… Father André stated that members of the North-West Field Force “resemble more vandals than Christian soldiers …”

The bell that hung in the parish church before the 1885 Battle of Batoche was taken by soldiers from Ontario as spoils of war from the Métis community of Batoche (now Saskatchewan) by soldiers from Upper Canada (now in Ontario). Today, National Aboriginal Day, it will be returned to the Métis of Manitoba. Please see this article.

Property damage was extensive, the result both of use by the Métis and of the artillery fire. Métis occupancy of Batoche’s house had left it in a shambles, while the Walters and Baker store was “an utter wreck, testifying to the destructiveness of heavy guns which played on it during the fight.” On his return to the village, Georges Fisher found bullet holes inside and outside his store and the windows and sashes completely smashed. In addition, looting occurred on May 12 and the next day as well:

As the General’s orders previously issued against [looting] could not be enforced, no interference was made. Some of the men needed articles of underwear, blacking, combs, etc., and these were hurriedly snatched. Guards were of course put on the stores, but the ill-assorted stores somehow or other disappeared. Trunks were ransacked and trophies of the war secured. The rebel state papers were found in the rebel council room.

Even the personal belongings of some of the Métis women were taken. According to Elie Dumont, “Maurice Henry’s wife, Donald Ross’s daughter, was robbed right before his eyes, [they] opened her jewel case, took everything, even her wedding band. And when she cried out to have the ring back, they laughed at her and at her tears.” And “they took everything from Baptiste Parenteau’s wife … left her only a shirt.”

Louis Riel shortly after his capture.
(Library and Archives Canada, C-003450)

Métis prisoners at the Regina court house.
(left to right:) Jean Sansregret, Pierre Parenteau, Pierre Gariépy, Albert Monkman, Philippe Garnot, Pierre and Baptiste Vandale, Toussaint Lucier, Maxime Dubois, Timmus Short, Jean-Baptiste Tourond and Emmanuel Champagne. (Saskatchewan Archives Board, R-B 714)

Find out more about the battle in Walter Hildebrandt’s moment by moment study titled The Battle of Batoche: British Small Warfare and the Entrenched Métis, 2nd ed.