The Origin and Services of the 3rd (Montreal)

"Nowhere was this feeling more sincere than in Canada. At the time of thePresident s death a United States military organization, the Troy Citizens Corps,was in Montreal on an excursion, and the Field Battery was associated with theother local corps in entertaining them. After the sad news was received thevisiting corps cancelled itsengagements, and marching to the station with muffleddrums and draped colours, took the train back to Troy, N. Y.The funeral took place on the 26th and while it was in progress a memorialservice was held in the American Presbyterian Church on Dorchester Street. Atthe same time the Field Battery fired minute guns from Dominion Square. Theorder calling out the Battery on this occasion read as follows :As a mark of respect for the memory of a gallant soldier, and to manifesttheir sympathy with a neighbouringnation now in mourning,Battery will muster at the Drill Shed, Craig Street,the Montreal Fieldthis afternoon at one o clockprecisely, and will proceed to Dominion Square for the purpose of firing minuteguns during the funeral obsequies of the late President Garfield at Cleveland,Ohio. The firing will continue during the whole time the funeral processionis intwo hours."progress, probably occupyingMarch loth, 1888, the Battery participated in the Montreal celebration of thetwenty-fifth anniversary of the marriage of Their Royal Highnesses the Prince andand Princess of Wales, marching with a detachment of the Prince of Wales Regiment to Mount Royal, where a Royal salute was fired in honour of the occasion.During March, 1889, ^ r - Frederic Villiers, the celebrated war correspondentand artist, lectured in Montreal, under the auspices of the Field Battery, thelectures proving a rare treat for the citizens.The annual camp in 1882,011 the exhibition grounds, was under the commandof Lieutenant Green, Lieutenant-Colonel Stevenson being on leave. Lieutenant-Colonel Irwin was the inspecting officer at the annual inspection at the conclusionof the camp, and said, in addressing the men, that the Battery could not be surpassedby any corps he had ever inspected. This year the Battery participated in thegrand military review held on Fletcher s Field, the ninth of September, in connection with the big exhibition of that year. Special interest attached to this eventowing to the presence of two American corps, the Troy Citizens Corps, and theBarlow Grays, of St. Albans, Vt. The evening after the review the Battery gave agrand military entertainment in the Queen s Hall, under the auspices of HisHonor Lieutenant-Governor Robitaille.In 1885 the men of the Battery fondly cherished the hope that they would becalled upon to assist in the suppression of the North West Rebellion, and officers andmen worked with redoubled efforts to keep the corps up to the very highest pointof efficiency. The Battery was complete in every respect and ready to take the fieldand give a good account of itself at any moment, but the uprising was put down inshort order by Major-General Middleton, without requiring the assistance of any ofthe volunteer batteries from the Eastern provinces.65