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When the Irish Invaded Canada

Page 37

by Christopher Klein


  Stepping off the train: Evans, Fanatic Heart, 180.

  “more serious” attack: McGee, Fenian Raids on the Huntingdon Frontier, 34.

  “They were older”: Roche, Life of John Boyle O’Reilly, 113.

  “raw boys who were frightened”: Evans, Fanatic Heart, 180.

  Colonel William L. Thompson: Daily Alta California, July 28, 1870.

  They were aided: Brown, “Fenian Raids, 1866 and 1870,” 41.

  For three days straight: New-York Tribune, May 28, 1870.

  They also hauled: Malone Palladium, May 26, 1870.

  The Irish Republican Army named: Malone Palladium, Feb. 6, 1908.

  Following strict orders: Fenian Raid of 1870, 42–43.

  Another band of raiders: Malone Palladium, June 2, 1870.

  Starr proposed to make: Harrisburg Telegraph, June 9, 1870.

  “to war against peaceful citizens”: New York Herald, June 1, 1870.

  He left his carriage: Roche, Life of John Boyle O’Reilly, 113.

  After marching half a mile: Campbell, Fenian Invasions of Canada, 47.

  Starr ordered his men: Hill, Voice of the Vanishing Minority, 67.

  They dismantled fences: Fenian Raid of 1870, 44–46.

  The Fenians were still: McGee, Fenian Raids on the Huntingdon Frontier, 41.

  Led by Lieutenant Colonel George Bagot: Hart, The New Annual Army List, Militia List, and Indian Civil Service List, 315.

  They were joined by 225 members: Fenian Raid of 1870, 43–44.

  It had taken eighteen hours: Smyth, Records of the Sixty-Ninth, 18.

  They had managed to catch: McGee, Fenian Raids on the Huntingdon Frontier, 38.

  Milk and cold water: Fenian Raid of 1870, 44.

  Colonel Bagot ordered: St. Albans Messenger, June 3, 1870.

  Bagot assigned the local: Campbell, Fenian Invasions of Canada of 1866 and 1870, 48.

  The Borderers on the right: Senior, Last Invasion of Canada, 170.

  Meanwhile, Bagot’s flankers: Butler, Sir William Butler, 117.

  “Let us die”: New-York Tribune, May 28, 1870.

  They charged with fixed bayonets: Fenian Raid of 1870, 48.

  Although Lieutenant Colonel Archibald McEachern: St. Albans Messenger, June 3, 1870.

  One of the skirmishers: McGee, Fenian Raids on the Huntingdon Frontier, 42.

  The Canadian volunteers: St. Albans Messenger, June 3, 1870.

  The sole Canadian injury: Campbell, Fenian Invasions of Canada of 1866 and 1870, 50.

  “Had they stood their ground”: Burlington Free Press, May 30, 1870.

  “Had the Fenians remained”: New York Herald, May 28, 1870.

  In the wake of what newspapers: Harrisburg Telegraph, June 9, 1870.

  Along the way: Burlington Free Press, May 28, 1870.

  After rushing away: Pittsburgh Daily Commercial, June 11, 1870.

  “a battle better than his breakfast”: Daily Missouri Democrat, June 2, 1870.

  The arrival of the reinforcements: Senior, Last Invasion of Canada, 171.

  The general found support: Burlington Free Press, May 28, 1870.

  This latest attempt on Canada: Malone Palladium, June 2, 1870.

  His forces seized: Fenian Raid of 1870, 58.

  “one of the most ludicrous things”: Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, 35–36.

  So, broke and disappointed: Fenian Raid of 1870, 61–62.

  With stomachs rumbling: Washington Post, March 22, 1908.

  “The people along the frontier”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 356.

  “wished to rid themselves”: Burlington Free Press, May 30, 1870.

  A member of New York governor: Fenian Raid of 1870, 64–65.

  Queen Victoria’s third son: Burlington Free Press, March 15, 1981.

  On June 2, a merciful priest: McKone, Vermont’s Irish Rebel, 508–9.

  The decomposed state: Burlington Free Press, June 3, 1870.

  “The entire Fenian movement”: New York Times, May 29, 1870.

  “sadder and wiser men”: Roche, Life of John Boyle O’Reilly, 115.

  “burst into tears”: Ibid., 112–15.

  “mad foray” by “criminally incompetent”: Tralee Chronicle and Killarney Echo, June 24, 1870.

  “Fenianism, so far as relates”: Kenneally, From the Earth, a Cry, 149.

