Blog Archives

NEUTRALITY??? Later...gator Gary Roy

4/15/2015

From the Dominion of Canada Sessional papers:

"As early as the 14th March 1865, Her Majesty's Minister at Washington called the attention of the Government of the United States to the fact of an extensive conspiracy on the part of the so-called Fenian Brotherhood, and pointed out that officers in the service of the United States had taken part in the proceedings of that body. There can be no doubt whatever that the Government of the United States was fully cognizant of the preparations for the invasion of Canada, which culminated in the Raid of 1866."

"Although it had been warned of the danger to be apprehended from the Fenians, it took no active measure."

0 Comments

FEAR AND LOATHING IN FORT ERIE Gary Roy

4/15/2015

0 Comments

An editorial noted in the Buffalo Courier on June 2, 1866 reads as follows:

"The Canadians were not so much under apprehension of danger from the Fenians, as from the "rough" friends of the Niagara Falls police whom they feared would swarm over at night to plunder."

The fears were justified. While O'Neill was decamping 5 miles away, jackals descended on the village to ferret out and grab whatever the Fenians had missed.

A group of men, including Sheldon Fairchild and Robert Vance: alias 'Stonehouse Jack', well known thieves and 'blacklegs' from Buffalo, were observed going to the store of Kirby and Co., clothiers and general dealers. It was night time, and the door was locked. The men proceeded to break it open with a length of cordwood. Rutherford, one of the store's owners was awakened by the noise and confronted them. He was seized, thrown on his back on the counter by one of the men, had a pistol shoved in his face, his pockets rifled, and was told to "Lay still or I will blow your brains out."

Kirby, the other owner, had already experienced a close encounter with Fenian soldiers earlier in the day. They spied him trying to row furiously across the Niagara River to escape to his house on the Buffalo shore, and began firing at him. He returned, was detained and subsequently released, making his way home by other means long before the robbery took place.

Henry Bristow, who was staying in the house, was robbed of 12 shillings. Money was demanded as well of Michael Cotter, another resident. He pleaded that he had none. The robber went out of the room but soon came back and said "Why not?" and struck Cotter with a pair of cutting shears. The robber then asked, "What other house in the village would be most likely to have the most money?" "The house at the foot of Queen Street" Bristown replied. The robber demanded to know who lived there, and Bristow told him it was the American Consul. "We don't want the American consul" he said, "We are Finigans."

The pillagers discovered a case of spirits which had been consigned to Rutherford by a St. Catharines merchant. They broke it open, and literally the champagne flowed. A young man who kept a grocery store in the village as passing, and noticed the open door. He came in and asked "Rutherford what is the matter?" One of the thieves struck him across the face with a champagne bottle, drawing blood. "That's what's the matter" he said.

The grocer ran out yelling "help" and "murder". He was overtaken by one of the thieves near the hotel and struck again. He ran across the street and tried to take shelter in a house but no one would open the door. He was followed, thrown to the ground, and upon threat of being shot to death, was ordered to be quiet. The grocer complied, but was able to run away along the railway tracks when the robber when the robber went back to the store.

Two pistol shots rang out, and a voice was heard to say "Take that you son of a bitch."

The thieves carried out bales of cloth-woolen cashmeres and other fabrics, with a value of $1500 (A substantial sum for 1866!), also ready-made clothing and miscellaneous goods which they proceeded to load into a boat that had been left at the river's edge. They rowed across the river. Before they reached the opposite shore, they were spied by US customs officers who promptly stopped them and seized the load. The plunderers returned to the Canadian shore empty handed. But the hue and cry was already out. Two men, named Dillon and Ellis, were arrested about seven o'clock.

Two days later, Fairchild and 'Stonehouse Jack' thought to evade the Canadian authorities by joining the retreating Fenians. They got on the scow A.P. Waite and were captured along with the soldiers and then transferred to the USS Michigan. They were awaiting clearance to disperse into Buffalo when the law caught up with them.

