Canada and the American Civil War
In the small community of Long Sault, situated in the township of South Stormont along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in eastern Ontario, Canada, stands an obelisk that honors the more than 40,000 Canadians who served in the Union and Confederate armies during the American Civil War (1861 – 1865).
Canada – known as British North America until Canada was established as a nation on July 1st, 1867 – remained neutral during the four years of civil war that engulfed the United States. Individual Canadians, however, journeyed south following the outbreak of the war to enlist in the Union or Confederate Army and Navy, while those Canadians who already lived in the United States enlisted in the Union or Confederate forces that were being established north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
A majority of Canadians who fought in the American Civil War served in the Union Army and Navy. According to the obelisk in Long Sault, twenty-nine Canadians who served in the Union forces were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for distinguished acts of valor, among them Edward Edwin Dodds from Port Hope, Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada.
Edward Dodds was born in 1845, and in 1863 enlisted in Rochester, New York, for a three-year term of enlistment in the Union Army. He was mustered in with the rank of private in the 21st New York Cavalry Regiment and rose to the rank of sergeant before being wounded in action near Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, in May 1864.
In July 1864, during the Battle of Ashby’s Gap in Virginia, Dodds performed an act of selfless valor that was to earn him the Medal of Honor. A letter to the Rochester, New York, Democrat and Chronicle newspaper in 1896 chronicled Dodds’s actions:
“The 21st N. Y. Cavalry crossed the river at Ashbey’s [sic] Gap, in their advance, and very soon afterwards came upon the enemy in force, in the woods, who opened a sharp fire upon them. They were not nearly sufficient in number to withstand the attack and a retreat was ordered. At this time the captain of C Company was severely wounded and his horse killed, and the captain found himself unable to extricate himself from his fallen horse. With the bullets flying around him, Sergeant Dodds dismounted, disengaged his captain and assisted him onto his own horse, which he also remounted. The enemy had meanwhile got around to the rear, and when our hero arrived at the ford he found it already occupied. Undismayed by this circumstance he turned his horse along the bank until he came to a favorable spot, when he leaped his horse into the river and swam across under fire, reaching the union lines in safety with his captain, who afterwards recovered and is among those who testified to the war department as to the incident.”
In later action, Dodds was severely wounded in his right arm and it was amputated at the shoulder. As soon as he recovered from his serious wound, Dodds returned to his regiment and served until the end of the war. Discharged in July 1865, Dodds settled in Rochester, New York, as a reporter for the city’s Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. In the 1870s, he returned to Port Hope, Ontario, and became actively involved in the local community and newspaper business.
On June 11th, 1896, Edward Dodds was awarded the Medal of Honor. The citation read:
“While engaged with Confederate forces at Ashbys Gap, Virginia, on July 19, 1864, a captain of the 21st New York Cavalry fell wounded on the battlefield and lay at the mercy of the enemy. Without regard for his own safety, Sergeant Edward Dodds braved the fusillade to go to his captain’s side, and carry him to a place of safety.”
Edward Dodds died on January 12th, 1901. He is buried in Canton Cemetery, Northumberland County, Ontario. Learn More