When the Irish Invaded Canada
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Following the example of his grandfather: Sayers, “John O’Mahony,” 52.
“I kept away from any public adhesion”: Cavanagh, Memoirs of Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher, 265.
The pair spent the night: Sayers, “John O’Mahony,” 91.
It would take years: James Stephens, Chief Organizer of the Irish Republic, 36.
The pair left O’Mahony: Ramón, Provisional Dictator, 46–47.
Stephens rejected a notion: Doheny, Felon’s Track, 141.
In addition, two weeks earlier: Kinealy, Repeal and Revolution, 203.
“All the time that I appeared”: Ramón, Provisional Dictator, 46–47.
After traveling across England: Ibid., 48.
Paris became a home in exile: Ryan, Fenian Chief, 43.
In August 1849: Ramón, Provisional Dictator, 57.
Inside their derelict room: Ryan, Fenian Chief, 46–47.
“Once I resolved that armed insurrection”: Delany, The Green and the Red, 43.
Whether or not the Irishmen: Sayers, “John O’Mahony,” 159–62.
For his portion: National Labor Tribune, March 17, 1877.
Four years of a Parisian exile: Sayers, “John O’Mahony,” 164–67.
Chapter 2: Bold Fenian Men
John O’Mahony followed in the wake: Libby, “Maine and the Fenian Invasion of Canada,” 216.
Some emigrants reported: Bartoletti, Black Potatoes, 128.
By the 1850s, more than a quarter: Strausbaugh, City of Sedition, 55.
Breathing putrid air: Stern, “How Dagger John Saved New York’s Irish.”
“America for Americans!”: Christian Register, Aug. 19, 1854.
Know-Nothings advocated an increase: Davis, Nation Rising, 212.
According to some scholars: Bayor, New York Irish, 253, 634.
Rumors even spread: Davis, Nation Rising, 201.
In March 1854, Know-Nothings seized: Klein, “When Washington, D.C., Gave the Pope a Truly Rocky Reception.”
They mandated the reading: Irish Times, March 21, 2016.
They disbanded Irish American militia units: Samito, Becoming American Under Fire, 17–24.
O’Mahony could encounter signs: New York Times, Sept. 25, 1854; New York Herald, May 13, 1853.
“This is an English colony”: Dolan, Irish Americans, 187.
Mitchel’s broadsides against hypocritical abolitionists: Weiss, Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, 397.
“When my country”: Kee, Green Flag, 168.
Members drilled weekly: Stephens, Birth of the Fenian Movement, 83–84.
Their activities in New York: Brundage, Irish Nationalists in America, 96–97.
“There can be no such thing”: Lawson, Defences to Crime, 671.
“There seems to me no more hope”: Ramón, Provisional Dictator, 77.
Out of touch with his family: Ryan, Fenian Chief, 59.
With its people still processing: Ibid., 323.
To get a better sense: James Stephens, Chief Organizer of the Irish Republic, 41.
“The cause is not dead”: Ryan, Fenian Chief, 80–81.
He wrote to Stephens: Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, 128.
At the close of December 1857: Boston Post, May 17, 1866.
In addition to £80 to £100 per month: Denieffe, Personal Narrative of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, 159–60.
Stephens couldn’t take it as anything: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 11–12.
As Ireland commemorated: Stephens, Birth of the Fenian Movement, 76.
To maintain secrecy: Evans, Fanatic Heart, 25–26.
“He seemed to have me”: Ryan, Fenian Chief, 90–99.
Stephens again dispatched Denieffe: Stephens, Birth of the Fenian Movement, xxv.
“The Irish-Americans will not subscribe”: Ryan, Fenian Chief, 110.
In his diary, Stephens described: Delany, The Green and the Red, 66–67; Stephens, Birth of the Fenian Movement, 8–26.
In early 1859, O’Mahony would: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 12–13.
The group started with: Proceedings of the First National Convention, 8.
Stephens returned to Ireland: Stephens, Birth of the Fenian Movement, 56–77.
“Those who denounce us”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 15.
“It was necessary to get the people”: Boston Post, May 17, 1866.
By November 1859, O’Mahony had organized: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 16.
