Editing Fenian Brotherhood (section)

==Fenian raids into Canada==
{{Main|Fenian raids}}
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In the United States, O'Mahony's presidency over the Fenian Brotherhood was being increasingly challenged by [[William R. Roberts]]. Both Fenian factions raised money by the issue of bonds in the name of the "Irish Republic", which were bought by the faithful in the expectation of their being honoured when Ireland should be "[[A Nation Once Again]]".{{sfn|McNeill|1911|p=255}} These bonds were to be redeemed "six months after the recognition of the independence of Ireland". Hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants subscribed.

[[Image:Freedom to Ireland.png|thumb|right|"Freedom to Ireland", a patriotic [[lithograph]] by [[Currier & Ives]], New York, c. 1866]]
Large quantities of arms were purchased, and preparations were openly made by the Roberts faction for a coordinated series of raids into Canada, which the United States government took no major steps to prevent.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} Many in the US administration were not indisposed to the movement because of Britain's actions of what was construed as assisting the Confederacy during the [[American Civil War]], such as [[CSS Alabama|CSS ''Alabama'']] and [[Blockade runners of the American Civil War|blockade runners smuggling in weapons]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} Roberts' "Secretary for War" was General [[Thomas William Sweeny|T. W. Sweeny]], who was struck off the American army list from January 1866 to November 1866 to allow him to organise the raids. The purpose of these raids was to seize the transportation network of Canada, with the idea that this would force the British to exchange Ireland's freedom for possession of their Province of Canada. {{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}Before the invasion, the Fenians had received some intelligence from like-minded supporters within Canada but did not receive support from all Irish Catholics, as there those who saw the invasions as threatening the emerging Canadian sovereignty.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

In April 1866, under the command of John O'Mahony, a band of more than 700 members of the Fenian Brotherhood arrived at the Maine shore opposite [[Campobello Island]] with the intention of seizing it from the British. British warships from Halifax, Nova Scotia were quickly on the scene and a military force dispersed the Fenians.<ref>Buescher, John. [http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/19821 "What Happened to the Fenians After 1866?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121216050153/http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/19821 |date=16 December 2012 }} [http://www.teachinghistory.org Teachinghistory.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128145619/http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24411 |date=28 November 2017 }}, accessed 8 October 2011</ref> This action served to reinforce the idea of protection for New Brunswick by joining with the [[British North America]]n colonies of [[Nova Scotia]], [[Canada East]], and [[Upper Canada#Canada West|Canada West]] in [[Canadian Confederation|Confederation]] to form the [[Canada|Dominion of Canada]].

The command of the expedition in [[Buffalo, New York]], was entrusted by Roberts to Colonel [[John O'Neill (Fenian)|John O'Neill]], who crossed the [[Niagara River]] (the Niagara is the international border) at the head of at least 800 (O'Neill's figure; usually reported as up to 1,500 in Canadian sources) men on the night and morning of 31 May/1 June 1866, and briefly captured [[Fort Erie]], defeating a Canadian force at [[Battle of Ridgeway|Ridgeway]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} Many of these men, including O'Neill, were battle-hardened veterans of the [[American Civil War]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} In the end, the invasion had been broken by the US authorities' subsequent interruption of Fenian supply lines across the Niagara River and the arrests of Fenian reinforcements attempting to cross the river into Canada.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} It is unlikely that with such a small force they would have ever achieved their goal.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

Other Fenian attempts to invade occurred throughout the next week in the [[St. Lawrence Valley]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} As many of the weapons had in the meantime been confiscated by the US army, relatively few of these men actually became involved in the fighting.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} There even was a small Fenian raid on a storage building that successfully got back some weapons that had been seized by the US Army. Many were eventually returned anyway by sympathetic officers.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

To get the Fenians out of the area, both in the St. Lawrence and Buffalo, the U.S. government purchased rail tickets for the Fenians to return to their homes if the individuals involved would promise not to invade any more countries from the United States.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} Many of the arms were returned later if the person claiming them could post bond that they were not going to be used to invade Canada again, although some were possibly used in the raids that followed.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

In December 1867, O'Neill became president of the Roberts faction of the Fenian Brotherhood, which in the following year held a great convention in [[Philadelphia]] attended by over 400 properly accredited delegates, while 6,000 Fenian soldiers, armed and in uniform, paraded the streets. At this convention, a second invasion of Canada was conceived. The news of the [[Clerkenwell explosion]] was a strong incentive to a vigorous policy. At the time, [[Thomas Miller Beach|Henri Le Caron]], a [[mole (intelligence)|mole]] for [[British Intelligence]], held the position of "Inspector-General of the Irish Republican Army".{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} Le Caron later asserted that he distributed fifteen thousand stands of arms and almost three million rounds of ammunition in the care of the many trusted men stationed between [[Ogdensburg, New York]] and [[St. Albans (town), Vermont|St. Albans, Vermont]], in preparation for the intended raid.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} It took place in April 1870 and proved a failure just as rapid and complete as the attempt of 1866.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} The Fenians under O'Neill's command crossed the Canadian frontier near [[Franklin, Vermont]], but were dispersed by a single volley from Canadian volunteers. O'Neill himself was promptly arrested by the United States authorities acting under the orders of President [[Ulysses S. Grant]].{{sfn|McNeill|1911|p=255}}

After resigning as president of the Fenian Brotherhood, John O'Neill unsuccessfully attempted an unsanctioned raid in 1871 and joined his remaining Fenian supporters with refugee veterans of the [[Red River Rebellion]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} The raiding party crossed the border into [[Manitoba]] at [[Pembina, North Dakota|Pembina]], [[Dakota Territory]] and took possession of the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] trading post on the Canada side. U.S. soldiers from the fort at Pembina, with permission of Canadian official [[Gilbert McMicken]], crossed into Canada and arrested the Fenian raiders without resistance.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

The Fenian threat prompted calls for [[Canadian confederation]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} Confederation had been in the works for years but was only implemented in 1867, the year following the first raids. In 1868, a Fenian sympathiser assassinated [[Irish-Canadian]] politician [[Thomas D'Arcy McGee]] in Ottawa, allegedly in response to his condemnation of the raids.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

Fear of Fenian attack plagued the [[Lower Mainland]] of [[British Columbia]] during the 1880s, as the Fenian Brotherhood was active in both [[Washington (state)|Washington]] and [[Oregon]], but no raids ever materialized . At the inauguration of the mainline of the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]] in 1885, photos taken of the occasion show three large [[British warships]] sitting in the harbour just off the railhead and its docks. Their presence was explicitly because of the fear of Fenian invasion or terrorism, as were the large numbers of troops on the first train.