Here is some more "St. Albans"

[Gene C]

Here are some quotes from ""The Civil War Years: Canada and the United States" by Robin Winks, from the chapter about the St Albans Raid. Before the St Albans Raid.

"As their fear for the Southern cause grew, Confederate leaders in British North America began to show less regard for British neutrality"
(page 295)

"There is little question but that the raid itself was an actual violation of British neutrality. Thompson had been enjoined to observe that neutrality, to 'neither command nor permit destruction of private property, nor injury or annoyance to non-combatants.' In adhering to these orders he specifically had rejected George Sanders plan for robbing the banks of Buffalo. Sanders, who's son had died a Northern prisoner, had approached the more naïve Clement Clay, who still had several thousand dollars at his disposal, and had convinced Clay that attacks against Northern banks would be legitimate acts of war in retaliation for the campaigns of William T Sherman and Phillip Sheridan in the South. Clay had authorized Bennett Young to organize a raiding party - which was to be the first of a series of such raids, if successful.... and Clay advanced nearly two thousand dollars to the raiders. He did not have Confederate authority to authorize such a raid, for he technically still was a subordinate of Thompson's,.....Thompson clearly disapproved of the raid and Clay's activities, but he declared that he could not desert the men who risked their lives while thinking they had approval for their exploit."

"The raid hurt rather than helped the Southern cause. Any satisfaction gained in the South by the daring that the raiders displayed was more than offset by the feeling created in the Canadas that the Confederates had abused British hospitality."

"Even papers that had been highly sympathetic to the South, like the Montreal Evening Telegram and the Toronto Leader, deplored the acts of the 'brigands' " (page 306)