The Invasion of Canada

Just after the Civil War, an army left Buffalo, New York, intent on conquering a large part of Canada. Originally, the invasion was to originate from Cleveland, but at the last minute, it was shifted to Buffalo. This army defeated a combined British and Canadian force sent to intercept it and seemed to be succeeding until the U.S. Navy blockaded the supply routes back to the United States. The express purpose of this invasion was to hold Canada hostage in exchange for Ireland. If the British didn’t go for the idea, the army would establish a new Ireland in Canada to give the Irish a place to go and be free of the British.

The Fenian invasions have faded into an obscure alleyway of American history that even history buffs tend not to go.

Irish nationalism flourished in the United States after the tragedy of the Irish potato famine. American and British relations were not good at the time, and the U.S. has historically tolerated radical Irish movements. Great Britain supported the Confederacy during the American Civil War and even, at one point, allowed Confederate raiders to cross the border into Maine. The Fenian Brotherhood, a precursor of the Irish Republican Army, presented its plan to invade Canada to some U.S. officials and felt they had received implicit approval to go ahead. So armed with war surplus that glutted the United States after the Civil War and manned by Irish veterans of the war, they began to gather along the Canadian border.

An earlier incursion had struck out from Maine into Canada but had been put down by the U.S. government. The Fenian army then attacked Canada from Buffalo, New York. They captured a large part of southern Ontario before the U.S. government decided not to support the invasion and cut the Fenians’ supply lines back to the United States. The army limped back to the U.S. side of the border and was dispersed, only to try to invade Canada again from Montana.