page_title: Fenian raids
section_title: New Brunswick
hierarchical_section_title: Fenian raids / Raids / Early raids (1866) / New Brunswick
caption_attribution_description: John O'Mahony, founder of the Fenian Brotherhood in the United States.
context_page_description: The Fenian raids were carried out by the Fenian Brotherhood, an Irish Republican organization based in the United States, on British Army forts, customs posts and other targets in Canada, in 1866, and again from 1870 to 1871. A number of separate incursions by the Fenian Brotherhood into Canada were undertaken to bring pressure on Great Britain to withdraw from Ireland, although none of these raids achieved their aims.
  In Canada, the incursions divided its Catholic Irish-Canadian population, many of whom were torn between loyalty to their new home and sympathy for the aims of the Fenians. The Protestant Irish were generally loyal to the British and fought with the anti-Catholic Orange Order against the Fenians.
  While authorities in the United States arrested the men and confiscated the arms of the Fenian Brotherhood, there was speculation that some in the United States government had ignored the preparations undertaken by the Fenians because of anger over actions that could have been construed as British assistance to the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.
context_section_description: Led by John O'Mahony, this Fenian raid occurred in April 1866, at Campobello Island, New Brunswick. A Fenian Brotherhood war party of over 700 members arrived at the Maine shore opposite the island intending to seize Campobello from the British. British commander Charles Hastings Doyle, stationed at Halifax, Nova Scotia responded decisively. On 17 April 1866 he left Halifax with Royal Navy warships carrying over 700 British regulars and proceeded to Passamaquoddy Bay, where the Fenian force was concentrated. This show of British might discouraged the Fenians, and they dispersed. The invasion reinforced the idea of protection for New Brunswick by joining with the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, and the United Province of Canada, formerly Upper Canada (now Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec), to form the Dominion of Canada.
caption: John O'Mahony, a former colonel of the 69th Regiment of New York State Militia, led the first raid into British North America, in April 1866
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