Isadore Dumont, JR

Isidore was shot and died the 1st day of the Riel Rebellion...... Early on the morning of 26 March a party of 22 police under Sergeant Alfred Stewart encountered Dumont and his men on the road to Duck Lake. There was a noisy confrontation and the police retreated. Later in the morning, under Superintendent Crozier, a much larger party of nearly 100 police and volunteers with a seven-pounder field gun headed back to Duck Lake. There was a brief parley but someone began shooting and the fight quickly spread. Dumont’s men outnumbered the police and volunteers about three to one and he sent them to outflank the enemy on both sides of the trail. The government forces were soon in danger of total defeat. All might have been killed or captured had Gabriel Dumont not suffered a slight head wound early on that prevented him from leading his men. He turned the command over to his brother Édouard but Riel, who ordered the killing to stop, kept the retreat of the police and volunteers from becoming a slaughter. Duck Lake was a clear victory for the Métis but at a high cost to the Dumont family. Gabriel’s brother Isidore and three other relatives were among the dead.