A handwritten letter addressed to "My dear Tiffany" [probably Edward H. Tiffany, barrister], from North West Mounted Police sergeant C. H. Connon, written after the 1885 North-West Resistance. The letter makes clear Connon's displeasure with public and media perception of the N.W.M.P. and its role in the Resistance, especially in comparison to General [Frederick Dobson] Middleton and his volunteers, of whom he writes that "the sickening drivel and slobbery mass of fulsome adulation bestowed on the volunteers coupled with the utterly unjust criticism of the Police and studied and insulting silence as to what they really did during the late troubles make one much in love with one's grateful country and impartial public press".
The letter also makes the claim that Connon and Commander A. G. [Acheson Gosford] Irvine's unit, stationed at Prince Albert and Fort Carlton, "were out for a month in search of Big Bear and we [underlined for emphasis] got him", refuting what he called General Middleton's "calm assurance to claim credit for his capture". Connon further explains that "we travelled three or four hundreds of miles after him over country which Gen Middleton pronounced to be impassable and an outpost of our own men at last grabbed the redoubtable Big Bear when Middleton and his "heroic" volunteers were over a hundred miles away".
Also of note, the letter dates the fire that destroyed Fort Carlton as having happened on 28 March 1885, stating that they evacuated the post at that time.
Connon, C. H.