A military historian and a former Riley commanding officer are pressing the federal government to give the Hamilton regiment, and a second military unit, recognition for a battle fought more than 150 years ago.

The Battle of Ridgeway on June 2, 1866, was the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry's first military engagement and a major sore point because so-called "battle honours" were never extended by Canada's armed forces.

On Tuesday, Ryerson University professor Peter Vronsky and Dan Stepaniuk took the case to the Canada's military in an hour-long teleconference call as a first step before the issue is formally dealt with on May 14 by the "Battle Honours Committee," a division of the Canadian Armed Forces.

The Battle of Ridgeway saw a group of several hundred Civil War-hardened Fenians attack pre-Confederation Canada in an effort to strike out at Britain and undermine British rule of Ireland.

When the dust cleared, the Fenians had won, although they soon returned to the U.S. Nine Canadian soldiers died in the battle, and 33 were wounded. Four Rileys died in the months following from wounds or disease contracted at Ridgeway. Four to six Fenians were killed.

An artist's conception of the Battle of Ridgeway, June 2, 1866. In fact, the two sides, Fenians on the left and colonial militias of Canada on the right were never this close together. A historian says that if the American government had supported the Fenians. a big if, it might have changed who owned Canada. | Ridgeway Battlefiedl Hospital Museum

"It's disappointing," says RHLI Hon. Col. Peter Young. "We lost people because of the conflict."

Vronsky says Ridgeway was hugely significant in Canadian history. It was the first modern battle to be fought and lead exclusively by Canadians without British participation and was the last battle fought in Ontario.

It also served to shore up support for Confederation because it gave substance to the argument that a united Canada would be better able to stand up to future attacks from the U.S.

Vronsky believes both the 13th Battalion Volunteer Militia — as the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Rileys) were known at the time — and Queen's Own Rifles, that also fought at the battle, were "unjustly refused" a request for the honours in 1924.

"If they don't overturn the foolish decision ... the decision will stand forever. And that's how history gets made or unmade — by committees — and at glacial speed," says Vronsky, who wrote the book 2012 book "Ridgeway — the American Fenian Invasion and the 1866 Battle That Made Canada."

Opponents of granting battle honours argued the Canadian regiments lost the battle after breaking into "a cowardly retreat," and were undeserving of recognition. They also noted the battle was before Confederation so was outside Canadian military jurisdiction.

But Vronsky says honours have been awarded in other losing battles such as Dieppe in 1942 and Hong Kong in 1941, and reports of cowardice were untrue, and based on "yellow journalism of the Toronto and Hamilton newspapers, along with pro-Fenian American newspaper reports, and not any Canadian military reports or records."

As for the pre-Confederation argument, he says, that went out the window when honours were extended in 2012 for War of 1812 battles.

More than that, Vronsky believes soldiers have been wrongly blamed when the true issue was the poor judgment of senior commanders who put troops into a square formation because they wrongly thought a cavalry was coming at them. The formation left the men extremely vulnerable to rifle fire and there was further confusion when it was wrongly thought that British troops were arriving as reinforcements.

"As it frequently happens, the rank and file fighting men were blamed for the inexperience and failure of the colonial Canadian Department of Militia under John A. Macdonald to properly train, equip and supply Canadian troops and assign a competent officer to lead them into battle against a better equipped and highly battle-experienced force of Fenian insurgents."

He noted that soldiers were so ill-equipped that they didn't have proper food and water provisions and on a sweltering hot day many in desperation drank ditch water that made many sick.

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As well as the lack of "battle honours," the so-called "Ridgeway Nine" are not included in the National Books of Remembrance despite petitions to the federal government in 2013.

mmcneil@thespec.com

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