When the Irish Invaded Canada

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When the Irish Invaded Canada Page 35

by Christopher Klein


  When Major A. A. Gibson: Boston Journal, June 8, 1866.

  The general had turned in: Senior, Last Invasion of Canada, 121.

  Offering no resistance: Burlington Free Press, June 7, 1866.

  The following morning: Boston Journal, June 9, 1866.

  Sweeny waived his examination: Macdonald, Troublous Times in Canada, 121.

  He had received word: Boston Journal, June 8, 1866.

  Spear found his rank and file: Correspondence Respecting the Recent Fenian Aggression, 68.

  The lucky ones: Boston Journal, June 8, 1866.

  The local Fenians: Burlington Free Press, June 7, 1866.

  Mahan, a major: Denieffe, Personal Narrative of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, 251.

  Chapter 9: The Fenians Are Coming!

  The defense of Quebec’s Missisquoi County: Senior, Last Invasion of Canada, 116–17.

  Carter, a British army officer: Darch, “For the Sake of Ireland.”

  Many of them had been forced: Somerville, Narrative of the Fenian Invasion of Canada, 127.

  Inside the Eastern Townships: Vermont Transcript, June 8, 1866; Dafoe, “Fenian Invasion of Quebec,” 345.

  It was common for members: Farfan, Vermont-Quebec Border, 8.

  As they marched: St. Albans Messenger, June 8, 1866.

  By one estimate: Burlington Free Press, Feb. 16, 1866.

  Just after 10:00 a.m.: Correspondence Respecting the Recent Fenian Aggression, 33.

  His cavalry hugged: St. Albans Messenger, June 8, 1866.

  “You are now on British soil”: Louisville Daily Courier, June 9, 1866.

  Spear proclaimed the establishment: Correspondence Respecting the Recent Fenian Aggression, 67–68.

  Colonel Contri stepped forward: Boston Journal, June 8, 1866.

  Spear then announced: St. Albans Messenger, June 8, 1866.

  “The Fenians are coming!”: Darch, “For the Sake of Ireland.”

  “The cry was still”: Denieffe, Personal Narrative of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, 251.

  “were not robbers”: Correspondence Respecting the Recent Fenian Aggression, 67–69.

  At one farm: St. Albans Messenger, June 8, 1866.

  Sentries armed with muskets: Correspondence Respecting the Recent Fenian Aggression, 68–69.

  They confiscated the British ensign: Busseau, “Fenians Are Coming…,” 12–13.

  “Give me men”: Denieffe, Personal Narrative of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, 252–53.

  While only $6,000 of losses: Somerville, Narrative of the Fenian Invasion of Canada, 128.

  Spear placed three of his men: St. Albans Messenger, June 8, 1866.

  Not only were individual men: Macdonald, Troublous Times in Canada, 112.

  Fearful that the Fenians: Senior, Last Invasion of Canada, 123.

  On the morning of June 9: Dafoe, “Fenian Invasion of Quebec,” 345.

  Fenian scouts brought news: Busseau, “Fenians Are Coming…,” 12–13.

  A few even directed: Finerty, “Thirty Years of Ireland’s Battle—VII,” 540.

  Many Fenians tossed aside: Senior, Last Invasion of Canada, 124.

  While the Irish continued to straggle: Busseau, “Fenians Are Coming…,” 19.

  “little scamps such as one”: Dafoe, “Fenian Invasion of Quebec,” 345.

  So exuberant were four: D. L. McDougall to Brigade-Major, in Correspondence Respecting the Recent Fenian Aggression, 33.

  Having given his word: Vermont Journal, June 12, 1866.

  Spear wept as he rode: St. Albans Messenger, June 11, 1866.

  “that he would rather”: Macdonald, Troublous Times in Canada, 113.

  They milked the enemy ensign: Senior, Last Invasion of Canada, 122.

  It was dragged through: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 18, 1866.

  The lone fatality: Darch, “For the Sake of Ireland.”

  “My God, it is a woman”: Busseau, “Fenians Are Coming…,” 26.

  Her gravestone at Pigeon Hill: Darch, “For the Sake of Ireland.”

  “We will show the world”: Vermont Transcript, June 15, 1866; St. Albans Messenger, June 11, 1866.

  “abandon our expedition against Canada”: Macdonald, Troublous Times in Canada, 92-93.

