“The great Thanksgiving day sham battle is
over. It is a thing of the past, and peace now reigns supreme over army and
camp. For the next year, the officers and men of his majesty’s troops in
military district, No. 2 will have a chance to ponder over the big mimic battle
of yesterday, when many men were killed and wounded, but never knew it, and
returned home as large as life and full of vim.”
Hamilton Spectator. November 01,
1907.
October 31, 1907 was quite a day in the Hamilton area. It was both Thanksgiving
day and Hallowe’en. It was a day when the Hamilton Herald newspaper’s Around
the Bay Road Race was held in the morning. While later in the day, the Hamilton
Tigers would play an important football game at the HAAA grounds. Finally, it
was the day scheduled for nearly 3,000 soldiers from various militia units
gathered in the Dundas valley for a Sham Battle.
The military portion of the day began as troops headed to the Drill Hall
on James street north :
“The parade of the Hamilton regiments was called for eight o’clock, and
the cars were supposed to leave for Ancaster over the Brantford and Hamilton
railway at half-past eight. As a matter of fact, it was nine o’clock before the
Ninety-first got away, and the Thirteenth preceded it only a few minutes. The
road was just ready to be started when the troops marched up James street.”1
1“Hamilton Force Has Best of the Battle
: Col. Gibson’s Brave Soldiers Reach and Take Hamilton, Their Objective Point :
Official Decision is a Draw – A Great Day, and Some Fine Fighting For the Men ”
Hamilton Spectator. October 20, 1907.
Transportation of the Hamilton troops to their
starting point near Ancaster involved the use of the Radial Electric Railway
known at the time as the Brantford and Hamilton Railway:
“The ride was a delightful one, most of the way up the mountain, and
everyone was vastly surprised to see what a tough and difficult job the
construction of the mountain part of the B. and H. had been. The soldiers had
to get out and walk over a portion that was not safe, where the big landslide
occurred, and they then got into the cars again, and arrived at Ancaster before
ten o’clock. They were immediately sent up to Fiddlers’ Green, in accordance
with the general idea, and at 11 o’clock things began to move. The train from
Brantford bearing the Thirty-eighth landed the Brantford troops about ten
o’clock and they marched into Ancaster.”1
It did not take long before the Hamilton troops and their counterparts
from the Toronto area were in place so that the battle could begin :
“It was about half past eleven that the first shots were fired. That was
on the Ancaster road below the mountain, where Thirteenth men were stationed in
extended order as outposts. On Robb’s farm, on the very brow of the mountain, a
twelve pounder was placed in a beautiful position, so as to protect the main
body of troops as they passed along the old Indian trail toward Horning’s
mountain road. This gun was screened by bushes and branches placed in front of
it, and could have shelled Dundas easily.
“Firing was quite general along the whole mountain brow, gradually
extending eastward.”1
The Sham Battle involved strategic movements of troops, and the use of
rifles, although not with live ammunition:
“Many
men were killed and wounded, but never knew it, and returned home as large as
life and full of vim.”1
Much of the sham battle took place along the escarpment in the Ancaster
and West Hamilton area. As it was a holiday, and as the weather was ideal, many
citizens made their way to the scene of the ‘fighting.’
Later described in the Toronto World, it was a gorgeous autumn day:
““The country over which the operations were conducted was for the greater
part in the Dundas valley, the autumn beauties of which were revealed to the
crowds of spectators who traveled out from Hamilton in motor cars, rigs and
afoot to witness the exhibition of mimic warfare.”1
The sweeping panoramic view of the Dundas valley from the escarpment was
not particularly enjoyed by the visiting troops who had the maneuver up and
down the steep rocky face of the mountain :
The Toronto troops enjoyed doing the climbing
necessary to get up the mountain sides. Toronto has no mountain like Hamilton’s
pride, at which Toronto pokes so much fun, and the Toronto took to climbing up
the steep and rocky face of the cliff like a rhinoceros would take to a mud
bath. Many of them did look as if they had climbed to their heart’s content.”2
The sham battle was conducted at a high level
of military efficiency and it ended as scheduled, giving the visiting soldiers
time to catch their trains back home, while the Hamilton boys were able to get
to their homes in the late afternoon :
“The Hamilton troops were back in the city before five o’clock, and were
in time to get a piece of the Thanksgiving turkey – if there was any left from
the dinner table. They had the evening free, and spent Hallowe’en night in
fitting style. The Toronto troops also reached home in plenty of time to get
cleaned up for the evening, and though the field of operations covered no small
area, they were comparatively fresh. The chief difference in the nature of the
ground was the fact that there was less straight, monotonous marching to do,
and more hill-climbing. The active lads enjoyed the change. They scrambled
around on the rocks, and through the ravines as if they were Swiss mountaineers,
and when they marched down the Horning mountain road to the junction of the
Ancaster and Dundas roads, after the cease fire whistle had been sounded, they
sang and exhibited high spirits:
‘We have been up to the
mountain,
We have been up to the mountain,
We have been up to the mountain,
But we’ll never go there anymore.’
“That is what they sang, to the tune of For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow. The
troops had lunch at the cross-roads in the presence of quite a large number of
curious civilians, and then took the shortest way to their destinations. The
Toronto troops marched to Dundas, where their trains were in waiting, and the
Hamilton troops came into the city.”1
The Spectator carried an editorial about the importance of the sham battle
:
“As a show the field performance of the militia in this neighborhood was
not so good as a park parade, with trooping of the color, feu-de-joie, music
and all that. Nor were the field operations conducted with the view of
entertaining sightseers. There was no working up from small splatterings of
rifle fire, every field gun, and every voice lends itself to the general uproar,
and all ends with a crash that might endanger the very foundation of the
mountain. There was none of that.
“The operations were intended to be instructive to the men and officers of
the militia, and were conducted as nearly as possible as they would have been
had there been bullets in the cartridges. And, while the result, as a spectacle
did not amount to much, there is good reason for the statement that it was
highly instructive, and added much to the military value of the officers and
men in the Grays and Reds.
“The country covered by the movements of the two armies was all that could
be desired for military experiments, as it embraced rough, wooded land, and the
level and side hills, places deeply indented by running water, open, cultivated
territory – the kopje and the natural escarpment, and all manner of difficult
places to try the skill and endurance of the forces. The weather was exactly
right, the men were keen and the officers were enthusiastic.
“It was Hamilton’s first attempt at a field day on a large scale, and the
demonstration was a grand success, judged from the military standpoint; and
educational results were well worth the time, trouble and cash they cost.
“And it is pleasant to know that the citizen soldiery accomplished their
outing without giving cause for the slightest complaint to the people over
whose land they passed during the action – a fact that will make the citizen
soldiery welcome again in the valley of Dundas.”2
2 “The Military
Demonstration ”
Hamilton Spectator. November 01,
1907.
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