  The debacle at Trout River: Burlington Free Press, May 28, 1870.

  “laughed at the Fenians”: Hill, Voice of the Vanishing Minority, 69.

  “I Ran Away”: Boston Daily Advertiser, May 31, 1870.

  Chapter 19: The Fenians Behind Bars

  The thick stone walls: Burlington Free Press, July 22, 1870.

  The Fenian general: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, June 11, 1870.

  The Canadian Illustrated News: Canadian Illustrated News, June 4, 1870.

  “had the arms and war material”: Official Report of Gen. John O’Neill, 3–4.

  “The people, so often deceived”: Ibid., 27.

  Even after the court: Burlington Free Press, June 8, 1870.

  Fenian coffers were so empty: Nevins, Hamilton Fish, 1:394.

  “unauthorized and unjustifiable”: Irish-American, June 4, 1870.

  “O’Neill would not be safe”: Gibbons to Gallagher, July 5, 1870, ACHS.

  “merely a personal enterprise”: New-York Tribune, May 26, 1870.

  “valuable war material”: Gibbons to the Officers and Members of the Fenian Brotherhood, May 28, 1870, ACHS.

  “Even if they were able”: New York Times, May 29, 1870.

  “This thing of being a citizen”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 359.

  Orangemen marching up Broadway: Gordon, Orange Riots, 27–51.

  The New York Times and other newspapers: New York Times, July 13, 1870.

  “Events have at intervals”: Roche, John Boyle O’Reilly, 116–17.

  Just as he had done: Brodsky, Grover Cleveland, 30.

  The trio were transported: Daily Alta California, July 28, 1870.

  The courtroom in the small central Vermont town: Lawrence American, Aug. 5, 1870.

  The Fenian general smiled: Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, July 29, 1870.

  The general told the court: Official Report of Gen. John O’Neill, 57–60.

  O’Neill’s oration moved many: Chicago Tribune, Aug. 6, 1870.

  “Any real or supposed wrong”: Official Report of Gen. John O’Neill, 61–62.

  The Fenian general greeted: Lawrence American, Aug. 5, 1870.

  William Maxwell Evarts: New York Times, Aug. 4, 1870.

  Donations arrived from quarters: Official Report of Gen. John O’Neill, 55.

  They were given their own rooms: Chicago Tribune, Aug. 6, 1870.

  “was to give effect”: Irish-American, Sept. 3, 1870.

  The Cincinnati convention: New York Herald, Aug. 24, 1870.

  The United Irishmen proposed: Irish-American, Sept. 3, 1870.

  Savage, though, was interested: Address of the Council of the Fenian Brotherhood, 1.

  “had no more right”: Tralee Chronicle and Killarney Echo, June 24, 1870.

  “Purely political prisoners”: Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, 20:222–27.

  With midterm elections already under way: McGee, Fenian Raids on the Huntingdon Frontier, 54.

  “Their prolonged imprisonment”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 365–66.

  “That we have been a source”: Official Report of Gen. John O’Neill, 28–30.

  Chapter 20: Losing Their Lifeblood

  William Gladstone took off his coat: Morley, Life of William Ewart Gladstone, 252.

&nbs
p; “One of the triumphs”: Gibbons to the Officers and Members of the Fenian Brotherhood, July 1, 1870, ACHS.

  The conditions endured: Savage, American Citizens Prisoners in Great Britain, 8–11.

  Born into an Irish-speaking: Devoy, Devoy’s Post Bag, 10.

  Even before he could read: Rossa, Rossa’s Recollections, 115–17.

  He buried a friend’s dead mother: Kenna, Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, 11–12.

  “There was no ‘famine’ ”: Rossa, Rossa’s Recollections, 35.

  “If the operation of English rule”: Ibid., 119.

  In his virtual dungeon: Golway, Irish Rebel, 65–69.

  He wasn’t even allowed: Rossa, Irish Rebels in English Prisons, 178.

  Rossa spent his days: Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 23, 1871.

  After flinging his filled chamber pot: Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, 21:224.

  For more than five years: Golway, Irish Rebel, 65.

  More than one million people: Devoy, Devoy’s Post Bag, 1.

  After an official commission: Rossa, Irish Rebels in English Prisons, 416–17.

  called a “sham amnesty”: Devoy, Devoy’s Post Bag, 1.

  “were not released to freedom”: Proceedings of the Tenth General Convention, 9.

  Rossa stared: Rossa, Irish Rebels in English Prisons, 416–24.

  Shortly after the sun set: New York World, Jan. 21, 1871.

