Battle of Fish Creek

Contemporary lithograph of the Battle of Fish Creek.

Date	April 24, 1885
Location	52°32′22.97″N 106°9′21.47″W / 52.5397139°N 106.1559639°W / 52.5397139; -106.1559639Coordinates: 52°32′22.97″N 106°9′21.47″W / 52.5397139°N 106.1559639°W / 52.5397139; -106.1559639 Fish Creek, Saskatchewan
Result	Métis victory

Belligerents

Provisional Government of Saskatchewan (Métis)

Canada

Commanders and leaders

Gabriel Dumont

Frederick Middleton

Strength

280

900

Casualties and losses

11 Métis & Dakota dead
18 wounded

10 dead
40 wounded

National Historic Site of Canada

Official name

Battle of Tourond's Coulee / Fish Creek National Historic Site of Canada

Designated

1923

The Battle of Fish Creek (also known as the Battle of Tourond's Coulée ), fought April 24, 1885 at Fish Creek, Saskatchewan, was a major Métis victory over the Canadian forces attempting to quell Louis Riel's North-West Rebellion. Although the reversal was not decisive enough to alter the ultimate outcome of the conflict, it was convincing enough to persuade Major General Frederick Middleton to temporarily halt his advance on , where the Métis would later make their final stand.

Middleton, having led his considerable Field Force out from Qu'Appelle on April 10, was advancing upstream from Clarke's Crossing along the South Saskatchewan River when he discovered a hastily organized ambush by Gabriel Dumont's Métis / Dakota force.

On April 23, as the militia began advancing from Clarke’s Crossing, Dumont took 200 men and rode out from Batoche toward Tourond’s Coulée. Louis Riel accompanied them. When a (false) report arrived that the North-West Mounted Police were advancing on Batoche, Riel returned there with 50 men. Dumont stationed most of his men in the coulée, where they set to work digging rifle pits. The militia would cross the coulée the next day, and it was then that the concealed men in the rifle pits would ambush them. Dumont took a smaller party of twenty horsemen forward of the coulée. Their task was to seal the exit when the ambush was sprung. “I want to treat them like buffaloes,” Dumont said of Middleton’s men.

Dumont and his twenty men hid in a poplar bluff. There were not yet any leaves, however. On the morning of April 24, before the infantry could cross the coulée, a Canadian cavalryman of Boulton’s Scouts spotted the Métis horsemen. Dumont’s Métis and Boulton’s force then opened fire on each other. The Scouts dismounted and began firing into the coulée, and the main body of Canadian infantry advanced to the coulée’s edge.

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