scertained by scouting parties.
Accordingly, General Strange at this point detailed Major Perry and
seventeen men of his detachment (keeping the rest for the nine-pounder
gun) to cross the river to the south side and move towards Battleford.
It was not an enviable duty, and as the men crossed the river in the
darkness and started their ride through a region that was supposed to be
infested with hundreds on the warpath, it looked rather like a last
patrol. However, after a hard ride they made Battleford to find that
Poundmaker had surrendered, Middleton having just then arrived. Perry
reported to Middleton with the information that Big Bear must be on the
north side, arranged for a steamer to go up with supplies, which we
needed very badly, and got on the steamer to return with his men. When
part of the way back he got word that we were engaged with Big Bear, and
so he landed his men and sent the steamer back to Battleford for
reinforcements. After one of the most severe and risky rides of the
campaign, Perry and his men rejoined us to find that his gunners under
Sergeant O'Connor, and the nine-pounder, had made fine gun practice, and
had been mainly instrumental in demoralizing the forces of Big Bear,
with whom we had been in contact for two hot days. General Strange was
much pleased with the way in which Major Perry had carried out the
difficult reconnaissance with a handful of men.

Meanwhile, after our fight with Big Bear and his flight from Frenchman's
Butte, where he had a strong and well-fortified position, Major Steele,
with his mounted detachment, had made a rush to Loon Lake, where, in a
rattling encounter during which Sergeant Fury was severely wounded, he
completed the defeat of Big Bear. Two days or so afterwards our scouts
crossed Gold Lake in birch canoes and secured the release of the
remaining prisoners of Big Bear, the others having come in to our lines
after the fight at Frenchman's Butte, where Constable Donald McRae,
still happily surviving, was wounded, but refused to leave the field
till he had exhausted his ammunition.

On the disbanding of the Alberta Field Force General Strange, who had
served ever since the Mutiny, warmly commended the Infantry, and
expressed the opinion that he had never commanded better soldiers than
were in the Mounted Police detachments, ready for all kinds of duty.

Preceding the surrender of Poundmaker, already mentioned, at Battleford,
the fight at Cut Knife Hill had o