“To the Fenian Brotherhood, the campaign to seize Canada seemed entirely plausible. Unfortunately for them, things just didn’t work out that way.”

IN 1866, one of the strangest armies in American history marched off to war.

Made up of Irish-born Civil War veterans from both Northern and Southern states, this unlikely brigade was united with a single goal in mind: to break the British stranglehold over their native Ireland.

And to make good on their objective, the leaders of the movement, known as the Fenian Brotherhood, planned to unleash a legion of Irish expats on Great Britain’s Canadian colonies. The transplanted patriots imagined that if they could seize the enormous territory they might use it as a bargaining chip in negotiations with London for the independence of their ancestral homeland.

To the organizers, the Fenian scheme seemed feasible. The Brotherhood could draw from up to 17,000 combat-hardened, Irish-born Civil War veterans. Surplus arms and equipment were readily available and stockpiled at secret depots around the country. Donations from scores of Irish Americans were pouring in. There was a provisional government of Canada ready and waiting in New York. The Fenians were even counting on tacit support from the U.S. government, which was still unhappy about Britain’s sympathy for the Southern rebellion. The Brotherhood expected the campaign in Canada to be easily won. Unfortunately for them, things didn’t work out that way.

The Back Story

The Fenian Brotherhood was established in the 1850s as an American offshoot of the United Irishmen, an 18th Century movement that launched an anti-British insurgency in the old country.

By 1860, prominent Fenians foresaw the coming war in the United States as an opportunity for their members to learn how to fight as an army — know-how they hoped to one-day use against the British Empire.

Accordingly, movement leaders like John O’Mahony and William Roberts raised regiments of fellow expats in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, while their compatriots in the southern states, like Father John Bannon, helped organize groups of Irish volunteers below the Mason Dixon Line. [1]

While Northern and Southern Irish troops did do battle with one another during the Civil War, often the opposing regiments would arrange informal parlays or “soldiers truces” whenever they could. Generals on both sides frequently turned a blind eye to the fraternizations, believing it to be largely harmless reunions among kinsmen. In reality, the ad hoc summits enabled the Fenians to draw up their plans for a post-war campaign against Britain’s New World colonies. [2]

With the fighting finally over in 1865, the Fenians saw that the time to act was at hand. The Brotherhood’s leadership met in the latter half of the year to fine-tune their plot against Canada and put out the call to members to assemble. One of their marshalling points was Buffalo, New York, a border town on the American side of the Niagara River. Another was Maine. Brotherhood officials even met with U.S. president Andrew Johnson who indicated that Washington would not interfere in the event of hostilities and might even formally recognize the Fenian cause if it succeeded. [3] By the spring of 1866, thousands of Irish vets from both the Union and the Confederacy had been rallied, arms and ammunition were distributed, officers were appointed and final plans of attack were shared.

Opening Moves

In April, the Fenians made their first foray onto Canadian soil. A detachment of 1,000 in Maine seized Campobello Island, which was part of the British colony of New Brunswick, Canada. An even larger operation took place a few weeks later on the Great Lakes.

On June 1, a battalion of 1,300 Fenians under the command of Col. John O’Neill, formerly an officer of the 5^th Indiana Cavalry, crossed the mouth of the Niagara at Buffalo, N.Y. into Canada. [4]

Members of the invasion force, which came from New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Louisiana and Kentucky, descended onto the Canadian border town of Fort Erie and secured it with minimal resistance. [5] The strategy was to establish a foothold in the Niagara Region and then march onto Toronto, Montreal and even Quebec City.

Surprised by the invasion, Canadian authorities called up nearly 1,000 militia, mobilized a handful of regulars, and rushed the hastily assembled column off to meet the Fenians. Recognizing that their men would soon be facing an army of seasoned vets, Canadian commanders armed their motley force with a consignment of new Spencer repeating rifles. The brass hoped the added firepower would make up for their side’s lack of experience. Unfortunately, few of the novice defenders had ever handled the weapons before, let alone fired them; they were used to training with old muzzle-loading muskets. [6]

Learning that British and Canadian troops were en route, O’Neill left a small force to hold Fort Erie and set off to intercept the enemy. The two armies met outside the village of Ridgeway, Ontario on the morning of June 2.

The 90 minute engagement that followed saw the Canadians initially push the Fenians back. But when a handful of mounted Irish scouts appeared, the redcoats mistakenly took the small formation for the vanguard of a much larger cavalry force. The defenders quickly formed squares but in the confusion left themselves open to a Fenian bayonet charge. [7] The British and Canadians were driven from the field, leaving seven dead and more than 60  wounded. The Fenians suffered 16 casualties, with six killed.

The Invasion Fizzles

Despite the victory at Ridgeway, O’Neill realized his foothold in Canada was growing more tenuous by the hour. Scores of British and Canadian reinforcements were converging on the Niagara from the west and north. Worse, the American government, which had previously maintained a policy of benign indifference to the Fenian cause, was now wary of provoking a war with Britain. Following the initial landings at Fort Erie, the gunboat USS Michigan had taken up a station off Buffalo and was turning back any Fenian reinforcements that tried to cross into Canada. Meanwhile military authorities in New York State under the command of no less than generals Ulysses Grant and George Meade arrived in western New York with orders to disarm and arrest the Fenians. Realizing his forces were alone in Canada and cut off from fresh troops and supplies, O’Neill beat a hasty retreat to the stronghold of Fort Erie, but not before clashing again with a force of fresh Canadian militia. Despite capturing more than 50 of the volunteers at Fort Erie, the Fenian commander recognized that the tide had turned and ordered a general withdrawal. The Fenians retreated right into the waiting arms of U.S. authorities.

The End of the Dream

Within days of their failed gambit on the Great Lakes, the Fenians would send more insurgents into New Brunswick, but they too were pushed back by Canadian forces and again intercepted by the U.S. military.

Fenians were now on Washington’s public enemies list. It became ever more difficult for them to gather, while the police and army were quick to pounce on their stockpiles of arms and equipment.

Other smaller forays were mounted against Quebec and border points on the Canadian prairies in 1870 and 1871 respectively, but these were quickly dispersed by authorities on both sides of the border.

With their numbers dwindling and their rank-and-file finally settling down into civilian life in greater numbers, the Brotherhood’s schemes became even more desperate and outlandish.

In 1881, the group financed a 30-foot long submarine dubbed The Fenian Ram, ostensibly to be used against British shipping. Unable to find a crew to operate it, the sub was mothballed in 1883, only to be pulled from storage in 1916 for use as a public attraction at Irish Republican fundraisers in the United States. [8]

Ironically, while the Fenians sought to break the British stranglehold over Ireland, the only country to gain independence as a result of its 1866 raids was Canada. The attacks, which were largely repelled by local militia, generated a new sense of nationalism in Canada that would be a factor in the colonies’ amicable independence from Great Britain in 1867.

Ireland would finally achieve independence from Great Britain in 1922 following its own war of independence between 1919 and 1921.

Sources
http://voices.yahoo.com/1866-fenian-invasion-canada-8111728.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O%27Neill_(Fenian)
http://www.historynet.com/fenian-raids-invasions-of-british-ruled-canada.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ridgeway
http://www.bivouacbooks.com/bbv2i3s6.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_Ram