unded the alarm and the volunteers promptly
assembled to meet the foe, there was a woeful lack of the necessaries
which are indispensable to a successful campaign, namely, an available
supply of military stores, commissary and medical supplies. Many of the
companies and battalions which moved promptly to the front were totally
unprovided even with canteens or water bottles, and had to depend on
creeks or roadside ditches for a drink of water wherewith to allay their
thirst, which they scooped up in their hands or caps as best they could.
But "Johnny Canuck" never murmured, and marched cheerfully onward in the
shoes in which he usually stood, without provisions and weighted down
with heavy padded uniforms (which were designed for winter wear),
carrying a heavy rifle and accoutrements, with forty rounds of ball
cartridges in his pouch and twenty more in his pockets for ballast.
Still he had a stout heart within his breast, and a resolute
determination to do his duty in assisting to drive the invaders from
the shores of his native land served to impel him onward as he marched
through the choking dust of clay roads on a blazing hot June day, gaily
joining in the refrain of the old marching song:--

"Tramp, tramp, tramp, our boys are marching.
Cheer up, let the Fenians come!
For beneath the Union Jack we'll drive the rabble back
And we'll fight for our beloved Canadian home."

Those were stirring days, and many an old volunteer who participated in
the forced marches and hardships of the campaign on the Niagara frontier
particularly, still retains vivid recollections of that strenuous
period.

On the evening of the 1st of June, Col. Peacocke received definite
reports that the Fenians were still occupying their camp at Frenchman's
Creek, and at once conceived the plan of uniting the forces at Port
Colborne with his own column at Stevensville (a small country hamlet
about seven miles south-west of Chippawa) and make a combined attack on
Gen. O'Neil's position as soon as the junction of the two columns was
effected. He accordingly despatched Capt. Chas. S. Akers (an officer of
the Royal Engineers) across the country about midnight with orders to
Lieut.-Col. Booker to leave Port Colborne for Ridgeway by rail at five
o'clock next morning, and after detraining his troops at that station to
march by the nearest road to Stevensville, where he expected to meet
him with his column about 10 o'clock. Capt. Akers was