Series 6 - General Francis Millen, An Account of Fenianism…

5pp

Kerby A. Miller created these notes from a manuscript held in the National Library of Ireland [call number MS 5963].

Kerby A. Miller’s notes on Francis Millen’s An Account of Fenianism from April 1865 till April 1866 by one of the head Centres for Ireland: New York 1866.
General Francis Millen (frequently misspelled as Miller) was an Irish-born adventurer and Mexican army general who became a high-ranking military strategist for the American-based Fenian Brotherhood in 1864. Tasked with planning an armed Irish uprising against British rule using American Civil War veterans, Millen instead became one of the movement's most devastating traitors. Following internal disputes with Fenian leadership, Millen walked into a British consulate in 1866 and sold the complete strategic plans and organisational secrets of the republican network to the British government. Operating under the codename ‘Informant M,’ his leaked intelligence was routed directly to Dublin Castle and analysed by British officials to neutralize the impending rebellion.
Miller concludes that ‘Throughout this report, the Author gives the distinct impression that the officials of the [Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood] and the [Fenian Brotherhood] regarded each other with much suspicion, and even some contempt, from their opposite sides of the Atlantic.