Petition calls for Canada to officially commemorate soldiers killed in Fenian raids

An obscure battle that took place on Canadian soil just a year before Confederation may not reverberate in the historical consciousness of Canadians outside of the town of Fort Erie, Ont. — but it lays claim to a number of historical focal points.

The Battle of Ridgeway — or Limestone Ridge — in 1866 was the first time a battle was fought by Canadian troops led by Canadian officers. It was also the inspiration for Decoration Day, a predecessor to Remembrance Day that is still marked annually in parts of the country.

Yet the nine men who died in the battle are not among the names listed in the Books of Remembrance, an eight-book collection on Parliament Hill that lists the names of soldiers who died in service to Canada.

A new petition set to be presented in the House of Commons is seeking to have those nine men and the dozens who died in the wake of the battle added to the list.

"It really just boils down to Canada recognizing those who died defending it," Conservative MP Fred Davies, who is sponsoring the petition in Parliament, told CBC News.

The Niagara South riding that Davies represents includes Fort Erie, where the battle took place.

"I drive by Limestone Ridge two or three times a week and I always find myself looking at that Ridge," Davies said.

"It sort of just digs at me that this needs to have national recognition."

The story of the Battle of Ridgeway is not one of a decisive Canadian victory. Inexperienced volunteers faced off against Fenian raiders, most of whom were veterans of the American Civil War.

The Fenian Brotherhood was an Irish American movement whose ultimate goal was Irish independence from the British Crown. They attempted to accomplish this by trying to invade and occupy parts of British North America and essentially ransom them back to Britain in return for Irish independence.

In 1866, hundreds of raiders crossed the Niagara River with the aim of attacking the Welland Canal and were met by roughly 800 Canadian volunteers from numerous regiments at Limestone Ridge near the towns of Ridgeway and Fort Erie.

Peter Vronsky, a historian and author of the book Ridgeway: The American Fenian Invasion And The 1866 Battle That Made Canada , told CBC News that he thinks it's "remarkable" that hundreds of Canadians from around the Golden Horseshoe region mobilized as quickly as they did. But he said the Canadian troops were ill prepared for what he called Canada's first modern battle.

"They went into combat without food rations, without water. Some of them didn't have proper footwear — they would wear their civilian shoes into battle. There was a shortage of ammunition," he said.

The Canadians advanced on and exchanged fire with the invaders, but ultimately scattered in a somewhat chaotic retreat following a Fenian bayonet charge. Still, the Fenians abandoned their incursion after the battle and eventually fled back to the U.S. side of the Niagara River.