Wolseley Expedition

Wolseley expedition

Part of Red River Rebellion

Red River Expedition at Kakabeka Falls by Frances Anne Hopkins, 1877

Date

1870

Location

Fort Garry
(modern-day Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)

Result

Bloodless Government victory;

Government forces capture fort
Louis Riel escapes

Belligerents

Canada

Métis

Commanders and leaders

Garnet Wolseley

Louis Riel

Casualties and losses

None

Bloodless Government victory;

The Wolseley expedition was a military force authorized by Sir John A. Macdonald to confront Louis Riel and the Métis in 1870, during the Red River Rebellion, at the Red River Colony in what is now the Canadian province of Manitoba. The expedition was also intended to counter American expansionist sentiments in northern border states. After a journey of months in arduous conditions, the Expedition arrived at, and captured, Fort Garry, extinguished Riel's Provisional Government and eradicated the threat of the U.S. being able to easily wrest western Canada from Confederation.

Under the leadership of Colonel Garnet Wolseley, the expedition set out in May 1870 from Toronto, Ontario, in an attempt to interdict Riel. The U.S. government had refused permission for the troops to cross U.S. soil, and many thought it impossible to move a military force into western Canada via an all-Canadian route, the Dawson Road having been mapped out only three years earlier and the railway still many years away. But the difficulties were overcome, and the force arrived at Winnipeg in August.

The expedition travelled to Georgian Bay, then by steamer across Lake Huron to the U.S. Sault Canal where men and materiel had to be transported on the Canadian side of the river, across Lake Superior to the Department of Public Works station at Thunder Bay which Wolseley named Prince Arthur's Landing on May 25, 1870, in honour of Queen Victoria's third son. From there the troops carried small boats to Lake Shebandowan. Travelling further westwards, they passed through Fort Frances to Lake of the Woods. They proceeded down the Winnipeg River and across the south basin of Lake Winnipeg to the Red River finally arriving at Fort Garry in late August.

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Wikipedia