Harper’s Weekly poked a bit of fun at the news of the Fenian Invasion and the Canadian panic that it created. Weeks of rumors and reports of Fenian preparation were printed in many newspapers, yet nothing had come of it but there were many false alarms and talk of a Fenian Raid happening on St Patrick’s Day 1866. The editors didn’t believe the Fenians were capable of pulling off a military operation and it was bluster which was scaring their neighbors to the north.
These many false rumors called out the Canadian militia and placed at the ready for several weeks being deployed to the borders and cities during that period.
In the Harper’s Weekly March 31, 1866 edition, the top sketch is of an ice bridge over Niagara and the artists identifies the individuals on the ice as Sweeny’s Skirmishers, but really duck hunters, mocking the scare. The bottom sketch is of the town of Hamilton, CW preparing for a Fenian Raid.
It was common for illustrated newspapers to take more than a week or two to write the story, draw up the sketch, process it then print the currently news, so these stories are about mid March 1866.
This sketch shows the humor the Editors took with the great Fenian excitement by showing duck hunters on the ice over the Niagara and calling them Fenian Tom Sweeny’s skirmishers. The artist, T.B. Davis, would later be credited for other Fenian prints which were seen in Harper’s Weekly later in the year.
This sketch also appeared in the same edition and is based on a photograph by R. Milne of Hamilton, Canada West, British North America of James Street in Hamilton and the Canadian militia out on public display drilling with the crowds of citizen watching on. Note all the Union Jack flags flying proudly from many of the buildings.
To finish off the ridicule, the back page of that week’s edition had a cartoon parody of Irish Fenians Generals, overly ornamented, sitting in the parlor of a Fenian Bond Subscriber discussing in Irish dialect their Fenian Strategy. The Fenian Bonds had raised a considerable amount for the Brotherhood, with both wings issuing their own, but also raised a lot of questions as to where the money was really being spent on. Here the point was how the Fenians were side stepping their real objective for any action and getting subscribers to buy their bonds.
American Fenians 