When the Irish Invaded Canada
Page 35
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.