The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-04-05
Not Defeated at RidgeWay.

A MONG the historical sketches found
| II on another page of this issue is a
brief biography of Patrick Nc
Grath of San Francisco, one of the
Fenians who participated in General
. Nells raid into Canada just after the
close of our American civil war. Men
ton is made of an encounter with the
Queens Own of Toronto and several
thousand British regulars, concluding
with this sentence: There were sew
eral casualties and the attack resulted
in the defeat of the Irishmen, who were
expecting reinforcements from the
American side, but which did not ar
| rive in time"
The Nation, of San Francisco (from
which paper the biography is repro
ducedD, says McGrath, never a To-
quacious person, is so reticent about
the Fenian matter that it is hard to
obtain a full account from him of his
record in the affair" This admission
of the Nation explains the omission of
any record of the famous fight at
Ridgeway, and led our contemporary
to the misleading conclusion that the
battle resulted in defeat for the Irish.
The real fact is, the British were badly
beaten at Ridgeway and the command
er of the Queens Own surrendered to
General O'Neil.
Before this fight one or two Skin
mishes took place at or near Fort Erie,
on the Niagara river, opposite Buffalo,
IN which the Fenians routed the en-
envy. In no pitched battle were the
Irish beaten; therefore the word de
feat cannot be applied to any mar
rative of action. After the battle of
Ridgeway, O'Neil, unable to go ahead
by reason of interference from the fed
eral authorities on the American side
OF the river, ordered his men to scat
ter and take chances on escape to
American territory. In doing so. some
of the fugitives were captured by the
British and imprisoned. This is the
brief story of how the Fenian army of
invasion was circumvented in it's de-
sign of conquest, and defeat written |
for the whole Fenian movement.
There are many living in Buffalo who |
will corroborate these facts, because |
that city was the storm center of |
Fenianism at the time, and its Irish
American lads counted the largest |
number in O'Neils small command.
Paddy O'Day. who died recently in
Buffalo, was a head center of the
Fenian society in that city, and Pad
dy's canal boats were the vessels of
the Irish navy which took aboard the
little Irish army of invasion across the
river. Into these canal boats
ONeiPs command took refuge after
the retreat from Ridgeway For two
OF three days they were out in the
stream under the guns of the gunboat
Michigan, prisoners of the United
States, charged with violating the laws
IF our country in making war on a
friendly nation" But the American
people would stand for no punishment
o the FenfanS nor any other enemies
II Britain at that time. There were
10 Anglomaniacs like Hay in the
american cabinet. The Trent affair
|
Turing the war by the British govern
nent ranked in the bosoms of Ioyal
americans. So President Johnson was
orced by popular sentiment to release
he Fenian prisoners. Some of the men
o released were veterans of the Union l
nd confederate armies. {
The narrative of Mr.. McGrath's i'm
risonment after that Ridgeway fight ,
) interesting. So are the stories told '
y others in the affair now residing in t
Suite and Anaconda. Colonel O'Leary
the latter place was with. O'Neil at :
ne time. Michael Canton, now of .
utte, but once a resident of Salt Lake a
ity, has in his place of business at o
asst Copper street pictures of the bat p
e of Ridgeway, one of which illus
'ates the surrender of the British colo =
Ell to General O'Neil. r