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State University of New York Press - Lawrence E. Cline

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161 pages

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In what is now largely considered a footnote in history, Americans invaded Canada along the Niagara Frontier in 1866. The group behind the invasion—the Fenian Brotherhood—was formed in 1858 by Irish nationalists in New York City in order to fight for Irish independence from Britain. At the end of the American Civil War, Fenian leaders attempted to use Irish Americans, many of them combat veterans, to seize Canada and make it the "New Ireland" as a means to force the British from "old" Ireland. New York State was both the epicenter of Fenian leadership and a key support base and staging area for the military operations. Although relatively short-lived and with some of its military operations being somewhere between farce and tragedy, the Fenian Brotherhood had a very important impact on nineteenth-century New York and America, but remains largely forgotten. In Rebels on the Niagara Lawrence E. Cline examines not only the Fenian operations and their impact on Canada, but also the role the United States and New York played in both the initial support for the Fenian movement and its subsequent collapse in America.
Acknowledgments
Maps
Foreword

1. The Fenian Brotherhood in New York and the US

2. The American and Irish Fenians

3. The Fenians, American Society, and the American Government

4. “The Great Schism”

5. The Campobello Island Raid

6. Preparing for Invasion
photo gallery follows page 84

7. The Invasion in the Niagara

8. The Other Fenian Invasion Wings

9. The Aftermath

10. The Interregnum

11. 1870: Invasion Redux

12. The Withering of the Fenian Brotherhood: The Birth of “Fenianism”

Appendix 1 The Fenian Constitutions of 1863 and 1865
Appendix 2 A Fenian Soldier’s Account of 1866
Appendix 3 General Sweeney’s Proclamation to the Canadians in 1866

Notes
Bibliography and Suggested Readings
Index

Sujets

USA

United States of America

Canadá

19th century

Military history

Local history

Ireland

Region

History of the Americas

History of Europe

Stephen Ireland

Regional

Canada

États-Unis

Informations

Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	21 novembre 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781438467535
Langue	English

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REBELS
ON THE
NIAGARA
REBELS
ON THE
NIAGARA
The Fenian Invasion of Canada, 1866
LAWRENCE E. CLINE
Cover image: The Green Above the Red [an imaginary incident during the Fenian Raids of 1866]. Credit: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. R9266-3319 Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana. Copyright: expired.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2018 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Jenn Bennett
Marketing, Kate Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Cline, Lawrence E., author.
Title: Rebels on the Niagara : the Fenian Invasion of Canada, 1866 / Lawrence E. Cline.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2018. | Series: Excelsior editions | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016059902 (print) | LCCN 2016059172 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438467535 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438467528 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438467511 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Canada—History—Fenian Invasions, 1866–1870. | Fenians.
Classification: LCC F1032 (print) | LCC F1032 .C63 2017 (ebook) | DDC 971.04/8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016059902
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Priscilla for the patience, and to Liz and Lucy for the love
Contents
Acknowledgments
Maps
Foreword
Chapter 1 The Fenian Brotherhood in New York and the US
Chapter 2 The American and Irish Fenians
Chapter 3 The Fenians, American Society, and the American Government
Chapter 4 “The Great Schism”
Chapter 5 The Campobello Island Raid
Chapter 6 Preparing for Invasion
photo gallery
Chapter 7 The Invasion in the Niagara
Chapter 8 The Other Fenian Invasion Wings
Chapter 9 The Aftermath
Chapter 10 The Interregnum
Chapter 11 1870: Invasion Redux
Chapter 12 The Withering of the Fenian Brotherhood: The Birth of “Fenianism”
Appendix 1 The Fenian Constitutions of 1863 and 1865
Appendix 2 A Fenian Soldier’s Account of 1866
Appendix 3 General Sweeney’s Proclamation to the Canadians in 1866
Notes
Bibliography and Suggested Readings
Index
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank the Buffalo History Museum, Missisquoi Historical Society, and Library and Archives Canada for their great assistance in gathering material. He also would like to thank Professor Thomas Mockaitis and Doctor Peter Vronsky for their valuable comments on the initial manuscript.
Maps
Maps are by the author. Location details for the Battle of Ridgeway map are from Alexander Somerville, Narrative of the Fenian Invasion of Canada . Hamilton: J. Lyght, 1866. Location details of the Eccles Hill map are from Hereward Senior, The Last Invasion of Canada: The Fenian Raids, 1866‒1870 . Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1991.

