Rebels on the Niagara : the Fenian Invasion of Canada, 1866 / Lawrence E. Cline.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cline, Lawrence E., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Canada--History--Fenian Invasions, 1866-1870.

Canada.

History.

Fenians.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxi, 224 pages, 18 unnumbered pages of plates ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany : Excelsior Editions, an imprint of State University of New York Press, [2018]

Summary:

In what is now largely considered a footnote in history, Americans invaded Canada along the Niagara Frontier in 1866. The group behind the invasion?the Fenian Brotherhood?was formed in 1858 by Irish nationalists in New York City in order to fight for Irish independence from Britain. At the end of the American Civil War, Fenian leaders attempted to use Irish Americans, many of them combat veterans, to seize Canada and make it the?New Ireland? as a means to force the British from?old? Ireland. New York State was both the epicenter of Fenian leadership and a key support base and staging area for the military operations. Although relatively short-lived and with some of its military operations being somewhere between farce and tragedy, the Fenian Brotherhood had a very important impact on nineteenth-century New York and America, but remains largely forgotten. In Rebels on the Niagara Lawrence E. Cline examines not only the Fenian operations and their impact on Canada, but also the role the United States and New York played in both the initial support for the Fenian movement and its subsequent collapse in America.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Fenian Brotherhood in New York and the US 1

Chapter 2 The American and Irish Fenians 17

Chapter 3 The Fenians, American Society, and the American Government 29

Chapter 4 "The Great Schism" 41

Chapter 5 The Campobello Island Raid 51

Chapter 6 Preparing for Invasion 69

Photo gallery follows page 84

Chapter 7 The Invasion in the Niagara 85

Chapter 8 The Other Fenian Invasion Wings 103

Chapter 9 The Aftermath 111

Chapter 10 The Interregnum 125

Chapter 11 1870: Invasion Redux 143

Chapter 12 The Withering of the Fenian Brotherhood: The Birth of "Fentanism" 153.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Cline, Lawrence E. Rebels on the Niagara.

ISBN:

9781438467528

1438467524

9781438467511

1438467516

OCLC:

967457160