Battle of Eccles Hill

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Battle of Eccles Hill
Part of Fenian Raids
The Battle of Eccles Hill. Contemporary illustration.
Date May 25, 1870 Location Near Ormstown, Quebec Result Canadian victory
Combatants
Fenian Brotherhood	Dominion of Canada
Commanders
Samuel B. Spiers	William Osborne Smith
Strength
600 militia 1 gun	680 militia
Casualties
5 dead 18 wounded	None

Fenian Raids
Campobello Island – Ridgeway – Fort Erie – Pigeon Hill – Eccles Hill – Trout River

The Battle of Eccles Hill was part of a raid into Canadian territory led by John O'Neill and Samuel Spiers. The army of the Fenian Brotherhood was defeated by local militia units based in Huntingdon on May 25, 1870.

Fenian militants, operating from Vermont, assembled on May 25 to orchestrate a second invasion of the Montreal region (a similar expedition under Spiers had met with defeat at the Battle of Pigeon Hill in 1866). Although O'Neill was arrested at the border crossing by an American police patrol, Spiers and the main body of Fenians slipped across the border intact and entered the province of Quebec.

Partisans and government scouts spotted them almost immediately. A force of militia awaiting the Fenians at Eccles Hill put up resistance, resulting in firefights and unspectacular skirmishing. Lieutenant-Colonel William Smith hurried to the field with a battalion of volunteer cavalry and charged Fenian positions. The Fenians fled, leaving behind their artillery and their dead. Amazingly, no Canadians were harmed during the engagement.

[edit] See also

List of conflicts in Canada

[edit] Further reading

• Senior, H. (1996). The last invasion of Canada: The Fenian raids, 1866-1870. Dundurn Press. ISBN 1550020854