The Not-So-Peaceful U.S.-Canadian Border

The Peace Arch on the U.S.-Canada Border

Once the two countries got past the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, I thought the U.S. and Canada had coexisted quite harmoniously. On our travels through Canada, however, we’re learning that this wasn’t always the case… we’ve come across several Canadian sites where battles were fought between Canadians and Americans. I was intrigued and decided to do some research. Here’s what I found:

Revolutionary War

In 1775, after the Battle of Bunker Hill, General Richard Montgomery and Colonel Benedict Arnold (yup, the same Benedict Arnold who later switched sides) led two American forces into the British colony of Canada. The plan was to to capture Quebec City, gaining a strategic fortress on the Saint Lawrence. They also thought they’d be able to recruit large numbers of French-Canadians who would be eager to fight against the British.

Arnold made his way through the wilds of Maine to the Saint Lawrence. Enroute, one mishap followed another, resulting in the loss of most of his gunpowder, and provisions. Part of this was due to the rear guard, a division made up of about 450 men, who decided to give up the battle and return home, taking most of the remaining provisions with them. His depleted force of 600 men finally arrived at Quebec City, weak and half starving. They took up a position outside the city and sent a demand to the British forces to surrender. After observing the dismal condition of the American troops and their lack of any artillery, the British were less than intimidated and declined.

Meanwhile, Montgomery proceeded up Lake Champlain and seized Montreal. Leaving part of his forces behind to maintain control of the city, he continued on with 500 men and joined Arnold’s forces at Quebec. Unfortunately, the hoped for recruitment of large numbers of French-Canadians never materialized, so the entire American force consisted of about 1100 men, while the British troops numbered 1800. In addition, the Americans had only a few small cannons and were low on gunpowder.

Despite being greatly outnumbered and outgunned, Montgomery ordered an assault on the fortified city. Montgomery’s forces attacked the less fortified coastal section of the city, while Arnold attacked from the north. General Montgomery made some initial headway, but was killed early in the battle, and when he fell, much of his force retreated. Meanwhile, Arnold breached the walls from the north, but he was wounded as well, and had to be carried from the front lines. With Montgomery’s forces no longer a threat, the British redirected more troops towards Arnold’s force. The Americans were surrounded and, now out of ammunition, had no choice but to surrender. In the end, over 400 Americans were captured and 30 killed including General Montgomery. Arnold recovered enough to regroup the remaining troops and retreat, ending the Continental Army’s efforts to gain a foothold in Canada.

The War of 1812

During the War of 1812, the Americans planned four major incursions into Canada with the expectation of being welcomed with open arms as we helped liberate them from British control. Our Canadian cousins didn’t, however, see us as liberators, and rather than rising up to join us, largely helped the British defend against us.

General William Hull led a force across the Detroit River into Canada on July 12, 1812. It soon became apparent that there was going to be much more resistance than expected, and he withdrew back to Fort Detroit with the British in hot pursuit. The British army, under General Isaac Brock consisted of 600 Native American warriors and 1,300 soldiers, far fewer than Hull’s army of 2,500 troops. Nonetheless, he tricked Hull into thinking the American forces were greatly outnumbered and convinced Hull to surrender his entire army without a shot being fired. (Hull was later convicted of cowardice and neglect of duty at a court martial hearing in 1814).

In October of 1812, General Stephen Van Rensselaer led a force across the Niagara River. The British forces soundly defeated his army, resulting in more than 200 U.S. casualties and at least 900 troops taken prisoner. The two other planned incursions were aborted before the troops made it to Canada.

While all four of the early attacks were unsuccessful, largely due to inept leadership and poorly trained troops, the Americans got better as the war progressed. The most famous example, perhaps, was the defeat of the British naval forces at the Battle of Lake Erie by Captain Oliver Perry, which gained control of the lake and allowed the retaking of Detroit. Several other invasions into Canada were successful, if only temporarily. In addition, several attacks by the British that originated in Canada, such as the battles at Fort Erie and the Battle of Plattsburgh ended disastrously for the British.

The Patriot War

In 1837, a rebellion took place across Canada in an attempt to bring about independence from Britain. It was quickly put down by the British, however, and many of the rebels fled across the border into the U.S. At this point in our history, the U.S. was on good terms with the British, and the U.S. army arrested most of the rebels and returned them to the British authorities.

A number of them avoided capture, though, and supported by sympathizers in the U.S., formed a secret organization known as “Hunters’ Lodges”. In November of 1838, a force of about 300 Hunter Patriots attempted an invasion of Canada by crossing the St. Lawrence River from New York. In the battle that followed, American army and naval units supported the British and Canadian troops to defeat the insurgents. A few weeks later, a second invasion was made by another small force of Hunter Patriots in an attempt to capture Windsor. Not surprisingly, it, too, ended in defeat, and the Hunters’ Lodges disbanded.

The Pork and Beans War

After the War of 1812, the border between Maine and Canada was in dispute for many years. This was a prime timbering area, and lumbermen and settlers from both countries were often in conflict. Several pitched battles took place. One of these, the Battle of Caribou, took place in 1838 when New Brunswick lumbermen were confronted by Maine lumbermen while cutting timber near the town of Caribou, Maine. The two groups, both heavily armed, were in a standoff, shouting at each other, when, quite unexpectedly, two Canadian lumbermen were attacked by a black bear. The Canadians shot and killed the bear, but the Americans thought they were being fired upon, and began firing at the Canadians. Apparently, the lumbermen were better at swinging axes than firing muskets, because no one on either side was hit before the Canadian lumbermen retreated. News spread fast about the “battle”, however, and tensions quickly escalated. The governor of Maine sent the militia into the area, which began confiscating equipment and animals belonging to New Brunswick lumbermen, and the Canadian authorities responded by arresting the Maine land agent. Congress then stepped in and authorized a force of 50,000 men to defend the border and assigned General Winfield Scott to lead the troops.

Fortunately, neither country wanted another war, and a settlement was reached that clearly delineated the border before the tensions  escalated any further. Officially, the conflict was named the Aroostook War, because the disputed border included the Aroostook River Valley, but was popularly called the Pork and Beans War, because this was the usual diet of the lumberjacks.

The Pig War

A similar conflict arose in 1858 on San Juan Island, off the coast of Washington. An American farmer killed a large pig that was eating his crops. Unfortunately, the pig was owned by the Canadian North West Company. When British authorities threatened to arrest the farmer and force him and 17 other Americans from the island, Captain George Pickett (who later became the famous Confederate general) was sent with a small force to protect the Americans. The British responded by sending warships to the island. Fortunately, British Rear Admiral Robert Baynes held off attacking. “He would not escalate two great nations in a squabble about a pig”. The island was peacefully occupied by both American and British forces for the next 14 years until an arbitration commission ruled that the island belonged to the U.S.

Saint Albans Raid

During the Civil War, a group of Confederate soldiers, under the leadership of Bennett Young,  planned to conduct several raids from Canada into the U.S., robbing banks in order to raise money for the Confederacy. The first raid was on the town of Saint Albans, Vermont. The Confederates successfully robbed the bank, killing one civilian in the process and returned to Canada. Armed vigilantes gave pursuit, and captured Young across the border in the town of Philipsburg. When the vigilantes began beating him, a British officer intervened and took Young and co-conspirators into custody. Once the Americans left, all twenty of the Confederate soldiers were released by the British and “treated like heroes”.

When the U.S. demanded that the raiders be extradited, they were arrested once again and held for an extradition hearing. The Canadian court decided that since they were soldiers acting under orders, neutral Canada would not be required to extradite them, and they were released. The stolen money, $88,000 (or about $1,200,000 in today’s dollars) was confiscated, however, and returned to the bank.

Fenian Raids

At the end of the Civil War, a large contingent of Irish-American veterans that belonged to the Fenian Brotherhood decided upon an audacious plan to attack government posts and military fortifications inside Canada, in an attempt to pressure the British into granting Ireland its independence. Several raids were made into Canada between 1866 and 1871, often pitting battle-hardened veterans against inexperienced local Canadian troops. For awhile, the U.S. government, angered by the assistance given to the confederacy by the British, did little to interfere, but eventually sent troops and ships to assist the Canadians in stopping the raids. The border arracks continued until 1889, but support for the Fenian Brotherhood’s raids eventually died out.

One rather humorous raid took place in 1871 when John O’Neill proposed leading an attack into Manitoba. The Fenian council refused to support him, whereupon he resigned from the Fenian Brotherhood and convinced 35 others to join him. He managed to capture a North West Company outpost and a Canadian customs office before being captured by U.S. troops and charged with violating the neutrality between Canada and the United States. Before he could be tried, a surveyor determined that the outpost was actually two miles inside the American border, and since O’Neill hadn’t actually crossed the border, the charges were dropped.

Ironically, the Fenian raids did nothing to gain Irish independence, but the lack of British support in stopping the raids helped galvanize support for the Canadian independence movement.

Border Raiders

In the 1800s, a number of raids, originating in the U.S., took place on Canadian soil. Some of these were American privateers during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, who captured British merchantmen and even sacked a few towns. During the late 1800s in the west, buffalo hunters, wolf hunters and whiskey traders often crossed the border into Canada, creating havoc with the locals. One example was the Cypress Hills Massacre. Several wolf hunters were returning from their winter hunt. While camped, their horses disappeared, and they assumed a nearby band of Assiniboine had stolen them. When the Native Americans denied it, the wolfers traveled on foot to Fort Benton on the U.S. side of the border and asked for assistance. When the authorities at the fort refused to help them, they fortified themselves with a copious quantity of whiskey and returned to find their horses. Once again they confronted the Assiniboine, accusing them of stealing their horses, even though the group had no horses. Tempers flared on both sides, and the wolfers retreated to close-by riverbank. The Assiniboine assumed an attack was imminent and grabbed their bows and the few guns they had. The wolfers opened fire and the Assiniboine returned fire, but since the wolfers were better armed and better protected by the river bank, the battle was very one-sided. In the end, one of the wolfers and between 13 and 20 Assiniboine were killed.

Since then, except for a few bootlegging operations during Prohibition days, our two countries have peacefully coexisted. Not bad, especially considering that the U.S./Canadian border, at 5526 miles (8893km), is the longest border between any two countries in the world.

See you next week…