeg) at the behest of the federal government to restore authority. of the Crown. Mohawks, Plains Cree and Swampy Cree, as well as a large number of Métis from Quebec and Ontario, were among the approximately 400 civilians employed to transport the troops and their equipment.

The presence and participation of experienced Aboriginal smugglers and travelers was

absolutely essential to the success of this long journey.

In terms of logistics, it was a triumph: the expeditionary force, consisting of some 400 British regulars and 700 militiamen, their equipment and supplies, covered the distance between Collingwood (Georgian Bay) and Fort Garry without losing one man and after having crossed 47 portages and crossed, in river, more than 130 kilometers of rapids.

The expeditionary force was divided into 21 "brigades" of some 50 men. Each

boat carried from 10 to 12 soldiers and a traveler to the bow and the other to the bar. There were also three master canoes and several small bark canoes maneuvered by travelers .

Upon the arrival of the Fort Garry Expeditionary Force, a troop of one hundred Cree warriors (Cree of the Marshes), under the command of their leader Henry Prince, son of the former Chief Peguis, was waiting for Wolseley to help restore the authority of the Crown. The latter declined the offer of such a large contingent, but in the following winter Prince detached a team of twelve warriors to guard Lower Fort Garry. Almost fifteen years later, Wolseley would remember Prince and call on his services during the Nile Expedition.