Today is the 159th anniversary of the twin battles of Ridgeway and Fort Erie, fought in the vicinity of the town of Fort Erie across the Niagara River from Buffalo, New York, between Canadian troops and an irregular army of Irish-American invaders, the Fenians. The Battle of Ridgeway 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 Battle of Fort Erie was a surrounding and forcing of the Fenian invaders' surrender following a skirmish near Fort Erie and the farther-away Battle of Ridgeway. The Fenian force, withdrawing from Ridgeway, met a small force of Canadian militia at Fort Erie, then known as the village of Waterloo.