200 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



started on foot with green colors flying and with their officers in command; 

 to all inquiries as to their destination they responded that they were 

 marching to California to work on the railroad. From the places of 

 rendezvous despatches were sent out telling of the arrival of large numbers 

 of Irish, 1 of their secret meetings and of their probable mission. Large 

 supplies of arms, accouterments, and ammunition 3 were forwarded 

 to these places. 3 By May 31, all seemed ready for the invasion. 



At 2:30 a. m. on June 1, an army 4 of about 900 Fenians, composed 

 of the 7th Kentucky, 5 the 7th Tennessee, the 7th Buffalo, and a detach- 

 ment from Indiana, crossed the Niagara River into Canada 6 at a point 

 three miles north of Buffalo. 7 With green flags waving, and with wild 

 Irish cheers, these 900 veterans of our Civil War, 8 charged upon and 

 captured a little undefended Canadian village, Fort Erie. 9 Despatches 

 were hurriedly sent from Buffalo by Fenian officials to the various state 

 Centres urging them to hurry on their quota of men as the invasion had 

 been successfully begun. 



But the Canadian authorities were fully apprised 10 of all the details 

 of the movement, as all must have been who read the American news- 

 papers at all. The Canadian militia had been called out and part of 

 them stationed at Fort Colborne. 11 When the invading army was 

 launched, the mayor of Buffalo sent a telegram to that effect to the 

 mayors of Toronto and Hamilton. * 2 Thereupon the militia were hastened 

 toward Fort Erie. About 8 a. m. Saturday morning, June 2, 1,400 



I Estimated at 10,000 at each of the places of rendezvous. 



' The amount of money expended may be gleaned from the fact that in one night $1,000 in bonds was 

 sold in Nashville and $2,000 was raised in subscriptions in Boston. 



3 Geneva Arbitration, Vol. II, p. 256. 



« Harpers' 1 Weekly, June 23, 1866; Correspondence Relating to the Fenian Invasion, pp. 140, 600; Provi- 

 dence Daily Journal, June 2, 1866. 



5 Fenian nomenclature. 



6 Cutting all telegraph lines. 



' Correspondence Relating to the Fenian Invasion, pp. 140, 141. 

 8 Providence Daily Journal, June 2, 1866; both Federal and Confederate. 



» "Large numbers of persons are reviewing the sight from the shore" — Despatch from Buffalo to Provi- 

 dence Daily Journal of June 2, 1866. 



10 Buffalo "swarmed with Canadian spies. ''—Providence Daily Journal, June 2, 1866. 



II Correspondence Relating to the Fenian Invasion, pp. 140, 141. 

 " Providence Daily Journal, June 1, 1866, p. 4. 