Canadian Frontier Detective J.S. Armstrong, who had fought at Ridgeway a few days before, was able to identify the two miscreants. They were subsequently jailed and held over for extradition. At the trial, however, Fairchild's legal counsel argued that the evidence produced against his client did not implicate him in the actual robbery, only that he was at the dock, and as such did not bring him within requirements of the Extradition Treaty. The Commissioner took the point and Fairchild was discharged. Vance's case was referred to the Secretary of State.

Fairchild's freedom was short lived. As a sometime member of the nefarious Buffalo street gang, "Break O'Day Johnnies', he had yet to answer for the murder of a policeman in Niagara Falls the year previous. He was rearrested July 5, 1866. The same fate befell Vance. The State of Pennsylvania claimed him on a requisition, charging him with a murder and robbery that had occurred at Pithole PA in May 1866.

The last word to Colonel O'Neill, disclaiming that the plunders who followed him to Canada were Fenians.
"The other prisoners were camp followers who accompanied the expedition for plunder, and some who went out of curiosity. These robbers I hope will get a halter yet. Had I known them I would have strung them up myself."

0 Comments

I Suppose You Are One Of Us Gary Roy

4/15/2015

0 Comments

At the Fenian camp Thomas Newbigging saw armed sentries on the bridge over Frenchman's Creek and men, "working about, some washing, cooking, carrying rails for breastworks, and cutting down trees...They took three or four horses (from Newbigging), slaughtered eleven lambs and four sheep.

Other soldiers went foraging bringing back poultry and livestock, as well as cured pork flouor, cheeses and crocks of butter. Horses were appropriated when found and generally returned to their owners after the Battle of Ridgeway, regrettably in distressed condition.

Word of the Fenian landing spread quickly. John Cooper, postmaster for the Village of Chippawa decided to inspect the Fenian camp, "to ascertain the true state of affairs."

He left the village on horseback about half past nine on June 1, and found the Fenians outside Fort Erie. The pickets extended to a point three miles north of the village on the River road, and the main body was stationed a mile north of the Lower Ferry at Newbigging's farm.

He approached, came to attention, and was allowed to proceed without challenge. One sentry asked for a match, remarking, "I suppose you are one of us." Cooper saw one sentry ressed in a Federal uniform, others in old CSA (Confederate States Army) frock coats and civilian clothes, and some in gray Confederate uniforms. The latter group told them they belonged to the Louisiana Tigers. Not wishing to tempt fate for too long Cooper returned to Chippewa by a back route.

The Fenian army that camped at Newbigging's farm was made up of discharged Civil war veterans from both sides, generally from three States: Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, but augmented with smaller companies from Louisiana and Indiana. They were joined by young recruits and members of the Buffalo area Fenians.

Frenchman's Creek flows south along Newbigging's Farm, and then east to the Niagara River, affording water protection on three sides. The Fenians had built bullet screens from fence rails, positioning them in a northerly direction looking toward Chippawa where they expected the Canadian militia attack to originate.

Pictured is a typical Virginia Snake rail Fence which has been used since pre Civil War days both for grazing and as screens to protect soldiers when firing at an enemy.

Alexander Sommerville, in his period treatment "Narrative of the Fenian Invasion of Canada" describes O'Neill's use of the fences. "Here O'Neill, apprehensive that Colonel Peacocke, or other British commander, would bring up a force by the Niagara River side constructed screens of fence rails across the pasture field, and in the orchard from east to west, to command the approach from the north."

"The split rails of oak," he continues, "averaging about six inches thick, so well known as 'snake fences' in Canada, and 'Virginia rails"on the other side; about fifteen feet long...are piled in a zigzag form, alternately overlying each other at the end, and rising to a height of five, six or seven feet...carried from the side of the Niagara River road, and from other fields."

Tightly placed railed angled at about thirty degrees or less would provide a roof shape. Rifle bullets, hitting it in the direction from which an opposing force might come, accordingly would glance off the rails and over the heads of the sharpshooters placed behind.

