| Subject: |
1885, Resistance, Military, First Nations, Métis, Poundmaker, Riel, Louis, Middleton, General |
| Description: |
In this appendix to "Resumé of the Riel Rebellion”, Lieutenant Colonel A.C.D. Pigott transcribed a correspondence between General Middleton and Poundmaker, which is a response to Poundmaker’s letter dated May 22, 1885 (Pigott Appendix, Poundmaker to Riel, Poundmaker to Gen. Middleton). In this transcription, General Middleton indicates that there will be no terms of surrender for the Indians, as there were none for the Métis. He indicates that he has enough men to defeat Poundmaker’s band or at least “drive you away to starve in the woods”. Lieutenant Colonel A.C.D. Pigott wrote “Resumé of the Riel Rebellion” during various engagements of the 1885 Resistance. This is one of only a few first-hand accounts by any member of the Canadian army during the 1885 Resistance. Pigott chronicled the 1885 Resistance from the March 26, 1885 skirmish at Duck Lake to the campaign against First Nations warriors from Big Bear’s and Poundmaker’s camps. These pages focus largely on battling the First Nations and list troop movements and the advance of columns by Generals Otter and Strange. This document also contains a number of appendices, not numbered in sequential order, including a map of the Battle of Fish Creek and a second-hand transcription of a correspondence between Big Bear, General Middleton and Louis Riel. This document, part of A.C.D. Pigott’s 1885 personal correspondence, is part of the A.C.D. Pigott Collection, which was acquired by the Gabriel Dumont Institute in October 1991 by the Ted Pappas family of Vancouver, British Columbia. The collection includes: Louis Riel’s English-French dictionary, Lieutenant Colonel Pigott’s 1885 Resistance battlefield manuscript, and a number of artifacts taken off the battlefield including: an inscribed watch, a pipe, a bullet maker and a buffalo powder horn (both from the Métis trenches), a carved wooden container taken from Big Bear’s camp, a First Nations decorative bracelet and horsehair braiding, which may have been traded for food by somebody captured by the Boulton’s Scouts. |
Resistance