  “these liberal offers will have”: Ibid., 120.

  “Let no Fenian disgrace”: Rock Island Argus, June 14, 1866.

  Spear and the officers: Macdonald, Troublous Times in Canada, 113.

  Similar scenes played out: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 165.

  They fled by the hundreds: Macdonald, Troublous Times in Canada, 93.

  In all, the War Department: Walker, Fenian Movement, 103.

  “It grieves me to part”: Macdonald, Troublous Times in Canada, 93.

  Chapter 10: Hail the Vanquished Hero

  Instead, his dominion comprised: New York Times, June 10, 1866.

  Hours after Sweeny: New York Times, June 8, 1866.

  Far from offering resistance: New York Times, June 9, 1866.

  As news of the arrest: New York World, June 8, 1866.

  No fewer than a dozen Fenians: New York Times, June 9, 1866.

  “I will not give bail”: Irish-American, June 16, 1866.

  “He’s making a damned ass”: New York Times, June 9, 1866.

  The government-furnished accommodations: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 167.

  The proprietors of New York’s first luxury hotel: New York Times, June 9, 1866.

  “He got himself in there”: New York Times, June 10, 1866.

  Prolonged cheering greeted Roberts: New York Times, June 13, 1866.

  George Weishart as the “wretched informer”: New York Times, June 16, 1866.

  James Gibbons refused to answer: New York Times, June 12, 1866.

  William Cole told the court: Irish-American, June 16, 1866.

  The New York Herald reporter John Gallagher: New York Times, June 13, 1866.

  “failed to connect”: New York Times, June 12, 1866.

  Those concerns were not unfounded: New York Times, June 16, 1866.

  “the utter impossibility”: New York World, June 16, 1866.

  In light of that: New York Times, June 16, 1866.

  As the captives were escorted: Philadelphia Inquirer, June 13, 1866.

  The captives taken: Borthwick, History of the Montréal Prison, 266.

  They included four Methodists: St. Albans Messenger, June 11, 1866.

  “all of the misguided men”: Papers Relating to the Foreign Affairs, 241.

  “This thing you ask”: Semi-weekly Wisconsin, June 27, 1866.

  “The future relations of Canada”: Boyko, Blood and Daring, 274.

  New Fenian circles: Irish-American, July 28, 1866.

  “One has certainly done”: Hartford Courant, June 9, 1866.

  Many still questioned: Philadelphia Inquirer, June 14, 1866.

  “If the attempts”: Irish-American, June 23, 1866.

  “not through any efforts”: Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, June 15, 1866.

  “Queen Victoria thanks”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 202.

  “discriminate most harshly”: Harrisburg Telegraph, June 11, 1866.

  “the only true”: New York Times, June 10, 1866.

  The audience escorted: Pittsburgh Daily Commercial, June 21, 1866.

  “I fear it augurs”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 178.

  “The United States should”: Ibid., 223.

  There was nothing clandestine: Macdonald, Troublous Times in Canada, 146–48.

  “the gradual but decided”: American Annual Cyclopaedia, 76.

  “The covenant o
f our nationality”: Neidhardt, Fenianism in North America, 73.

  Chapter 11: Political Blarney

  A staccato of musket fire: New-York Tribune, Aug. 22, 1866.

  Organizers of the reenactment: Irish-American, July 28, 1866.

  The Corcoran Guards: Buffalo Commercial, Aug. 22, 1866.

  The sham battle: Cincinnati Enquirer, Aug. 22, 1866.

  Held on a Tuesday: Tennessean, Aug. 22, 1866.

  From across the Niagara River: Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, Aug. 18, 1866.

  A British gunboat: Irish-American, Sept. 1, 1866.

  “Localities where it was thought”: Irish-American, Aug. 4, 1866.

  The spymaster Gilbert McMicken’s detectives: Wilson, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, 2:291–92.

  As a precaution: New York World, Aug. 22, 1866.

  “too much and acted too little”: “Speeches of Hon. Schuyler Colfax and General J. O’Neill.”

  “The campaign has only commenced”: Louisville Daily Courier, July 6, 1866.

  “I take it that”: Tennessean, Dec. 29, 1866.

  “I never voted in all my life”: Chicago Tribune, July 17, 1866.

  he was “unutterably humiliated”: Ottawa Citizen, Aug. 21, 1866.