Additional rails were piled on the bridge across Frenchman's Creek, ready to be set on fire should the Fenians need to retreat back the way they came.

Colonel O'Neill, it turns out, was correct in his assumption that an attack would come from the north.

                                                                                       *

It was at this time that the first Fenian casualty on Canadian soil occurred.

O'Neill had placed pickets with sentries along the roads in all directions from the camp. One of the sentries posted in the thicket fourteen hundred yards west of the bivouac field was shot during the night by another Fenian sentry who had mistaked him for a Canadian. His comrades stripped him of clothing except for his flannel.

The next day a few Fort Erie farmers went to bury the body, the Fenians having left for Ridgeway. While tracing the course of the bullet through his right arm and right side, they found a hidden pocket in his flannels with $112 in it (about $2500 in current value). The money was turned over to a Customs officer. The dead soldier had a cross suspended on his chest, and image of a similar one with his initials tattooed on his left arm.

The farmers wanted the coroner to hold an inquest, but this request was denied, and the body was buried at the edge of the wood where it was found.

                                                                                      *

At 10p.m. O'Neill gathered his troops and began to march toward Chippawa. He had received intelligence that a large force, said to be about 5,000 strong with artillery, was advancing toward his position in two columns, one from Chippawa, the other from Port Colborne, the latter planning to attack him from the lake side. An astute tactician, O'Neill recognized that there was a distinct possibility he would be caught in a pincer-like manoeuver if he stayed where he was.

At this point he realized as well, much to his regret, that a noteworthy number of Fenians who had crossed earlier in the day, had either re-crossed back to Buffalo, or gone to houses in Fort Erie. His strength was slightly over 500 men, and he had arms for 800. Reluctantly he destroyed 300 stand of arms rather than allow them to fall into Crown Forces hands.

At midnight he suddenly turned left at Black Creek, and began to head toward the Limestone Ridge, north of Ridgeway. His intent was to get between the two columns, meet and defeat the one from Port Colborne, which he perceived to be weaker due to lack of artillery, before the other stronger units with Lieutenant Colonel Peacocke could render aid.

He placed his main body of soldiers within the tree line at Limestone Ridge, a second group at a lower fence line. and a third unit of skirmishers further down the slope. He waited.

                                                                                     *

Long an item of speculation, the exact number of guns and boxes of cartridges at the bottom of Frenchman's Creek remains a mystery to this day. The rifles likely were either Henry 15 round and Spencer 7 round Repeater, Springfield muzzleloaders and Sharp's breach loaders. Here again is Somerville's account of the weapons in the days after the Battle.

"Eighteen of the boxes had been fished up from the bottom of the creek, close by the bridge previous to the 20th of June containing 18,000 cartridges. Possibly more had been sunk elsewhere. The boxes had been punctured by bayonets to admit water to destroy the powder. Each box bore a date '1865', and the name of a United States arsenal, most of them that of 'Bridport'. The arms, rifles and bayonets...had been sunk in the creek. Ninety rifles were taken out and accounted for before 20th of June. How many more were found or still remained in the water was uncertain."

Would-be salvagers and arm chair archaeologists are warned that strict fines attend recovering historical artifacts without a licence. Having said that, a properly conducted search may reveal some very desirable artifacts for the Fort Erie Museum.