  The passengers aboard: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 369.

  Not long after their departure: New York World, Jan. 21, 1871.

  Thundering cannons and Irish airs: Golway, Irish Rebel, 4.

  Having pocketed £7 playing poker: Devoy, Recollections of an Irish Rebel, 329–30.

  The Bronx arrived first: Rossa, Irish Rebels in English Prisons, 424–27.

  O’Gorman informed the Cuba Five: New York Sun, Jan. 21, 1871.

  “I saw immediately”: Rossa, Irish Rebels in English Prisons, 424–27.

  After O’Gorman concluded: New York World, Jan. 21, 1871.

  The parties traded vulgarities: Rossa, Irish Rebels in English Prisons, 424–27.

  When Dr. John Carnochan: New York World, Jan. 21, 1871.

  “We desire that all Irishmen”: Rossa, Irish Rebels in English Prisons, 426–27.

  After quarantine officials: New York Herald, Jan. 21, 1871.

  Atop the hotel: Buckley, Diary of a Tour of America, 211.

  Three thousand callers: New York World, Jan. 21, 1871.

  The United Irishmen treasurer: New York Herald, Jan. 21, 1871.

  resembling a “Pittston miner”: New York Herald, Jan. 23, 1871.

  Although they sought to avoid: Rossa, Irish Rebels in English Prisons, 424–27.

  “We do not wish”: New-York Tribune, Jan. 31, 1871.

  Men wearing green neckties: Buckley, Diary of a Tour in America, 215.

  Even the horses hauling streetcars: New York Herald, Feb. 10, 1871.

  An estimated 300,000 people: New York Times, Feb. 10, 1871.

  The Sixty-Ninth Regiment: New York Herald, Feb. 10, 1871.

  After a welcome resolution: New York Times, Feb. 23, 1871.

  President Ulysses S. Grant stood: Tennessean, Feb. 23, 1871.

  “Glad to see you”: Rossa, Recollections of an Irish Rebel, 362.

  In an address released: New-York Tribune, March 14, 1871.

  The United Irishmen enthusiastically: Devoy, Devoy’s Post Bag, 33.

  “A bright hope is better”: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 379.

  “Some may think that”: Proceedings of the Tenth General Convention, 3–24.

  The same infighting: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 386.

  “The greatest trouble”: Corning, Hamilton Fish, 77.

  Convinced by Fish: Smith, Grant, 508–12.

  Grant became a regular presence: Martin, The Presidents and the Prime Ministers, 26–32.

  While the Alabama claims: Smith, Grant, 512–13.

  To the fury of some Canadians: Nevins, Hamilton Fish, 1:470.

  Chapter 21: The Invasion That Wasn’t

  Tongues of fire: McMicken, Abortive Fenian Raid on Manitoba, 1–7.

  The fires were so ferocious: Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, 589.

  The first days of autumn: New York Herald, Oct. 5, 1871.

  The inferno bestowed: Manhattan Nationalist, Sept. 22, 1871.

  The black soot of the charred prairie: McMicken, Abortive Fenian Raid on Manitoba, 1–7.

  Led by Louis Riel: Rogers, “Louis Riel’s Rebellion,” 153.

  O’Donoghue also assured: De Trémaudan, “Louis Riel and the Fenian Raid of 1871,” 137; Frémont, “Archbishop Taché and the Beginnings of Manitoba,” 135.

  With no stomach: Pritchett, “Origin of the So-Called Fenian Raid on Manitoba in 1871,” 38–39.

  Going it alone: Buffalo Commercial, May 31, 1871.

  When rumors of a Fenian raid: Archibald to Macdonald, Aug. 31, 1871, LAC.

  Passing through Chicago: Edwards, Infiltrator, 95.

  “I had no thought”: Le Caron, Twenty-Five Years in the Secret Service, 97.

  The secret agent: D’Arcy, Fenian Movement, 377.

  In the Fenians’ wake: McMicken, Abortive Fenian Raid on Manitoba, 6.

  Like giant wooden guideposts: Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, 583.

  After passing ramshackle cabins: “Fenians in Dakota,” 122.

  When O’Donoghue finally reached out: De Trémaudan, “Louis Riel and the Fenian Raid of 1871,” 138.

  Archibald had a garrison: Report of the Select Committee on the Causes of the Difficulties in the North-West Territory in 1869–70, 140.

  “little apprehension of any organized”: “Canadian-American Defence Relations,” 7.