“reproached him in words”: Denieffe, Personal Narrative of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, 60.
Chapter 3: The Civil War
Irish natives not only accounted: Shiels, “ ‘Lives of Her Exiled Children Will Be Offered in Thousands.’ ”
“Ireland will be more deeply”: Moore’s Rural New Yorker, Aug. 3, 1861.
Feeling a kinship with fellow rebels: Gleeson, The Green and the Gray, 41; Damian Shiels, “How Many Irish Fought in the American Civil War?,” Irish in the American Civil War, Jan. 18, 2015, irishamericancivilwar.com; Shiels, “Time to Move Beyond the Irish Brigade?”
The Irish still struggled: Strausbaugh, City of Sedition, 176.
The County Kilkenny native John O’Keeffe: Donlon, “John O’Keeffe and the Fenian Brotherhood in the American West and Midwest,” 86–87.
“It is a moral certainty”: Cavanagh, Memoirs of Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher, 369.
Following a funeral Mass: Ibid., 13.
On September 16, Archbishop John Joseph Hughes: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 18.
According to Stephens, 150,000 people: James Stephens, Chief Organizer of the Irish Republic, 54.
“The facecloth is removed”: Denieffe, Personal Narrative of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, 168.
“One hundred and thirteen pounds”: Stephens to O’Mahony, April 7, 1862, CUA.
“No other living man”: J. Hamilton (Stephens) to his nephew, Jan. 18, 1865, CUA.
“The establishment of the paper”: J. Hamilton (Stephens) to O’Mahony, Dec. 11, 1864, CUA.
The Irish People debuted: James Stephens, Chief Organizer of the Irish Republic, 59.
On November 11, he got married: Ryan, Fenian Chief, 181.
Marriage proved an easier go: James Stephens, Chief Organizer of the Irish Republic, 60.
Although Stephens had stayed true: Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, 139.
Unwilling to submit: O’Mahony to Charles Joseph Kickham, Oct. 19, 1863, CUA.
On October 19, 1863: O’Mahony to James Kelly (Stephens), Oct. 19, 1863, CUA.
“I am sick—almost to death”: Inter Ocean, Dec. 27, 1865.
“standing drag-chain and stumbling-block”: Ryan, Fenian Chief, 194.
A group of impatient Fenians: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 39.
On November 3, 1863, eighty-two delegates: Proceedings of the First National Convention, 17; Sayers, “John O’Mahony,” 255.
The head center would now be: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 35–39.
O’Mahony hoped the decision: O’Mahony to Charles Joseph Kickham, Oct. 19, 1863, CUA.
Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick: Rafferty, The Church, the State, and the Fenian Threat, 68.
The two-week fair: Griffin, “ ‘Scallions, Pikes, and Bog Oak Ornaments,’ ” 90–97.
“Next year will be”: Ryan, Fenian Chief, 205.
Fenian circles arose: Proceedings of the Second National Congress, 22.
While the Army of the Potomac: Galwey, Valiant Hours, 244–45.
O’Mahony and the Fenian Brotherhood’s: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 52.
“the deadliest blow”: Stephens to the Head Center and Central Council, Fenian Brotherhood, June 24, 1865, CUA
.
British crews sporting fake: Burnell, “American Civil War Surrender on the Mersey.”
When Queen Victoria sat down: Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, Letters of Queen Victoria, 250.
Chapter 4: Torn Between Brothers
As James Stephens continued to promise: Campbell, Fenian Fire, 58–59.
In a drawer of Luby’s nightstand: Devoy, Devoy’s Post Bag, 165.
In addition to decapitating: William G. Halpin to John O’Mahony, Oct. 6, 1865, CUA.
“Had we been prepared”: J. Daly (Stephens) to O’Mahony, Sept. 16, 1865, CUA.
With a £2,300 reward: Times (London), March 30, 1901.
“Once you hear of my arrest”: J. Daly (Stephens) to O’Mahony, Sept. 16, 1865, CUA.
General Thomas William Sweeny: Morgan, Through American and Irish Wars, 104.
Few Americans embodied the spirit: Ibid., 10–11.
He wrote that his military service: Jentz and Schneirov, “Chicago’s Fenian Fair of 1864,” 7.
In addition to approving: Proceedings of the Fourth National Congress of the Fenian Brotherhood, 30.
His Crystal Palace Emporium: Irish-American, Jan. 30, 1864.
As he filled out his cabinet: Morgan, Through American and Irish Wars, 108.
Sweeny asserted his belief: Denieffe, Personal Narrative of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, 266–68.
The lightly defended border: Miller, Borderline Crime, 40–42.
The patriots erroneously expected: Klein, “7 Times the U.S.-Canada Border Wasn’t So Peaceful.”
While the British governor of Vancouver Island: Ibid.
“If we could march into Canada”: Stewart, Reminiscences of Senator William M. Stewart of Nevada, 177–79.
The news, however, could not dampen: Millett, The Rebel and the Rose, 213.
According to Killian’s account: Libby, “Maine and the Fenian Invasion of Canada,” 216.
The Fenians would hang their expectation: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 84.
A suspicious neighbor had noticed: Times (London), March 30, 1901; Irish Times, Nov. 13, 1865.
“You cannot visit me”: James Stephens, Chief Organizer of the Irish Republic, 72.
He remained with the general population: Dorney, Griffith College Dublin, 17.
Over the course of a monotonous: Arnold, “Treadmill Originated in Prisons.”
Two weeks after his arrest: “Statement by Colonel Eamon Broy,” 3.
Along with the prison turnkey: Irish-American, March 30, 1901; “Statement by Colonel Eamon Broy,” 10.
Fleeing through the prison yard: Morning News (Belfast), July 9, 1884.
It was in that moment: “Statement by Colonel Eamon Broy,” 3–4.
The news of Stephens’s escape: Rowe, “The Rescue of James Stephens, from Richmond Jail,” 63–66.
“I do not know him to be a liar”: Devoy, Devoy’s Post Bag, 160.
Tasked by the Fenian senate: New York Herald, Nov. 18, 1865.
They leased the “Fenian White House”: To the Members of the Fenian Brotherhood, Circular, Dec. 7, 1865, ACHS.
On top of the rent: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 11, 1865.
For a man comfortable wearing: Sayer, “John O’Mahony,” 298.
The Fenians even issued: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 112–13.
“traitorous diversion from the right path”: Denieffe, Personal Narrative of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, 207–8.
After O’Mahony ordered Killian: Sayers, “John O’Mahony,” 300–1.
Believing the situation in Ireland: James Stephens, Chief Organizer of the Irish Republic, 84.
The senate drew up articles: Morgan, Through American and Irish Wars, 112.
Meeting in special session: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 104.
He retaliated by expelling Roberts: Devoy, Devoy’s Post Bag, 8.
F. B. McNamee reported: McNamee to My Dear Christian, March 26, 1866, NYPL.
“It seems to me”: Samito, Becoming American Under Fire, 179.
The British protest might have been: Sweeny to Rawlings, Dec. 9, 1865, NYPL.
This meant that O’Mahony: Libby, “Maine and the Fenian Invasion of Canada,” 218.
Many Irish Americans agreed: Nashville Daily Union, Feb. 16, 1866.
The measure was overwhelmingly: Waterford News, March 16, 1866.
“We promise that before the summer”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 114.
The Fenian Brotherhood held: Donlon, “John O’Keeffe and the Fenian Brotherhood in the American West and Midwest,” 87.
“Father O’Keefe spoke”: S. W. McDonald to O’Mahony, March 9, 1865, CUA.
The following morning: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, April 7, 1866.
Colonel John W. Byron: Campbell, Fenian Fire, 64.
In Dublin alone: Samito, Becoming American Under Fire, 180.
Similar scenes occurred: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, April 7, 1866.
“a profanation of the”: Rafferty, The Church, the State, and the Fenian Threat, 66.
“When the priests descend”: Ibid., 81.
Now the spymaster had been directed: Neidhardt, “ ‘We’ve Nothing Else to Do,’ ” 5.
Rumors flew that the Fenians: Steward and McGovern, Fenians, 108.
President Johnson had been: Stahr, Seward, 467.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton: Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, 2:450–51.
“use all vigilance to prevent”: Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, 16:107–9.
“I do not think Sweeny”: Neidhardt, “American Government and the Fenian Brotherhood,” 34.
The first St. Patrick’s Day: Irish-American, March 24, 1866.
Chapter 5: The Eastport Fizzle
Just the day before: New York Herald, March 17, 1866.
In no mood to parade: Baltimore Sun, March 19, 1866.
Killian argued that the Fenians: New York Herald, April 12, 1866; Nowlan, Campobello, 84.
Killian reportedly assured: Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1866.
Having spent months concocting his plan: Steward and McGovern, Fenians, 107.
Many of them had fled: McCarron, “Ireland Along the Passamaquoddy,” 101.
The Fenian Brotherhood had just paid: Steward and McGovern, Fenians, 166.
“the men who propose”: Steward and McGovern, Fenians, 115.
“In my opinion, the real reputation”: Official Report of the Investigating Committee of the Department of Manhattan, 15.
According to O’Mahony, he reluctantly approved: Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1866.
General Bernard F. Mullen: Official Report of the Investigating Committee, 1.
“A target for artillery practice”: Ibid., 34.
He sealed the sailing papers: Army and Navy Journal, May 12, 1866; Official Report of the Investigating Committee, 3.
Fed wild counterintelligence: New York Herald, April 5, 1866.
In other newspapers, the Fenians planted: Spirit of Jefferson, April 17, 1866.
The New York World, however: New York World, April 5, 1866.
On April 6, “General” Killian: Vroom, “Fenians on the St. Croix,” 411.
Rumors of a possible Fenian raid: Davis, “Fenian Raid on New Brunswick,” 317–18.
“armed and equipped”: Libby, “Maine and the Fenian Invasion of Canada,” 225.
O’Mahony suspected that Killian: New York World, April 5, 1866.
“Thomas D’Arcy McGee”: Harmon, Fenians and Fenianism, 80.
During the Great Hunger, he accused: Sim, Union Forever, 71; Brundage, Irish Nationalists in America, 94.
He called Fenianism: Neidhardt, “ ‘We’ve Nothing Else to Do
,’ ” 5.
They were, he said: Senior, “Quebec and the Fenians,” 36.
The head center ordered Downing: Army and Navy Journal, May 12, 1866.
“a handsome fellow, glib-tongued”: Devoy, Recollections of an Irish Rebel, 269.
“I notice you seem”: Downing to O’Mahony, April 20, 1864, CUA.
McDermott was selling Fenian secrets: Senior, Last Invasion of Canada, 49.
“Wherever there are three Fenians”: New York Times, Jan. 7, 1868.
“He was constantly fomenting”: Devoy, Recollections of an Irish Rebel, 269.
One editor of a St. Stephen newspaper: Davis, “Fenian Raid on New Brunswick,” 323.
“No news travels so freely”: Twain, “Unburlesquable Things,” 138.
When it became clear: Steward and McGovern, Fenians, 114.
Left without a portion: Official Report of the Investigating Committee, 42.
The St. Croix Courier reported: Libby, “Maine and the Fenian Invasion of Canada,” 228.
Killian and his officers: New York Herald, April 15, 1866.
As Killian waited for his cases: Davis, “Fenian Raid on New Brunswick,” 322–23.
“The Provincials are”: Ibid., 323.
However, many in Eastport: Quoddy Tides, May 13, 1983.
The St. John Telegraph reported: Davis, “Fenian Raid on New Brunswick,” 323.
On April 9, eighty Fenians left Portland: Daily Eastern Argus, April 10, 1866.
By April 11, two British warships: Jenkins, Fenians and Anglo-American Relations, 136.
In the spirit of Paul Revere: Dallison, Turning Back the Fenians, 92.
“Arm yourselves! The Fenians”: Vesey, “When New Brunswick Suffered Invasion,” 199–200.
Doyle caused further mischief: Davis, “Fenian Raid on New Brunswick,” 330.
“We want that English flag!”: Lormier, History of the Islands and Islets in the Bay of Fundy, 83–84.
He vowed that the “convention”: Davis, “Fenian Raid on New Brunswick,” 328–29.
“If the people of the Provinces”: Vesey, “When New Brunswick Suffered Invasion,” 202.