| Subject: |
1885, Resistance, First Nations, Poundmaker, Big Bear, General, Strange, Cutknife Hill, Battle |
| Description: |
Lieutenant Colonel A.C.D. Pigott wrote this document entitled “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. Page 14 of this document discusses the aftermath of the Battle of Cutknife Hill. Pigott indicated that 7 soldiers were killed and proceeds to name them and that 14 were wounded. He does not mention that the army was defeated in the battle but rather after it concluded the “column moved back at Battleford at 10 PM on May 2nd”. After the battle, he indicated that most of his column went on to search for Big Bear’s band. He also outlines the various regiments, troop strengths and commanders of General Strange's column. 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