I've had a lot of requests from fellow garners to put together a list of books for this period. So I thought I'd jot down a few comments regarding Victorian Canadian Military history. WHY GAME THE PERIOD? Everyone has there own reasons why they are drawn to a certain period. For tne, the Victorian battles of Canada presented me with an opportunity to visit battlefields of my favorite wargaming period. Africa and Pakistan are too far away for me to trod on their fields and see the geography for myself. On the other hand, Canada is close by and (mostly) speaks the same language. Canadian battles are also smaller in scale, and thus easier to transfer to the gaming table. Figures are not really that much of a problem. One company makes figures for the 1885 Rebellion (Rafm). Figures for the Fenian raids can be had through ACW and Crimean War lines. For the other periods, figures can be modified out of existing lines. VISITING CANADIAN BATTLEFIELDS Why not? It's not like you have to travel 25 hours by jet plane to get there. Still I have some recommendations and suggestions for would-be battlefield visitors. First, don't rely only on AAA guides. We found most of them to be completely out of date. Contact the provincial tourism bureaus instead of relying on travel guides. Second, don't forget to visit museums. The National Army Museum in Ottawa is a must for anyone visiting Ontario or Quebec. Out west, visit the Museum of the Regiments in Calgary. Both are really first-rate experiences. (The government is building a new national museum but I'm not sure of the date of completion.) Visitors to Ridgeway will find it much as it was in 1866, though the streets are paved and a couple of buildings are gone. There is a very small museum on the battle site, usually manned by a poor high school student who really didn't pay much attention in class that day the teacher covered the 1866 invasion, so please go easy on him! There are several signs available if you want to follow the Fenians route to Ridgeway and the Buffalo Historical Association made a travel tour (softback) book if you're interested. While you're in the area, don't forget to stop by the 1812 forts. You can still visit the site of the Battle of the Windmill (1838); the windmill is still there though it is now a lighthouse. A short trip west of the site is Fort Wellington, an excellent park which recounts (in part) the battle and the history of "American aggression upon Canada". (Remember, in Canada all the cannons point south!) A few years ago, we took a trip to visit all the battlefields of the North West Rebellion. If you have only a limited amount of time, go to Batoche. They have a great national park with a first rate museum. There's a presentation slide show that really is worth the price of entry. It's not really a simple slide show and it's something you can't really explain; just make sure you take the time to see it. The museum has lots of uniforms, cannon, guns, etc. They have excellent walks marked out on the battlefield, although make sure you check yourself for ticks. Nearby is Fish Creek Battlefield. You start by driving gravel roads, then dirt, then just tracks across the prairie! All that remains is a cairn where Middlefield made camp, but you can get a good sense of the battlefield terrain at the site. Also not too far away is Duck Lake, though only a historical plaque marks the site. One final suggestion: go see it in mid-June. The prairie is beautiful and wildlife is abundant. Take the time to stop in Regina to see the Governor's Mansion (Government House) and the RCMP museum. WHERE TO FIND BOOKS ON CANADIAN MILITARY HISTORY Canada. Okay, so that's a gimme. But what if you can't make it to the Great White North? Well, I've had some luck with good ole Amazon.com. Chapters.ca is an online Canadian service that has also provided me with a number of books over the years. The Grenadier is an Ontario bookstore specializing in Canadian military history (dave@grenadiermilitaria.com) and they publish a quarterly listing of books available. Another online source and North America's largest game shop is Sentrybox.com. They have a large listing of military books and also carry Rafm figures at Canadian prices! BOOKS ABOUT CANADIAN MILITARY HISTORY IN GENERAL Before I start listing books, let me say that they are in no particular order. In addition to these books I've also written a dozen or so articles for Historical Gamer and Wargarnes Illustrated. Fryer, Mary Beacock. Battlefields of Canada. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1986. and More Battlefields of Canada. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1993. Part history book and part (very small part) guide to the battlefields. A good first step when planning a vacation would be scanning these books. Warning: the section on locating the Cut Knife battlefield is not accurate! Chartrand, Rene. Canadian Military Heritage, Vol. 1 (1000-1754) and Vol. 2 (17551871). Montreal: Art Global, 1993 & 1995. Extremely well illustrated volumes with bags of uniform information and well written narratives. Volume 3 (1882-2000) was published in 2000 by Art Global, but it was written by Serge Bernier. Graves, Donald, ed. Fighting for Canada: Seven Battles, 1758-1945. Toronto: Roibin Bass Studio, 2000. Run to your computer and order this book! Great chapters on Ridgeway and Leliefontein (Boer War), but you'll find every chapter captivating and the OBs in the back are a great resource. Another great feature has to be the fantastic maps and pictures. HARD TO FIND BUT GREAT IF YOU CAN: Morton, Desmond. The Canadian General. Toronto: Hakkert, 1974. One of my favorite military biographies written by the primier military historian in Canada. A very good insight into the battles of Ridgeway and Cut Knife, as well as Canada's capture of the Boer positions at Paardeburg. This well written book was penned by Canada's leading military history scholar. BOOKS ABOUT THE 1837 & 1838 REBELLIONS Schull, Joseph. Rebellion: The Rising in French Canada 1837. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1971. Reprinted in paperback and easy to locate, if you only had one book on this conflict, this should be the one. Fryer, Mary Beacock. Volunteers and Redcoats, Rebels and Raiders. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1987. This contains a good chapter on the Pelee Island fight (1838). Graves, Donald. Guns Across the River: the Battle of the Windmill, 1838. Toronto: Robin Bass Studio, 2001. Maps, pictures, OB's and Graves' scholarship make this book a worthwhile read, if only to learn everything there is to know about this small hiccup in Canadian history. THE 1866 FENIAN INVASION Senior, Hereward. The Last Invasion of Canada. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1991. Probably the book for this subject, it contains good maps and some good photos from the period. HARD TO FIND BUT GREAT IF YOU CAN: MacDonald, Captain John A. Troublous Times in Canada. Toronto: W. S. Johnson & Company, 1910. Written by a veteran of the `66 and `70 invasions, this volume also contains two most valuable assets: the original maps other authors have copied for their books and bags of first hand accounts of the Ridgeway fight. Try your local university library and see if you can locate this one. THE 1885 NORTH-WEST REBELLION Beal, Bob and Rod McLeod. Prairie Fire: The North-West Rebellion. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1984. This book may have gone into paperback, but in any case, it is the best volume on the war. Written after Morton's account, Beal and McLeod provide an important "update" of what is known about this war. Yes, there are pictures and maps, but the writing is the best part of this book. Hildebrandt, Walter. The Battle of Batoche. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services, 1982. Looks like this was written to sell at the national park. An excellent blow-by-blow account of Batoche with the best maps you'll ever find regarding this subject. This used to be available through RAFM, but is now hard to find. Macleod, R. C. (ed.) Reminiscences of a Bungle by One of the Bunglers and Two Other North-West Rebellion Diaries. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1983. Not my favorite first-hand account, but I got it through Amazon.com. How easy is that? HARD TO FIND BUT GREAT IF YOU CAN: Morton, Desmond. The Last War Drum. Toronto: Hakkert, 1972. This is the book that got me excited about Canadian military history. Buy it for the maps and pictures! Wiebe, Rudy and Beal, Bob (ed.) War in the West: Voices of the 1885 Rebellion. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1985. This is a "must have" book for the true Canadian-Victorian military history buff. A fine collection of first-hand accounts and pictures/illustrations from the period are to be found in this volume. THE BOER WAR Miller, Carman. Painting the Map Red: Canada and the South African War, 18991902. Montreal and Kingston, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993. Whenever I really find a book valuable, I tag it with small post-it notes. Well, if you pulled this book off my shelf, you'd find about a hundred post-its spilling out over the edge of the page. The book only contains a few photographs, but has excellent maps and is the life's work of Carmen Miller. HARD TO FIND BUT GREAT IF YOU CAN: Smith-Dorrien, General Sir Horace. Memories of Forty-eight Years of Service. London: John Murray, 1925. The life of a most remarkable man; He commanded the brigade that included the Royal Canadian Regiment during the Paardeberg campaign.  Back to MWAN # 128 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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