  Around 7:30 a.m., the raiders: Adams G. Archibald memorandum, Oct. 9, 1871, in Sessional Papers, vol. 7, no. 26, 6–8.

  As the force approached: Swan and Jerome, “Unequal Justice,” 24–38.

  Stirred from his sleep: Adams G. Archibald memorandum, Oct. 27, 1871, in Sessional Papers, vol. 7, no. 26, 4–5.

  After awakening George W. Webster: Sydney Morning Herald, Dec. 26, 1871.

  They burst through the gates: Cowie, Company of Adventurers, 175.

  O’Neill’s men faced no resistance: “Fenians in Dakota,” 118–20.

  For their first order: Young, Manitoba Memories, 214–16.

  Then, rifling through the post’s provisions: Walker, Fenian Movement, 191.

  As the morning sun: Sydney Morning Herald, Dec. 26, 1871.

  Unbeknownst to them: Webster to John A. Macdonald, Oct. 12, 1871, LAC.

  While O’Neill held a war council: Sydney Morning Herald, Dec. 26, 1871.

  Apparently, the American prisoner: Webster to Macdonald, Oct. 12, 1871, LAC.

  Wheaton had been stationed: Guttman, “No Country for Lost Irishmen,” 62.

  But when the loose lips: Chipman, “How Gin Saved Manitoba,” 518–19.

  Archibald also informed Taylor: Blegen, “James Wickes Taylor,” 200.

  Colonel Thomas Curley ordered: Young, Manitoba Memories, 214–16.

  With his one arm: Webster to Macdonald, Oct. 12, 1871, LAC.

  O’Neill scurried so abruptly: Times-Picayune, Oct. 22, 1871; New York Herald, Oct. 21, 1871.

  Like children, the Fenians: Archibald memorandum, Oct. 27, 1871, 4–5.

  The federal troops seized: “Fenians in Dakota,” 118–20.

  When O’Donoghue was in the clear: Archibald memorandum, Oct. 27, 1871, 4–5.

  “a hearty breakfast”: Times-Picayune, Oct. 22, 1871.

  “I believe the action”: Johnson, “Fenian ‘Invasion’ of 1871.”


  In May 1870: Lass, Minnesota’s Boundary with Canada, 79.

  That meant that: “Fenians in Dakota,” 118–20.

  While the U.S. State Department: Archibald memorandum, Oct. 9, 1871, 6–8.

  O’Neill was unaware: Noonan, “General John O’Neill,” 316.

  “want of jurisdiction”: “Fenians in Dakota,” 127.

  “the Fenian fiasco”: Spirit of Democracy, Oct. 24, 1871.

  “another reckless and ridiculous”: New York Times, Oct. 13, 1871.

  “This time the attempt”: Irish-American, Oct. 21, 1871.

  “O’Neill’s folly” was his and his alone: Tennessean, Oct. 18, 1871.

  “The application of the term”: Irish-American, Oct. 21, 1871.

  “a mere accident”: Noonan, “General John O’Neill,” 315.

  Chapter 22: The Next Best Thing

  “All denounce O’Neill”: RGS (Le Caron) to J. Bell (McMicken), Oct. 22, 1871, LAC.

  Fenian leaders had long talked: O’Neill, Northern Nebraska as a Home for Immigrants, 4–6.

  “Cheap Farms! Free Homes!”: Irish-American, June 22, 1872.

  “for providing homes”: New York Times, Dec. 11, 1870.

  He spent parts of 1872: O’Neill, Northern Nebraska as a Home for Immigrants, 77.

  The general signed an agreement: Passewitz, “O’Neill, Nebraska,” 12.

  “Why are you content”: McCulloh, Piece of Emerald, 6.

  Using the same powers: Yost, Before Today, 5.

  “We could build up”: O’Neill to O’Connor, Dec. 27, 1876, Archdiocese of Omaha.

  As the sun reached its zenith: Passewitz, “O’Neill, Nebraska,” 15.

  The flat, desolate prairie: Yost, Before Today, 185.

  The colonists who had lived: O’Neill, Northern Nebraska as a Home for Immigrants, 81.

  “so plainly mirrored”: Yost, Before Today, 185.

  On a mid-July day: Ibid., 7.

  While the wheat, rye, and barley: Irish-American, Feb. 20, 1875.

  Desperate to salvage his reputation: Yost, Before Today, 7.

  The offer renewed: McCulloh, Piece of Emerald, 9–14.

  With plans to plant: O’Neill, Northern Nebraska as a Home for Immigrants, 4; Noonan, “General John O’Neill,” 304.

 

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