On Sunday, August 12th, my wife and I enjoyed a most entertaining presentation on the Fenian Raids by Mister Ross Jones, an enterprising and energetic researcher from the Eastern Township of Quebec. As one might expect, most of the presentation was focused on the forays into the Missisquoi region, and especially the 1870 engagement between Canadian forces and the self-styled Irish Republican Army near Eccles Hill.
While I have amassed a fair amount of knowledge about the series of Fenian Raids that plagued Canada between 1866 and 1871, I was utterly gob-smacked to learn that the Fenians employed artillery during the Eccles Hill engagement. Not only that, but civilian members of the local Missisquoi Home Guard (MHG) had captured one of the two guns sited just south of the border, and brought it back into Canada. The MHG later turned down a request by the commanding officer of The Victoria Volunteer Rifles of Montreal to transport it to Montreal as a trophy. In later years the ordnance was put on display on the Canadian National Historical Site on the battlefield. And, as Mister Jones put it, that is about all we know of the gun. Perhaps it was a captured Confederate piece that the Fenians acquired by unknown means. Perhaps it was sold as scrap, but someone had other ideas. We just plain have no idea.
It has no markings to indicate its manufacturer or nationality, although it resembles a British Armstrong Rifled Breech Loader of just under two inches or 50 millimetres in calibre. It lacks trunnions, although these may have been attached by a band around the tube, as suggested by photos of other Armstrong guns. Perhaps someone removed them before the gun accompanied the Fenians on their quest, which would have been counter-productive at best. We do know it fired fixed ammunition in the form of solid shot, but its effectiveness is an open question.
Can anyone answer any of my questions?
While I have amassed a fair amount of knowledge about the series of Fenian Raids that plagued Canada between 1866 and 1871, I was utterly gob-smacked to learn that the Fenians employed artillery during the Eccles Hill engagement. Not only that, but civilian members of the local Missisquoi Home Guard (MHG) had captured one of the two guns sited just south of the border, and brought it back into Canada. The MHG later turned down a request by the commanding officer of The Victoria Volunteer Rifles of Montreal to transport it to Montreal as a trophy. In later years the ordnance was put on display on the Canadian National Historical Site on the battlefield. And, as Mister Jones put it, that is about all we know of the gun. Perhaps it was a captured Confederate piece that the Fenians acquired by unknown means. Perhaps it was sold as scrap, but someone had other ideas. We just plain have no idea.
It has no markings to indicate its manufacturer or nationality, although it resembles a British Armstrong Rifled Breech Loader of just under two inches or 50 millimetres in calibre. It lacks trunnions, although these may have been attached by a band around the tube, as suggested by photos of other Armstrong guns. Perhaps someone removed them before the gun accompanied the Fenians on their quest, which would have been counter-productive at best. We do know it fired fixed ammunition in the form of solid shot, but its effectiveness is an open question.
Can anyone answer any of my questions?
