The St. Albans Raid
October 19, 1864

Twenty cavalrymen, organized by Confederate agent George Sanders and led by Lieutenant Bennett Young, swooped down out of Canada and took over St. Albans, Vermont in what was to go down in history as the northernmost engagement of the Civil War. With his gun drawn, Young mounted the steps of a hotel and shouted: "This city is now in the possession of the Confederate States of America."

The battlefields of the Civil War suddenly didn't seem so far from this village about 15 miles south of the Canadian border. Shock and confusion followed as gun-toting horsemen galloped down Main Street, herding terror-stricken townfolk onto the Village Green.

The raiders then turned their attention to robbing the three local banks. Even though the Confederates dropped much of their loot in the confusion of escape, they still managed to make off with over $200,000. By the time residents could organize a pursuit, the marauders were well on their way back to the border.

As they left, they tried to burn down the town, but managed to destroy only a woodshed. They had evidently planned to burn the mansion of Governor J. Gregory Smith, who was in Montpelier at the time. Soon after the raid began, a maid from a neighbor's house rushed to Mrs. Smith, crying: "Rebels are in the town, robbing the banks, burning the houses, and killing people. They are on the way up the hill to burn your house!"

Mrs. Smith drew the shades and bolted the doors, all but the front entrance. Her first impulse had been to run up the flag. Instead looking for weapons, she found only a large horse pistol, but no ammunition. With this in hand she took her stand in front of the house. She could hear a horse galloping up the hill; it turned out to be not one of the raiders, but her brother-in-law, a member of General Custer's staff, home on leave. Later that night, soldiers were stationed at the governor's house.

One of the raiders was wounded and died shortly thereafter. The survivors were arrested in Montreal and tried, but never extradited despite energetic efforts by Washington. Lieutenant Young rose to the rank of General. When he again visited Montreal in 1911, a group of St. Albans dignitaries paid him a courtesy call at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Two years later, an international incident was narrowly avoided when a guerrilla force of several hundred Fenians (perhaps as many as 3,500) poured off special trains from Boston, determined to liberate Canada from the British and establish an Irish Free State.

After camping out on the village green, they marched north until they were about six miles over the border, having crossed into Frelighsburg, Quebec from Franklin, Vermont. The Canadians declared Martial Law and President Johnson ordered munitions and supplies left in St. Albans seized under the Neutrality Act of 1818. When the Fenians retreated to St. Albans, where they found the park occupied by U.S. troops sent there by President Johnson to enforce neutrality. Defeated without so much as a single shot fired, the Irishmen were escorted to the depot and shipped back to Boston while locals were entertained by an Army band concert.

The story of the Fenian Raids is much broader than the relatively minor Vermont connection described here. For a more complete picture of the events, click here.

August 17, 2007