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'We're just interested in history': Canada gets its first monument to the U.S. Civil War

The 1860s conflict killed more Canadians than any other except the two world wars

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While Civil War memorials may not be the most popular things lately, the world’s newest monument to the American Civil War has just opened in Canada.

The granite obelisk is Canada’s only monument to the 1860s conflict, and honours more than 40,000 Civil War soldiers who hailed from what would become modern-day Canada.

“At the time, there were as many in the (Canadian) military as volunteered to fight in the Civil War,” said Bob McLachlan, president of the Grays and Blues of Montreal, a Quebec-based Civil War re-enactment group involved with the monument’s creation.

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In this September 16, 2017 photo, Rob McLachlan of the Greys and Blues on Montreal unveils Canada’s first and only monument to the American Civil War. Lois Ann Baker/Cornwall Standard-Freeholder/Postmedia Network
In this September 16, 2017 photo, Rob McLachlan of the Greys and Blues on Montreal unveils Canada’s first and only monument to the American Civil War. Lois Ann Baker/Cornwall Standard-Freeholder/Postmedia Network Photo by Lois Ann Baker/Cornwall Standard-Freeholder/Postmedia Network

Approximately 7,000 Canadians are believed to have died in the war. This means that, to this day, the Civil War killed more Canadians than any other conflict except the two world wars.

For context, 26,000 Canadian troops fought in the Korean War and more than 500 were killed. In the 12 years of Canada’s deployment to Afghanistan, a total of 40,000 served and 159 have been killed.

The monument, a black obelisk, honours Canadians who took up arms on both sides of the war, which pitted the United States against the Confederate States of America, a breakaway region of 11 southern states. It was unveiled Saturday at a historical village outside Cornwall, Ont.

The monument, photographed September 16, 2017 at the Lost Villages Museum in Long Sault, Ont.
The monument, photographed September 16, 2017 at the Lost Villages Museum in Long Sault, Ont. Photo by Lois Ann Baker/Cornwall Standard-Freeholder/Postmedia Network

Although Canada would not exist as an independent country until 1867, its various colonial governments followed Britain’s example of staying officially neutral during the war.

However, American ranks soon swelled with Canadians already living in U.S. territory, or supporters who trekked south to enlist.

The volunteers included O Canada composer Calixa Lavallée, who was wounded at the Battle of Antietam.

John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, was cornered and killed by a cavalry regiment led by Canadian Edward Doherty.

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Edward Doherty
Edward Doherty Photo by U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

When Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered to his Union counterpart Ulysses S. Grant, one of the witnesses was a Quebec-born blacksmith in Grant’s personal guard.

One of the most well-known Canadian Civil War veterans is Sarah Edmonds, a New Brunswick woman who disguised herself as a man in order to join Union forces and then became a spy behind Confederate lines.

The conflict also saw 29 Canadian soldiers awarded the Medal of Honor, the United State’s highest military decoration.

One citation credits 18-year-old Frank Bois with staying cool while Confederate shellfire tore apart his ship, the USS Cincinnati. Then, after noticing that all the ship’s flagpoles had been shot away, Bois quickly lashed up a new flag “to enable this proud ship to go down with her colors.”

This image, from 2016, shows two Grays and Blues of Montreal members, Sgt. Stuart Irvine, left and Major Bob McLachlan, displaying an artist’s rendering of the monument.
This image, from 2016, shows two Grays and Blues of Montreal members, Sgt. Stuart Irvine, left and Major Bob McLachlan, displaying an artist’s rendering of the monument. Photo by Greg Peerenboom/Cornwall Standard-Freeholder/Postmedia Network

The majority of Canadians in civil war uniform fought for the North. The Grays and Blues of Montreal estimates that of the 40,000 Canadians in Civil War uniform, only 4,000 fought for the Confederacy.

However, Canadian public opinion at the time was surprisingly supportive for the South, which had seceded in large part to protect the institution of slavery.

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Although the British Empire had spearheaded global efforts to abolish African slavery, Canada nevertheless identified with the South as a fellow agrarian country facing an invasion from the United States — a situation Canada had twice endured in the previous century.

In the book Blood and Daring, a history of Canada in the Civil War, historian John Boyko surveyed 84 Canadian newspapers and 43 were pro-South, 33 were pro-North and eight were neutral.

“A report of the Confederate victory in the war’s first battle elicited a spontaneous cheer in Canada’s legislature,” wrote Boyko.

The monument was a collaboration between the Grays and Blues of Montreal and the Lost Villages Historical Society, a group that preserves the history of pioneer villages flooded by the 1950s widening of the Saint Lawrence River to form the Seaway.

An accompanying GoFundMe page raised $43,780 for the effort.

In the United States, Confederate monuments have recently become hubs for controversy, either as rallying points for white supremacists, or as targets for vandalism by radical leftists.

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However, the Saturday unveiling in Cornwall was devoid of what Bob McLachlan called “yahoos.”

“We don’t have any far-right maniacs, racists or anti-Semites, we’re just town folks who are interested in history,” the Grays and Blues president told Postmedia.

The American Civil War is not the only major U.S. conflict whose massive Canadian contribution has largely been forgotten.

The Canadian Military Journal notes that 40,000 Canadians enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces at the time of the Vietnam War.

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