  “when the freedom of their land”: “Speeches of Hon. Schuyler Colfax and General J. O’Neill.”

  denounced the “political blarney”: Buffalo Commercial, Aug. 22, 1866.

  That morning inside: Irish-American, Sept. 1, 1866.

  All of Buffalo: Buffalo Evening Post, Aug. 22, 1866; New-York Tribune, Aug. 22, 1866.

  “Let us be friends”: Buffalo Commercial, Sept. 5, 1866.

  In order to discourage internal arguments: Walker, Fenian Movement, 112.

  The rebuke stung Sweeny: Morgan, Through American and Irish Wars, 149.

  The County Galway native: Inter Ocean, Jan. 14, 1884.

  While residents of Fort Erie: Macdonald, Troublous Times in Canada, 126–27.

  “By the statute”: Trials of the Fenian Prisoners in Toronto, 83.

  “They took my traveling bag”: Buffalo Commercial, June 15, 1866.

  Before Wilson announced the sentence: Trials of the Fenian Prisoners in Toronto, 135–38.

  Newspapers reported, hyperbolically: Nashville Union and American, Nov. 17, 1866.

  “If the British Government”: Nashville Union and American, Nov. 7, 1866.

  “thirst for Irish blood”: Tri-weekly Union and American, Nov. 6, 1866.

  “The sentence of death”: Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, 181.

  Special units of government police: Irish-American, Dec. 7, 1866.

  “feloniously joining himself”: Busseau, Correspondence Respecting the Recent Fenian Aggression, 65.

  “Those men deserve death”: Wilson, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, 2:283.

  “I regret to tell you”: Nashville Union and Dispatch, Dec. 18, 1866.

  “carrying patriotism to an excess”: Vinton Record, Dec. 20, 1866.

  “A life that would otherwise”: Nashville Union and Dispatch, Dec. 18, 1866.

  Chapter 12: Erin’s Hope

  “I speak to you now”: New York Times, Oct. 29, 1866; Freeman’s Journal, Nov. 12, 1866.

  “name and nationality”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 214–15.

  In early December: New York Times, Dec. 2, 1866.

  Using the alias William Scott: New-York Tribune, Jan. 1, 1867.

  Looking haggard and ill: Ryan, Fenian Chief, 247.

  “I found that matters”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 219–20.

  “either fight or dissolve”: Rutherford, Secret History of the Fenian Conspiracy, 2:40.

  The Fenian chief claimed: Ramón, Provisional Dictator, 224–26.

  Kelly pressed ahead: Busteed, Irish in Manchester, 211.

  “We have suffered centuries”: Times (London), March 8, 1867.

  A tempest of snow: Mullane, Cruise of the “Erin’s Hope,” 5.

  “It was as pitiful”: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, May 25, 1867.

  “Don’t believe a tenth”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 241–43.

  In packs of twos and threes: U.S. Congress, House Executive Documents, 40th Cong., 2nd Sess., 236–37.

  The steamer returned: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 244.

  Captain John F. Kavanagh: Mullane, Cruise of the “Erin’s Hope,” 6–11.

  Posing as an English tourist: Burleigh, Blood and Rage, 7.

  A trained engineer: Devoy, Devoy’s Post Bag, 35–36.

  Burke instructed Kavanagh: Dublin Evening Post, Oct. 31, 1867.

  Dodging British cruisers: Mullane, Cruise of the “Erin’s Hope,” 25–32.

  Following the disappointment: Joye, “Stone That ‘Smashed the Van,’ ” 27.

  While Kelly told police: Busteed, Irish in Manchester, 211–12.

  Climbing atop the van: Denvir, “God Save Ireland!,” 9–10.

  “a well beloved”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 269.

  Under the 1848 Treason Felony Act: Busteed, Irish in Manchester, 215.

  “You will soon send us”: Denvir, “God Save Ireland!,” 22.

  Days after the death sentences: Irish Times, Nov. 23, 2014.

  The ambassador, however: U.S. Congress, House Executive Documents, 40th Cong., 2nd Sess., 1867–68, 171–76.

  In the early morning hours: Observer, Nov. 24, 1867.

  while street vendors: Irish Times, Nov. 20, 2017.

  With rumors that the Fenians: Observer, Nov. 24, 1867.

  “If you reflect on it”: Allen to Uncle and Aunt Hogan, Nov. 22, 1867, PIT.

