The sun was bright for an annual ceremony to remember those who have served and continue to serve in the Canadian Forces.
Joyce Daigle of Espanola attended the Decorations Day Ceremony on Manitoulin Island yesterday.
The daughter of deceased veterans, James and Thelma Dagg, she says she was proud to be able to lay a wreath for the Women’s Army Corps.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, there were a limited number of people in attendance at the Manitoulin Monument.
The Royal Canadian Legions on Manitoulin also filmed the laying of the wreaths, which will be posted online.
Decoration Day is a Canadian ceremony held the weekend closest to June 2, the anniversary of Canada’s forgotten first modern battle, the Battle of Ridgeway in 1866, which preceded the more celebrated Remembrance Day held November 11th of every year.
The Battle of Ridgeway, sometimes the Battle of Lime Ridge or Limestone Ridge, was fought in the vicinity of the town of Fort Erie across the Niagara River from Buffalo, New York, near the village of Ridgeway, Canada West, currently Ontario, Canada, on June 2nd, 1866, between Canadian troops and an irregular army of Irish-American invaders, the Fenians. It was the largest engagement of the Fenian Raids, the first modern industrial-era battle to be fought by Canadians and the first to be fought only by Canadian troops and led exclusively by Canadian officers.
The battlefield was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1921 and is the last battle fought within the current boundaries of Ontario against a foreign invasion.
The action at Ridgeway has the distinction of being the only armed victory for the cause of Irish independence between the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and the Irish War of Independence in 1919.
