ford, where Poundmaker's
band was in arms; and General Strange, a veteran of many years' service,
was to mobilize at Calgary whatever forces he could muster and go
northward into the Big Bear country, to relieve the Edmonton district,
settle with Big Bear and release the prisoners he had taken at Frog Lake
and Fort Pitt. Middleton, a good soldier and a brave man personally, was
in the supreme command of all the forces in the field, including the
Police, and it is not too much to say that he asserted that fact very
strongly all through the campaign, partly because of natural disposition
and partly because he under-estimated the value of the "raw soldiers" of
Canada, as he called them in a famous dispatch. Withal, while he was
totally unaccustomed to the kind of warfare he was facing, he was not
given to receive counsel from those who did know, and from close
personal contact with the situation at the time, as well as from careful
study since, I feel that General Middleton rather resented the dominant
place of the Mounted Police in the mind of the West, and was more ready
to make some slighting remarks about them than to take their counsel.
And this I say without seeking to disparage the general quality or the
personal valour of the officer in supreme command.

Hence it was that General Middleton never intimated in any way to
Colonel Irvine that he or any of his men should leave Prince Albert and
come to the seat of war at Batoche. On the contrary, Majors Bedson and
Macdowell, who made their way to Prince Albert from Middleton's camp by
way of Carrot River, told Irvine that the General wished the Police to
stay where they were and look out for the scattered half-breeds. And one
day, when things were quieted around Prince Albert and Irvine made a
reconnaissance in force to the south as far as Scott's, some 14 miles
out, he was met by one of Middleton's scouts with a message to return to
Prince Albert.

That the above represents General Middleton's general attitude is
further attested by the fact that when Riel's stronghold fell and
Middleton was on his way by Prince Albert to close the campaign by
proceeding against Chiefs Poundmaker and Big Bear, he declined Irvine's
offer to go with him with his men, who knew the country and the Indians
at first hand. Irvine offered to take his men, carrying their own
rations, and go a day ahead of the General, or to go on the other side
of the river, but was refused. Yet orders came ba