The Good Neighbors and Their Undefended Fence: US–Canadian Cross-Border Military Excursions Before the First World War

Abstract

This article analyzes US–Canadian military relations in the nineteenth and early-twentieth century through the lens of frequent cross-border visits between the Canadian Militia and the US National Guard. Beginning in 1857 and continuing until the eve of the First World War, Canadian and American citizen soldiers visited back and forth between cities across the continent, taking part in celebrations of Queen Victoria's birthday and the Fourth of July. After 1898 these recreational visits became an annual event for several regiments on both sides of the border, interrupted only occasionally by the vagaries of Anglo-American diplomacy, periodic shortages of regimental funds, or the disapproval of higher authorities in Ottawa or Washington. Although US–Canadian military relations in this period are typically remembered as being non-existent, with the two North American nations scarcely communicating unless it was through British intermediaries, this article explores the very friendly relations that existed between the Canadian Militia and their counterparts in the US National Guard.