Canadians in the Civil War (Hardcover)

The US Civil War was America's bloodiest war involving three million fighters, some 600,000 of whom died. Most Canadians know something about its American impact, but few realize that it also stands as a defining event in Canadian history. Thousands of Canadians fought in the war - about 5,000 died - and twice during that period this country, along with Great Britain, came within a whisker of all-out war against Washington. northern armies, mainly to collect bounties of $200 or more, but many more were dragooned; pressed into service involuntarily by unscrupulous crimps. The war also saw an influx of American skedaddlers, the original draft-dodgers, avoiding conscription by fleeing north into Canada. Perhaps the most lasting impact on Canada was Sir John A. Macdonald's conviction that strong state's rights were that great source of weakness which led to the war. That's why Canada emerged in 1867 with a strong federal government - including an unelected Senate - which is to this day fosters endless debate between the believers of federal rights and provincial rights.