  Prison officials, however: Southern Star, Dec. 10, 2017.

  American newspapers printed: Daily Ohio Statesman, Dec. 18, 1867.

  “accomplished the final act”: Irish Times, Nov. 23, 2014.

  On the eve: Newcastle Daily Journal, Nov. 22, 1867.

  The man who had plotted: Manchester Guardian, Dec. 14, 1867.

  On the afternoon of December 12: Burleigh, Blood and Rage, 7–8.

  The Fenians had used: Devoy, Devoy’s Post Bag, 36.

  Detectives prowled every railway station: Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 15, 1868.

  Royal Navy boats: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Feb. 15, 1868.

  Buckets of dirt: Rafferty, The Church, the State, and the Fenian Threat, 102.

  More than fifty thousand citizens: Anderson, Lighter Side of My Official Life, 22–23.

  Chapter 13: The Call of Duty

  Church bells and cannon fire: New York Herald, July 2, 1867.

  Steps away from Parliament Hill: Gwyn, Nation Maker, 14–15.

  Canada’s creation was a civilized affair: Chronicle Herald, July 2, 2017.

  While Ottawa celebrated: New York Herald, July 2, 1867.

  “When the experiment”: Lippert, War Plan Red, 46–47.

  Thomas D’Arcy McGee recognized: Wilson, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, 2:301.

  Two days after the national celebration: Ibid., 2:308–26.

  “because of their inability”: Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 11, 1867.

  Plus, the Irish Republic bonds: Albany Evening Journal, Sept. 12, 1867.

  The Fenian cavalry jacket: “Fenian Brotherhood I.R.A. Belt Buckle.”

  Blue trousers with a green cord: New York Herald, March 19, 1867.

  Overcoats and blue kepis: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 228–30.

  In spite of his earlier pledge: Baltimore Sun, Sept. 27, 1867.

  Johnson agreed as long as: Cole, Prince of Spies, 32–33.

  He directed Attorney General: Pulaski Citizen, Nov. 22, 1867.

  The cache included: Geo. G. Munger to General
W. F. Barry, Feb. 20, 1867, ACHS.

  An expert marksman: Cole, Prince of Spies, 46.

  The Fenian muzzle-loading: McCollum, “Needham Musket Conversion.”

  By converting their rifles: Bilby, “Black Powder, White Smoke,” 6.

  Meehan ultimately decided: Ibid.; McCollum, “Needham Musket Conversion.”

  The Fenians, uncharacteristically: New York Times, May 25, 1870.

  dubbed the Green House: Philadelphia Inquirer, April 19, 1870.

  Weeks earlier, Roberts and Savage: Charleston Daily News, Dec. 21, 1867.

  “The Irish heart leaps”: Irish-American, Feb. 15, 1868.

  O’Neill, who had resigned: Nashville Union and American, Oct. 8, 1867.

  He had just paid: Official Report of Gen. John O’Neill, 32.

  “to go to work”: Ibid., 11.

  He attended state conventions: O’Neill to “Dear Sir & Bro,” Nov. 12, 1868, ACHS.

  In a return to Buffalo: Buffalo Daily Courier, Feb. 1, 1868.

  “Your presence here”: Ibid., Feb. 3, 1868.

  “The result of O’Neill’s visit”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 294.

  “one of the boniest faces”: Macdonald, Diary of the Parnell Commission, 120.

  A human chimney: Le Caron, Twenty-Five Years in the Secret Service, 94.

  Rumors circulated around: Kirk, History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, 328.

  While stationed in Nashville: Clark, “Spy Who Came in from the Coalfields,” 93.

  O’Neill found himself: Edwards, Infiltrator, 35.

  It was in Nashville: Kirk, History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, 330.

  Following the war: Clark, “Spy Who Came in from the Coalfields,” 93.

  “Come at once, you are needed for work”: Le Caron, Twenty-Five Years in the Secret Service, 53–54.

  “They don’t take into account”: Bergeron, Papers of Andrew Johnson, 13:546.

  “General, your people”: Le Caron, Twenty-Five Years in the Secret Service, 59.

  Among O’Neill’s first actions: Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, Dec. 31, 1867; Manchester Guardian, Dec. 17, 1867.

  “I have an opinion”: Forster, Life of Charles Dickens, 324.

 

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