Battle of Frenchman's Butte
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| Battle of Frenchman's Butte | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | North-West Rebellion | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | May 28, 1885 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Near Frenchman's Butte, Saskatchewan | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Cree victory | ||||||||||||||||
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The Battle of Frenchman's Butte, fought on May 28th, 1885, occurred when a force of Cree, dug in on a hillside near Frenchman's Butte, was unsuccessfully attacked by the Alberta Field Force.
Background
A band of Cree led by Chief Big Bear, living in what is now central Alberta and Saskatchewan joined the North-West Rebellion of 1885 after the Metis success at the Battle of Duck Lake. The starving band seized food and supplies from several white settlements and captured Fort Pitt, taking prisoners. Thomas Bland Strange, a retired British officer living near Calgary raised a force of cowboys and other white settlers, added to them two units of North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), and headed north. He was reinforced by three infantry units from the east, bringing his forces to some 1,000 men. While he left some of his force to provide protection for the isolated white settlements in the area, he led several hundred troops east to Fort Pitt. The Cree burnt the fort ahead of him and retreated to the nearby hills. Over the next couple of days, Strange's scouts fought skirmishes with small groups of Cree and marched over Frenchman's Butte. On the night of May 27th, the Cree dug in at the top of a hill east of the Butte and waited.
The Battle
Early on the morning of the 28th, the Cree warriors divided into two groups. Wandering Spirit, the Cree war chief, led some 200 or so warriors who took up positions in the trenches and rifle pits, while Little Poplar remained with a second group to protect the camp, some two miles away. General Strange arrived opposite the Cree position at six in the morning, and opened fire with a piece of artillery. The Cree responded, opening fire on Strange's units. Some Canadian troops tried to cross the valley, but they found the bottom covered in muskeg. On top of this, there was a steep, open hillside in front of the Cree, making any frontal assault suicidal. Strange pulled his forces back and deployed them along the bottom of the valley. The two units of NWMP formed the left flank. To their right was the 65th battalion of Montreal, with the Winnipeg Light Infantry in the centre, while the right flank was formed by the Alberta Mounted Rifles.
The two sides fired back and forth at each other for three hours. The Cree managed to injure some of the Canadian troops in the valley, and the Canadian artillery put holes in the hillside and damaged some of the trenches. Eventually, General Strange ordered Major Sam Steele to lead the NWMP to the north and outflank the Cree. The Cree saw this, and Wandering Spirit led a group of warriors along the tops of the hills, parallel to Steele, and occasionally opened fire. This caused the NWMP to believe that the Cree's lines were much longer than they actually were, so Steele turned back. Around the same time, some Cree warriors managed to outflank the Alberta Mounted Rifles and almost captured the supply train. Afraid of behind attacked from behind, General Strange ordered his force to retreat. The Canadians withrew to Fort Pitt after three hours of fighting. The Cree slipped away later that day, initiating the final stage of the rebellion, as more than 1,000 men searched the woods for Big Bear's band.
Conclusion
Although the battle was a victory for the Cree, it was a hollow one. It bought them time to escape from Strange, but the rebellion was hopeless. The Metis had been defeated at the Battle of Batoche three weeks earlier, and Poundmaker's joint Cree-Assiniboine force had been forced to surrender. The Big Bear band fell apart during the retreat to the north. The Battle of Loon Lake on June 3 demoralised them further, and by early July the rebellion was over. Big Bear was captured and imprisoned. Wandering Spirit was executed along with seven others. General Strange retired back to his ranch and the Alberta Field Force disbanded.