Spencer 7 Round Repeating Rifle

0 Comments

FIENNE, FENIANS, OR 'FINNEGANS'? Gary Roy

4/13/2015

0 Comments

The Fianna, from the third cycle of Irish heroic literature, were bands of warriors sworn to defend the coasts of Ireland from foreign invaders. They were devoted to war, the chase, and the arts of poetry. They considered themselves 'Goidels' - true Gaels, the purest population of Feni-free landholders, never servants nor slaves. They had three mottos: "purity of our hearts, strength of our limbs and action to match our speech.'
Fenian would appear to have been a neologism coined in 1840 by Colonel Charles Vallancy as an Anglicization of Fianna.
The term was quickly taken up by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a republican body which had been founded in 1858, mostly by veterans of a failed 1848 uprising. The IRB was driven by the belief that Ireland had a natural right to independence and that this right could only be won through armed rebellion.
The Brotherhood had members on both sides of the Atlantic. Bernard McNulty, a close friend of John Boyle O'Reilly, a notable Irish Fenian, established a US branch of the IRB in 1858, and was soon joined by other Irish American nationalist organizations. They became the US Fenian Brotherhood led by John O'Mahony, an Irish-born Gaelic scholar (and participant in the failed 1848 Rebellion) who had been exiled to France and then to the US.

US Fenian 'circles' or militia groups, began training for the day they would return to Ireland and liberate the island from British rule. But the transatlantic planning was interrupted by the start of the American Civil War. Fenian leaders however, were quick to realize that the war would provide practical combat experience, and the militia units were absorbed into the Union Army making up more than 15% of its total strength. Fenian recruiting continued throughout the war. Membership increased significantly despite Church opposition and financial concerns.
At the end of the hostilities there were thousands of ex-soldiers looking for work, a huge cache of arms and munitions available for purchase, and most compellingly, an hereditary, idealized cause to fight for. The Brotherhood prospered with monetary donations coming in from all over the States.

The year 1865 was to be the start of the insurrection in Ireland. The US Brotherhood waited for word from the IRB to begin sending troops over. But the British Government had other plans. Acting on information supplied by a spy in the office of James Stephens, the Fenian Irish leader, a wave of Fenian arrests were made in September 1865, and 'habeus corpus' suspended in 1866. Everything ground to a halt.

In December 1865, the US Brotherhood came asunder: one member under O'Mahony, was determined to wait for the appropriate moment to join an IRB general uprising in Ireland. The other, led by William Randall Roberts, determined immediate action against the British in Canada.
*
Once the split had been made, the so-called 'Roberts Wing' set the invasion of Canada in motion. Robert's grand scheme would see Canada invaded, an independent Irish state established and the occupied territory then exchanged for Ireland's liberty.

"Fighting" Tom Sweeney, a veteran both of the Mexican and US Civil Wars was appointed as the military commander of the invasion. He planned a 3-prong assault. Two diversionary attacks, one from Chicago and the other from Cleveland/Buffalo, involving roughly 8000 troops, would draw the Crown forces to the western end of Upper Canada. The main force of 15,000 then would attack and secure Lower Canada from Vermont.

Although the plan was sound in principle, it fell apart in execution. Commanders either became ill or were unable to meet deadlines. Troop strength was overestimated. Logistical issues- specifically lack of boats, forced cancellation of the Chicago expedition, and a similar problem necessitated relocation of troops from Cleveland to Buffalo. Communications between all three forces became difficult, and the sympathy of the US government, which had been presumed up to the beginning of 1866, was nonexistent when the attack movement began in May.

The only regimental leader who was battle ready by the scheduled invasion date was Colonel John O'Neill of the 13th Fenian Regiment Nashville Tennessee. Arriving by train from Clevenland with 350 men, O'Neill took over command of the troops at Buffalo. He was given orders to proceed, and with a force of 1,000 plus he crossed the Niagara River on June 1st.

Major General Thomas Sweeny

General John O'Neill

The Fenian 'Sunburst" flag

There are numerous books available which detail the rise of Fenianism in the US, the most recent of which is "The Fenians" by Patrick Steward and Bryan McGovern who are keymote speakers at the Conference.
Special mention is made as well of the Fort Erie Museum's publication "The Year of the Fenians" by David Owen, which contains a highly informative, succinct overview of the rise of US Fenianism.

0 Comments

NEUTRALITY??? Later...gator Gary Roy

FEAR AND LOATHING IN FORT ERIE Gary Roy

I Suppose You Are One Of Us Gary Roy

FIENNE, FENIANS, OR 'FINNEGANS'? Gary Roy

Archives

Categories