The U.S. Civil War and the role 5 Canadians played in it

[Thomas the Tank Engine]

It's called the American Civil War, but as it turns out, some Canadians had a pretty significant part in it, too.

 

The conflict, which lasted from 1861 to 1865, was an existential battle to determine whether the United States of America would survive or splinter into a number of independent confederate states.

 

The war pitted the Unionist north against southern Confederates and killed an estimated 620,000 people, according to the Civil War Trust.

 

John Boyko, author of Blood and Daring: How Canada fought the American Civil War and Forged a Nation, writes that roughly 40,000 Canadians participated in the conflict.

 

To mark the 150th anniversary of the Union army's victory, here's a look at some of the Canadians who had a hand in the war.

 

Edward P. Doherty, captured John Wilkes Booth

 

Edward Doherty may have been the highest-profile Canadian during the conflict. Little is known about his origins, but according to the Civil War Interactive web site, Doherty was born in Canadian territory in 1840 and was in New York when the war began.

 

Doherty served as a private in Company A of the 71st New York Regiment, which saw action in the first Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Va.

 

He later became a first lieutenant with the 16th New York Cavalry, which was assigned to defend Washington, D.C. But his most illustrious posting was still to come.

 

On April 24, 1865, 10 days after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, Doherty was ordered to form a detachment to capture Booth and any collaborators.

 

Doherty and two dozen other members of the 16th N.Y. caught up with Booth and David E. Herold two days later in a Virginia tobacco barn, where Herold surrendered and Booth was killed, according to Doherty's report.

 

Doherty, who received a $5,250 reward for finding Booth, remained in the military until 1870. He died in 1897 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

 

Anderson Ruffin Abbott, Canada's first black surgeon

 

Anderson Ruffin Abbott was Canada's first black physician and became one of only 13 black surgeons to serve in the Civil War.

 

According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Abbott was born in Toronto in 1837 to free people of colour who had escaped racism in Alabama.

 

He applied to be an assistant surgeon in the Union Army in February 1863, and was accepted two months later as a civilian surgeon with the United States Colored Troops.

 

Between June 1863 and August 1865, Abbott served in Washington, D.C., and eventually worked in a hospital in Arlington, Va.

 

Abbott earned a solid reputation and gained prominence in Washington social circles, even making the acquaintance of President Lincoln.

 

After Lincoln's assassination, the president's widow, Mary Todd Lincoln, presented Abbott with the shawl that Lincoln wore to his 1861 inauguration.

 

Sarah Emma Edmonds, fought as a man

 

Sarah Emma Edmonds (n