Map 1. Campobello Island raid

Map 2. Fenian Strategy for the 1866 Invasion

Map 3. Niagara Campaign Area

Map 4. Canadian Movements Leading to the Battle of Ridgeway

Map 5. Battle of Ridgeway

Map 6. Eastern Wing of the Invasion

Map 7. Eccles Hill

Map 8. Trout River
Foreword
I n June 1866, Americans invaded Canada along the Niagara Frontier. Although now somewhat a footnote in US and New York history, the military operations at the time were viewed with major alarm. The British and Canadians mobilized forces, battles were fought, and the United States sent troops to the Niagara Frontier. The situation could have exploded into a major crisis. As such, the 1866 invasion and its aftermath deserve more attention than commonly given.
The interesting twist on the 1866 fighting was that it was not government-to-government inspired, but rather operations by Canadian forces facing what now would be termed insurgents, namely the Fenian Brotherhood. The Fenian movement in the nineteenth century tried using militant tactics to fight for the independence of Ireland. In many ways, this group was stronger in the United States than it was in Ireland, and may have had more significance in America. At the end of the US Civil War, Fenian leaders decided to try to use Irish Americans, many of them combat veterans of the Civil War, to seize Canada and to make it the “New Ireland” as a means to force the British from “old” Ireland. For some Fenians, it was viewed as a “mega-hostage” operation to extract concessions from the British government. Others perceived it for the Fenians to ignite a larger US-British war. In either event, the ultimate goal was Irish independence.
The Fenian invasion of Canada in 1866 had many roots in the United States and particularly New York State, which was both the epicenter of Fenian leadership and a key support base and staging area for the military operations. Both the larger 1866 efforts and the smaller 1870 operation involved a relative flood of Fenians into New York. After two battles in 1866 and a small skirmish in 1870, the “invasions” turned into fiascoes, in many ways the result of US government responses in Upstate New York. The events leading up to the invasions and the political movement surrounding the Fenian Brotherhood continued to have significant impacts on the region.
The Larger Background
The Irish, of course, had struggled for many years for independence from Britain. The 1798 uprising was particularly widespread and violent, mainly because it involved French intervention, however weak and ill-timed. This was followed by a smaller uprising led by Robert Emmet in 1803. Both led to increased immigration to the United States by Irish with significant grievances, which almost certainly were passed along to their descendants. Much of the later Fenian leadership and many of its members, in fact, were the sons or grandsons of those who had fought in 1798.
In Ireland, after the failure of the 1798 movement, a group called the Young Irelanders emerged as a nationalist movement not based on religion. Their significance increased sharply as the Irish Potato Famine began ravaging the Irish population. The famine also created a fresh wave of embittered Irish immigrants to the US, most of whom settled in New York at least initially. Although the Young Irelanders, in part inspired by the revolutionary environment in Europe in 1848, tried to initiate an uprising in Ireland in 1848, it failed miserably. After the collapse of the movement, many of its leaders fled, several of whom were instrumental in creating the Fenian movement.
Although the focus of this book is on the US Fenians, some notes should be added about allied movements elsewhere. The first was the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), which in early days also was called by some the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood. In contemporary accounts, the IRB commonly was known as the Irish Fenians, both by its members and by outsiders. To avoid confusion in this book, however, it will be referred to simply as the IRB. This group, led by James Stephens, remained in close contact with the US Fenian Brotherhood, particularly because Stephens and John O’Mahony, the first leader of the US Fenians, had been allied in the 1848 uprising and had fled in exile (for Stephens, only a brief while before returning to Ireland) together. Stephens, in fact, was viewed as a mediator among the US Fenian leadership as the group faced its early splits. Likewise, the IRB received funding and some support from the Fenian Brotherhood in the United States. Interestingly, the impetus for forming the IRB actually came from the United States and founders of the Fenian Brotherhood in New York City. They sent a representative to Ireland to visit Stephens urging him to form a movement and offering to finance its start. 1 As it turned out, the Americans rarely provided the extent of funds the IRB thought it required—and there were significant tensions as a result—but the IRB and American Fenians continued to cooperate in the main.
The Canadian provinces also had their Fenians, but the movement in Canada was much weaker than that in the United States. Perhaps a key issue for the Canadian Fenians, which will receive more discussion later, was that in many ways they were less an Irish Nationalist movement than a religious movement representing Irish Catholics against Irish Protestant Orangemen. As such, they were somewhat a minority within a minority, and they never reached critical mass. By one author’s estimate, the total number of Fenians in Canada never exceeded 3,000 among all the provinces; this can be compared to about 50,000 members of the Orange Order in Canada West alone. 2 Nevertheless, as the American Fenians grew ever stronger in the 1860s, the various Canadian governments became increasingly alarmed about the prospects of a Canadian Fenian Fifth Column.
One note should be made on the discussion in this book; this is that the term ̶