Stanbridge East, May 29, 2022 – The Missisquoi Museum is proud to present the exhibition The Battle of Eccles Hill (1870): Missisquoi Heroes of the Fenian Raids, which runs through October 9, 2022. This exhibition is presented by Hydro-Québec.

In the turbulent years of the 1860s and 1870s, veterans from the Irish brigades of the American Civil War, and members of the Fenian Brotherhood, an Irish nationalist organisation, decided to invade Canada; their plan was to capture parts of Canada, and pressure Great Britain to grant sovereignty to Ireland, which had been under British rule for hundreds of years.

On 25 May 1870, about 400 Fenian soldiers crossed into Canada at Eccles Hill (Frelighsburg). They were swiftly defeated by members of the Canadian Home Guard volunteers and local milicia. The defeat effectively crushed the Fenian Brotherhood as an organisation in North America.

This year’s exhibit commemorates the heroic story of those who fought to ensure Canada’s freedom from enemy invasion.

 -30-