Fenian Raid

Fenian Raids
Part of the Fenian Rising
From top to bottom: Charge of O'Neill's Fenians upon the Canadian troops; Canadian soldiers charge a Fenian Raid on Eccles Hill
Date April 1866 – October 1871 Location Canada Result Anglo-Canadian victory; Defeat of Fenian soldiers End of incursions into Canada
Belligerents
Fenian Brotherhood	Canada (1867-71) Province of Canada (1866-67) New Brunswick (1866)
Commanders and leaders
John O'Mahony Thomas Sweeny John O'Neill Samuel B. Spiers Owen Starr	John A. Macdonald George-Étienne Cartier John S. Dennis Wiliam O. Smith
Casualties and losses
14 killed	22 killed

Anglo-Canadian victory;

 Canada (1867-71)

Between 1866 and 1871, the Fenian raids of the Fenian Brotherhood, an Irish Republican organization based in the United States, on British army forts, customs posts and other targets in Canada, were fought to bring pressure on Britain to withdraw from Ireland. They divided Catholic Irish-Canadians, many of whom were torn between loyalty to their new home and sympathy for the aims of the Fenians. The Protestant Irish were generally loyal to Britain and fought with the Orange Order against the Fenians. While the U.S. authorities arrested the men and confiscated their arms, there is speculation that some in the U.S. government had turned a blind eye to the preparations for the invasion, angered at actions that could have been construed as Canadian assistance to the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. There were five Fenian raids of note and all of them ended in failure.

Led by John O'Mahony, this Fenian raid occurred in April 1866, at Campobello Island, New Brunswick. A Fenian Brotherhood war party of over 700 members arrived at the Maine shore opposite the island intending to seize Campobello from the British. British commander Charles Hastings Doyle, stationed at Halifax, Nova Scotia responded decisively. On 17 April 1866 he left Halifax with Royal Navy warships carrying over 700 British regulars and proceeded to Passamaquoddy Bay, where the Fenian force was concentrated. This show of British might discouraged the Fenians, and they dispersed. The invasion reinforced the idea of protection for New Brunswick by joining with the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, and the United Province of Canada, formerly Upper Canada (now Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec), to form the Dominion of Canada.

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