During that day, Wednesday May 30, several rumours, not at any time probable gained currency; of which one was that trains had been arrested on the Great Western Railway, at Niagara Suspension Bridge. By whom, or for what purpose, did not in reasonable form appear. But with an aptitude to accept any reports of offensive operations having been commenced against the Province, the public mind of Canada, was equally ready to accept assurances given through the newspapers that the Executive power of Canada, civil and military, was actively alert and equal to meet the impending emergency.
A telegram from Philadelphia dated May 31, gave information that a company of three hundred and fifty men had left that city to join the Fenian invaders at the northern frontier.
A telegram from Ottawa, seat of Canadian government dated May 31st, conveyed intelligence that all was tranquil there. In Toronto, Hamilton, London, Kingston, Montreal, and Quebec, where regular troops were stationed and at Sarnia, Windsor, and Sandwich which were guarded by Volunteers, the forces were quietly ordered to be on the alert.
Colonel John O’Neil, of Nashville Tennessee, who was now at Buffalo and was on 31st of May, about to invade Canada, has been thus described in New York journals. “He is a young and ardent Fenian, and is now in his twenty-fifth year. He was formerly connected with the Sixteenth regiment of regulars, and served in that organization under Gen. Sweeny. He was well known as a dashing cavalry officer in the late war, when he was attached to a Western regiment. He was promoted to a captaincy for gallantry in a severe engagement.”
A newspaper writer who conversed with O’Neil at Buffalo reported as follows:
“He is not a graduate of West Point, as has been stated, but enlisted as a private in the 2nd U. S. dragoons in 1857, and went to Utah. He was subsequently transferred to the 1st dragoons, went to California and served until the breaking out of the rebellion. He entered the Union ranks and served in the Army of the Potomac until McClellan was driven back. After the seven days’ fight the regiment to which he belonged was broken up. The officers went to Indianapolis on recruiting service, and he was commissioned in the 5th Indiana cavalry. He served in Kentucky until after Morgan’s raid, and had a severe fight with that famous guerilla at Buffington Island, and though the force with which O’Neil opposed the rebel was greatly inferior in numbers, compelled him to retreat.
“Colonel O’Neil continued in the service until severe wounds forced him to leave it. He further says that the report of his having been in the rebel service is wholly untrue. That he was a Union man from the first—that he never fought against the Union, and that he never could be induced to do so.
“In reply to a question as to what truth there was in the report that he had killed a man unfairly in a duel, he stated that he had never fought a duel in his life; that he condemned ‘the code’ as against his religion, was opposed to it in toto, and would never fight a duel under any circumstances.
“We give these statements as given us by Colonel O’Neil himself, and while expressing no doubt of their truth, are not, of course prepared to vouch for their authenticity.”
By different persons who saw him at Fort Erie and Lime Ridge, he is described as about five feet seven or eight inches high, of slim, active figure, with light colored hair, blue or grey eyes, ruddy face somewhat freckled; speaking with a soft voice and courteous manner.