Few immigrant groups in the US give such colorful history as the Irish. From voting riots, to drunken riots, to invasions the Irish proved themselves a subjugated group of Americans that take just about zero shit when pushed. So it was surprising, yet not surprising when, just one year after the Civil War ended a group of US citizens once again became a pain in Canada's ass-- due to tensions between the Irish and the British, a relatively small group of Irish immigrants, many of them Civil War vets, invaded Canada from the shores of the Niagara River at Buffalo. Let's put this into context. What the hell, it's not like I have to go to work or something.
Late 1860's America was a chaotic place. The Civil War was over, former black slaves were agitating for silly things like enfranchisement and property ownership, women were convinced that they deserved these things also, and America was now forced to figure out how to live with the immigrant communities that had found their way across the oceans to this beacon of freedom we had created and successfully defended. Of the subjugated groups in this newly emerging nation, none were as disenfranchised as former slaves, but right there with them was another non-white (at the time) group: The Irish. And here some background information is required, so get ready for The Unemployed Historian's brief gloss of Anglo-Irish relations. Here we go:
In 1845 what would become known in America as the Potato Famine hit Ireland like it owed it money. Natural disaster combined with seriously shitty public policy to starve and kill nearly one million Irish. If you ever needed proof that god hates the Irish, the Potato Famine is pretty much it. Either because they were forced to leave, or because they were fleeing starvation, the Irish had come to the United States in droves. We proved seriously hostile to this motley crew of, mostly, young unskilled men. Most American businesses refused to employ the Irish due to an impressive name they had made for themselves as disease ridden, alcoholic, unskilled, unteachable and violent. In northern cities the Irish took up refuge in the lowliest of ghettos, and eeked out a meager existence on wages that I'm going to describe here as "starvation", but, for real, I'm being generous. So by the time the Civil War ended (a conflict in which many Irish fought), all most Irish immigrants had to sustain them was whiskey and anger. Think of the world's biggest earthquake hitting California and US policy refusing them clean water on principle, or inhibiting rebuilding efforts because it would make them dependent on state aid, while children starved to death in the streets. That kind of anger. The reason for this policy has its roots in how Ireland became part of the UK, religious differences and deeply entrenched stereotypes and racism which I will not be going into here as that could and probably will be a blog in and of itself. But I'll throw some links at the bottom if you're interested.
In 1848 a small group of these Irish immigrants formed the American arm of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) under the leadership of John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. This group became known as the Fenian Brotherhood (Fenian is a term taken from an ancient class of Irish warriors called the Fianna). Many of those involved with the Fenians joined the Union forces during the Civil War, thus ending their agitation for Irish independence at least for a time. When, in 1865, the Civil War ended, many of these immigrants returned to their ghettos and starvation wages. But their anger was renewed and once again redirected at the British that had caused either themsevles, directly, or their families in general, to leave the land that they had loved and come to this place where most of them worked back breaking jobs for very little money.
To weaken the British Empire and draw attention to the cause of Irish independence, the Fenians organized attacks on British outposts in Canada (still a British colony at this point). Exactly how aggressive action in Canada would win Irish independence is a murky concept, rooted in the United States' very complicated relationship with not only Canada, but Britain throughout the nineteenth century. These actions are considered raids by some and invasions by others. Here, I will refer to them as raids, as this seems to be the most commonly used term due to semantics details that I have no reason to go into here.
There were five Fenian raids in all. The first in 1866 when a small island off the coast of New Brunswick was raided, the second was a raid on Fort Erie from Buffalo in June, 1866. About a week after the Fort Erie raid Pigeon Hill was attacked. These are the three primary raids that garnered the most attention, in 1870 and 1871, respectively, Mississquoi County and Pembina saw the final of the Fenian raids. The concept behind the raids may not make a ton of sense to a modern reader (or, probably, a contemporary reader, for that matter), but the raids themselves were actually very well planned and meticulously carried out (mostly). The reason for this probably lay in the leadership of John O'Mahony who was a colonel in the Union Army's Irish Brigade during the Civil War. For those that are unaware, as I'm sure many are (I'm sure because I was unaware until this writing), it is argued that only two other brigades suffered more casualties than the Irish Brigade in the Civil War.
***Note from The Unemployed Historian*** I cannot overstate the importance of this. While nothing can really compare to the horrors former slaves faced in the American south, it is important to see the parallels here to a more known narrative of an America defended by the very people she was to continue to subjugate in peacetime: a subjugated group, enlisting in droves, marching to war, dying for a nation that barely recognized their personhood. As the Boston Globe put it in 1860, "Again, many of the promoters of the war, many of those who now 'feel good' towards the Irish are the very men with whom 'no Irish need apply' was a canon of faith."
Arguably, the most important of the five raids was the second-- the raid on Fort Erie/The Battle of Ridgeway in June 1866. This raid was intended to annex land along the St Lawrence River to then be used as a base of operations for "privateers" to attack and destroy British shipping. This would then, as the Fenians surmised, cause the British to acquiesce to Irish demands to stop the raids and allow commerce to continue in Canada. So with this plan in mind, the Fenians constructed an army of between 1000-1300 Irish born Americans stationed out of Black Rock, NY and mobilized from Buffalo. In the early morning hours of June 1, 1866 this rag-tag group proceeded across the Niagara River and into Canada.
So where was the American government during the train rides from Cleveland, the amassing of people and materiel in Black Rock, and the commandeering of and boarding of ships in Buffalo, you may ask? Interesting question. The American goverment remained relatively tacit during this odd turn of American history. Most maintain that goverment was at least somewhat aware of the pending invasion/raid, and they were certainly aware of the previous raid on Campo Bello Island, as they had had to send a warship to maintain peace. For a quick second here, picture that. Picture the captain of the ship jumping ashore on this miniscule little shit of an island, looking at these angry, poor, raggedy Irishmen that had just fucking invaded an island in the middle of the Passamaquoddy Bay. What the hell do you even say to these people? I like to picture something like, "Guys. Seriously. Really? You took an island? What the actual fuck guys? 60,000 soldiers just died and I have to come here to tell you assholes that it is not fucking acceptable to take over islands with your own
private army?" I picture a lot of eye twitching.
But I digress.
At any rate, this was still during a point in time where we were highly suspect of literally everything the British did, and (no offense to the British) rightly so (okay, that was meant to be a little offensive. You guys were total assholes through that entire century). The British was literally one major battle away from backing the Confederacy in the Civil War a move that, most historians agree, would have spelled the end of the United States as we know it. Further, Americans weren't completely ready to give up on the idea of annexing Canada yet. We had tried to win the territory from the British just 50 some years previous (the War of 1812, which I blogged about already #shamelessplug) and many over here were still pretty well convinced that annexation of Canada was just a matter of time. So the US government was pretty quiet during the Fenian raids, stepping in only when it was completely necessary.
To the credit of the Fenians, the raid on Fort Erie was more successful than one would suspect a 1000-ish person army invading one of the largest British colonies on the planet would have been. After crossing the Niagara River, scouts brought decent intelligence to Colonel John O'Neill (the leader of the Fenian invasion force). Within a few hours the Fenians had taken up residence in Fort Erie and things were looking up. Intelligence brought word, however, of a force of Canadian militia and British Regulars numbering up to three-thousand mobilized and moving to meet the Fenian force. But O'Neill, from most accounts, actually knew his shit (quick note: I suck at military history. I really do. So for qualitative statements like "O'Neill knew his shit" or "That other guy would be better suited to playing cricket in a skirt than military involvement" I tend to trust the judgement of others. FYI). Instead of attacking along the route that made the most strategic sense, he took what could be described as the back road and began moving toward the opposition. Acutely aware of the Fenian raid, the USS Michigan was patrolling the Lake now, meaning that mobilizing more Fenian troops or supplies over the river was impossible, so O'Neill would have to work with what he had. That being said, he used his forces to the best possible advantage, burning major bridges and intimidating the opposition with his lack of fear and strong presence. Consequently, the Fenian force ambushed the Canadian/British troops early on June 2, 1866 and defeated them in what is now known as the Battle of Ridgeway. The Canadian militia was pushed back and the Fenian victory was pretty decisive.
But now what?
The odds of a few hundred Irish immigrants, well trained and well led as they were even, holding onto the progress made into Canada was slim, to say the least. The lake and river were being heavily patrolled now, meaning no reinforcements would be coming from Buffalo and O'Neill and what was left of his army were on their own. And the British were pissed. Not only were they pissed, they were regrouping and moving toward the Fenians. Futile doesn't even begin to describe the situation.
On June 3, 1866 O'Neill released his prisoners and surrendered to the US Navy.
I'm sure there is at least one reader here that is curious about what the penalty is for raising an army and invading Canada. As was I, dear reader, as was I. And I have the time and resources to find out. The penalty (in 1866, anyway) was apparently being arrested, marched through the streets of Toronto while Canadians pelt you with garbage, and then being released one week later as long as you promise to appear for your trial (no word on whether or not a pinky swear was involved). O'Neill would go on to become the president of the Fenian organization and would be involved in two additional raids on Canada. Yeah, for real he invaded Canada and was pretty much left free to roam the country-side and terrorize the locals. A large part of his army, however, was put on trial and convicted of illegally invading Canada (how bad ass is that?), most of these men were sentenced to death, though none of the death sentences were carried out and, to my knowledge, all of those convicted were eventually exonerated and let free. Oddly, the person punished the most for the Fenian raids was the Canadian militia leader J Stoughton Dennis. It was widely believed that his dereliction of duty is what allowed the Fenians to seriously kick the shit out of the Canadians (he disappeared as the battle began and showed up like two days later at a different camp posing as a civilian. Yeah. You just can't trust people named Dennis.) and he was relieved of his duty.
So what's the moral in all of this? What is the lasting legacy of the Fenians? Fucked if I know. The Canadians realized that they sucked at defending their border. But, they're Canadians, so no one was really surprised. The Fenians succeeded in garnering some attention for themselves and the plight of the Irish, but everyone really already knew that the British were kind of assholes and that the Irish were getting severely fucked in this relationship. So, nothing was really all that shaken up, except for the one chick that accidentally walked in front of a Canadian firing line. She was shaken up for the couple minutes before she died. After the final raid in 1871, and, arguably, even after the Fort Erie raid, the Fenians sort of faded into obscurity and people kind of forgot about the Fenian raids. Need proof of this? Seriously none of you even knew this was a thing until I posted this. Proof.
But the Fenians were important, as is all of history. They show not only the dedication of people to a cause and what is possible when that dedication is held so strongly (they did actually invade Canada, after all), but perhaps more importantly, they show the American immigrant experience in all of its (more often than not) shit covered glory. The Fenians are the anti-thesis to everything we have ever been "taught" about how this country was founded and sustained.
Now listen to me carefully here, dear readers, because this shit is important for all of us to know, and it's something that many, MANY of us forget:
America was built-- from sea to shining sea-- on the backs of impoverished immigrants that really had no choice but to come here and become the butt of our jokes and cheap labor. And the Fenians specifically, and Irish in general, weren't shy in showing what most immigrants felt-- raw, seething anger. Anger at their position, their circumstance, and what and who led them to this existence.
And they showed what this anger can do-- apparently it can galvanize a few hundred to international conflict and invasion.
Who knew?
My absolute most favorite book about an American immigrant group as well as the social constructs of race in America is Noel Ignatiev's How the Irish Became White, published by Routeledge. It's fantastic. I've read it twice and I'm still looking forward to reading it again. Read it. Love it. Bask in it. Feel the racism.
Pick on your Irish friends for not being white.
Then make them read it.
For further information on the Fenian invasions/raids, I would point literally anyone to the University of Buffalo's write up, which one can find at http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~dbertuca/155/FenianRaid.html. In the interest of full disclosure, this is where I found most of the military history that I needed here dumbed down to a level that even I can understand.
For some pretty well written Irish history, Irish History Online is a great resource and can be found at http://www.irishhistoryonline.ie/.
If anyone is interested in a brief, but engaging over-view of the Potato Famine and just cannot wait until I get my lazy ass around to actually writing it, I highly, HIGHLY suggest the Potato Famine podcast by Stuff You Missed in History Class, from How Stuff Works. I listen to this podcast way too much. It is super, super cool.
If you're interested in how the Civil War would have turned out if the British had backed the Confederacy, the thought experiment turned documentary The Confederate States of America is very, very cool. And available on Netflix.
For those intrigued by the fact that this is not the first time the US had invaded Canada, I point anyone and everyone to my August blog "Bitch Slaps and Bad Assery: The War of 1812". #secondshamelessplug
Image credit goes to somethingawful.com.
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