Nine Canadian militiamen who died fighting Irish nationalists in the 1860s while serving under Canadian command deserve to be recognized similarly to soldiers of other conflicts, a new petition urges.
The petition, created by Ottawa resident Joshua Benson, calls on Parliament to formally recognize the nine Canadian militiamen killed at the Battle of Ridgeway by adding their names to Canada’s Books of Remembrance. The battle took place near present-day Fort Erie, Ont., on June 2, 1866, during the Fenian Raids, a series of incursions into British North America by Irish nationalists based in the United States.
“Those who died during the campaign were among the first combat dead of what would become the Canadian Army,” says the petition, which was first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter….