Confederate Operations In Canada And The North

"There is little consolation in relating the particulars of the hostile operations along the northern borders of the United States, by Confederate solders from Canada, who were assigned to this service by the authorities of the Confederate States in 1864. And yet the authentic narrative of this desperate warfare which recalls and includes the cruel phases of the deplorable conflict may be due to the survivors and the dead of the North and the South who were military foes, and may serve as a lesson and a guide to the present and future generations of our reunited country in determining the price of peace and the pretexts for war."--Introduction.

Excerpt from Confederate Operations in Canada and New York There is little consolation in relating the particulars of the hostile operations along the northern borders of the United States, by Confederate soldiers from Canada, who were assigned to this service by the authorities of the Confederate States in 1864. And yet the authentic narrative of this desperate warfare which recalls and includes the cruel phases of the deplorable conflict may be due to the survivors and the dead of the North and the South who were military foes, and may serve as a lesson and a guide to the present and future generations of our reunited country in determining the price of peace and the pretexts for war. All references that pertain to the conduct of the Federal Government and soldiers toward non-combatants are derived entirely from verified authority and the official records of the War Department of the United States. But little account of the engagements between the great armies is attempted. And it is deemed sufficient to submit the summaries of Generals Buell and Grant, the commanders of the two Federal armies at the battle of Shiloh, concerning the results of battles, the forces engaged, the morale of soldiers, and the cause of the war. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Presents the history of Montreal, the city, which hosted the Confederacy's largest foreign secret service base during the American Civil War.

1864. The war had entered its third year, and the battle momentum had shifted towards the North. A Union victory seemed imminent. Desperate to keep the Confederate dream alive, Southern leaders concocted a last-ditch plan to turn the tide in their favour. They took advantage of the undefended border and used Canada as a base from which to launch a series of military attacks and terrifying raids on Northern states. In order to prevent further assaults, the United States imposed its first passport laws and threatened trade sanctions, a move that foreshadowed future actions the U.S. would take against Canada in order to defend its borders. As the drama unfolded south of the border, Canada sought to establish its own independence in the form of Confederation. The coalition between Liberal reformer George Brown and Conservative chieftain John A. Macdonald was the force that would create the Dominion of Canada in 1867. The pressure of the Civil War, with its threat to the colonies' security, was a driving force behind this extraordinary pact.

During the American Civil War, Toronto, Montreal, St. Catharines and Halifax welcomed a well-financed network of Confederate spies and adventurers, bringing the war close to home with organized raids on Lake Erie and the border town of St. Albans, Vermont, where Confederate raiders were successfully defended by prominent Quebec politician J.C. Abbott, a future prime minister. Montreal's St. Lawrence Hall Hotel had so many Confederates living there it offered mint juleps on its menu. It also afforded visits by John Wilkes Booth, who made several trips to Toronto as part of an organized plot leading up to the Good Friday 1865 assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.Perhaps the most lasting impact on Canada was Sir John A. Macdonald's conviction that strong states' rights were “the great source of weakness,” which led to the war. That's why Canada emerged in 1867 with a strong federal government-including an unelected Senate-which to this day fosters endless debate between the believers of federal rights and provincial rights.