Fenian raids

Fenian Raids
	; Depiction of the Fenian charge during the Battle of Ridgeway
Date	April 1866 – October 1871
Location	Eastern Canada and Minnesota
Result	British-Canadian victory
Belligerents
Canada ; United Kingdom	Fenian Brotherhood
Commanders and leaders
John A. Macdonald ; George-Étienne Cartier ; J. Stoughton Dennis ; William O. Smith	John O'Mahony ; Thomas Sweeny ; John O'Neill ; Samuel P. Spear ; Owen Starr
Strength
Prior to invasion:; ; 10,000–14,000 local volunteers (March 1866); Start of war: ; 20,000 Canadian Militia (May 1866); United Kingdom; 900 British Regulars (May 1866); ; 13 armed patrol steamboats; ; In 1870: 13,000;	Start of war:; 850 (May 1866); In 1870:; 600; In 1871:; 40;
Casualties and losses
35 killed ; 53 wounded ; 54 captured ; ; Total:; 142	24 killed ; 48 wounded ; 59 captured ; 1 cannon seized ; Total:; 131

The Fenian raids were a series of incursions carried out by the Fenian Brotherhood, an Irish republican organization based in the United States, on military fortifications, customs posts, and other targets in Canada (called British North America until 1867) in 1866, and again from 1870 to 1871. A number of separate incursions by the Fenian Brotherhood into Canada were undertaken to bring pressure on the British government to withdraw from Ireland, although none of these raids achieved their aims.

While authorities in the United States arrested the men and confiscated the arms of the Fenian Brotherhood, there was speculation that some in the U.S. government ignored the preparations undertaken by the Fenians due to anger over British assistance to the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The Fenian raids were one of the factors that led to Canadian Confederation, as the provinces united to face the threat of invasions.