Two years after a force of 1,800 Fenians stormed into unprotected Missisquoi County, Ontario, Fenian eyes were again upon Canada — this time on far-off Vancouver Island.
As we saw last week, a century and a half later, one of the more exciting chapters in B.C. history is virtually forgotten. This is the little-known period of the late 1860s when Vancouver Island authorities feared an invasion by the dreaded Fenian Brotherhood.
The outlawed Irish nationalist society had already attempted to invade eastern Canada two years earlier and, in February 1868, Lieutenant-Governor Fredrick Seymour and Rear Admiral George F. Hastings were informed that a Fenian “emissary” was in their midst, sizing up the Victoria and Esquimalt naval base defences.
As absurd as the threat may seem to us today, officials then had every reason for anxiety. For months, newspapers had reported Fenian outrages in the United Kingdom where assassinations, kidnappings, bombings and sabotage had prompted chief secretary for Ireland, Earl Mayo, to request that Parliament place Great Britain under a state of martial law.
Locally, Admiral Hastings immediately ordered his forces into a state of alert, dispatching warships to patrol the Strait of Juan de Fuca and to guard the entrance to Burrard Inlet and assigning guards of Royal Marines, militiamen and special constables around city banks.
When fire erupted in Cleal’s Restaurant, many citizens were convinced that the Fenians, who set fires as diversions, had struck. The blaze did turn out to be arson but there were no Fenian attacks on the banks.
The Colonist gave full credit to “the admirable defensive measures [which] have removed beyond the range of possibility the success of a hostile movement. But as in time of peace it is the ‘correct thing’ to prepare for war, too great energy cannot be displayed in adoption of measures calculated to deter lawless characters from even entertaining such an idea as the invasion of Vancouver Island.”
(All the while, the Colonist pages had been crowded with reports of rioting in Britain and of trials for treason of leading Irish freedom-fighters.)
Despite a report that the Fenian ‘emissary’ had left town, authorities believed he was still present. Admiral Hastings assured the public that “…We do not anticipate in the face of the precautions adopted any serious trouble at present.”
As days passed peacefully and citizens began to breathe easier, defence measures weren’t relaxed, with HM Gunboat Grappler and HMS Forward maintaining their vigils over New Westminster and Burrard Inlet, and HMS Zealous patrolling Juan de Fuca Strait.
Then began what must be one of the most outrageous duels in provincial history as the Victoria Colonist and New Westminster’s The British Columbian vied for the honour of being invaded by the Fenians.
One must remember, when reading the following, that both cities were then competing to be chosen the capital city of the just combined colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia.
New Westminster would never be attacked, sniffed the Colonist, because “its poverty is so notorious as to hold out every inducement to plunderers to give it a wide berth”. The editor reminded his readers that “every precaution has been taken, every assistance rendered by the Fleet, and every probable point of attack is at least well guarded from assault; but it will require the presence of all Her Majesty’s vessels now on this station to lie within easy call of Victoria and Esquimalt for some time to come to overawe any evil-disposed persons who may cast long eyes upon our wealth, and who may hope by a sudden raid to strip the banks of their gold.
“New Westminster, as we have already remarked, finds her greatest protection in her poverty. She possesses nothing worth stealing, and the general who would attempt to march a force so far into the interior of the colony before he had first secured his point of supply and his ‘key’ to the position [Victoria] lying directly in his path and from which he could be harassed by a ‘fire in the rear,’ would be a greater dolt than the alarmed genius in the Capital who has suggested that the Fenians will quietly gobble up our ‘worthy Governor’ and hold him as a hostage while dictating terms for the ‘liberation of Ireland’!
“The government by remaining at New Westminster is safe — too safe for the interests of this section of the colony. Its duty calls it here. An undue concern for its own importance and value (which is not shared by any of its subjects) impels it to remain remote from the only probable scene of action in case of an invasion. At Burrard Inlet, where much valuable mill property is at stake, the presence of a gunboat would, perhaps, be advisable for a short time; but the proposition to send a ship of war to New Westminster, where there is virtually nothing to protect, is so monstrously absurd as to admit of no feeling but one of pity for the imbecility of the writer who has given it utterance.”
Ah, the golden age of journalism!
The Fenian invasion of Vancouver Island never came. Probably the greatest factor in discouraging any such plan was its geographical remoteness and the strength of the Royal Navy’s Pacific Squadron, based at Esquimalt.
But eastern Canada wasn’t as fortunate. The Fenians, for all the Colonist’s sarcasm, were no joking matter. In June 1866, ‘Inspector General’ John O’Neill, a cavalry officer in the Civil War and now president of the Brotherhood, led 800 men across the Niagara River into Canada near Fort Erie and camped at Ridgeway where he was attacked by a slightly larger Canadian force, but confusion in the Canadian command cost them an easy victory. A detachment of 80 volunteers delayed his withdrawal in a gallant but vain attack, losing 10 men and incurring 40 wounded. Fenian casualties were thought to be twice as many. The remnants of the invaders surrendered to a U.S. warship.
The next day, 1,800 Fenians marched from Vermont into Missisquoi County in the Eastern Townships, camping at Pigeon Hill and plundering the towns of Frelighsburg and St. Armand, only to retreat across the border a few days later.
O’Neill again led his men into the Eastern Townships and, again, he withdrew under fire. American authorities, finally tired of the whole business, arrested him.
Released, the persistent O’Neill gathered more die-hard followers and in October 1871 seized an undefended Hudson’s Bay Co. post in Manitoba. Within hours, U.S. troops dislodged him and his followers — surely the only occasion in Canadian history when foreign soldiers arrested a hostile ‘army’ on Canadian soil!
The threat to Vancouver Island never materialized and never was a strategic reality even for the most fanatical of Fenians. Ultimately, their invasions of eastern Canada accomplished more good than harm. Canadian military appropriations were increased and a militia formed. And nervous voters were encouraged to support the Confederation plan before them; little more than a year after the first attack, on July 1, 1867, Canada became a nation.
Medals commemorating the raids of 1866 and 1870 eventually were awarded to each Canadian who served during the emergencies. Today these medals are highly-prized collectors’ items.