Canada and the American Civil War
Instead, British North America consisted of the Province of Canada (parts of modern southern Ontario and southern Quebec) and the separate colonies of Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Vancouver Island, as well as a crown territory administered by the Hudson's Bay Company called Rupert's Land.
[3] In November 1861 tensions escalated between Washington and London when an American warship stopped the British mail ship RMS Trent on the high seas and seized two Confederate diplomats, James Mason and John Slidell.
London demanded their return and an apology, and to signal its intention to defend its possessions sent 14,000 combat troops to Canada and the Maritimes, while the Canadians planned to raise 40,000 militia.
In return for ship repair facilities in Halifax, the Confederates supplied him with valuable cotton for re-export to Britain, a lucrative but hazardous course for Wier which required severing his business connections with New England.
Halifax's role in arms trafficking for the South was so noticeable that the Acadian Recorder in 1864 described the city's effort as a "mercenary aid to a fratricidal war, which, without outside intervention, would have long ago ended.
"[5] U.S. Secretary of State Seward complained on March 14, 1865: Halifax has been for more than one year, and yet is, a naval station for vessels which, running the blockade, furnish supplies and munitions of war to our enemy, and it has been made a rendezvous for those piratical cruisers which come out from Liverpool and Glasgow, to destroy our commerce on the high seas, and even to carry war into the ports of the United States.
[7] For example, in Toronto, Southern agents operated freely and openly with little to no concern from local authorities who were governed by British North America’s official policy of neutrality.
Indeed, Southerners enjoyed the sympathy of most of Toronto’s political, social, and business elite—although few were as enthusiastic in supporting the Confederate cause as George Taylor Denison III.
[8][12][7] On 7 December 1863, while the new Union tug Chesapeake was preparing for service in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 17 Canadians disguised as passengers seized it off Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
On 17 December, the recently captured blockade runner Ella and Annie — which had been hastily manned, armed and sent to sea — caught up with the Chesapeake at Sambro, Nova Scotia.
Shortly thereafter, the Northern gunboat Dacotah arrived on the scene; and its commanding officer prevented Ella and Annie from taking the recaptured tug back to Boston, lest such action seriously undermine British–U.S.
On 18 August 1864, the Confederate States Ship Tallahassee under the command of John Taylor Wood sailed into Halifax harbour for supplies, coal and to make repairs to its mainmast.
It is believed he departed by the seldom-used Eastern Passage between McNabs Island and the Dartmouth shore to avoid Union warships in case they had arrived.
Canada's first Black physician, he applied for a commission as an assistant surgeon in the Union Army in February 1863, but his offer was evidently not accepted.
That April, he applied to be a "medical cadet" in the United States Colored Troops, but was finally accepted as a civilian surgeon under contract.
Receiving numerous commendations and becoming popular in Washington society, Abbott was one of only 13 black surgeons to serve in the Civil War, a fact that fostered a friendly relationship between him and the president.
