10/19/2026
in 1864, the northernmost land action of the Civil War took place in Vermont. Twenty-one Confederate soldiers who had escaped capture by the Union Army and had been taking refuge in Canada, planned a raid on the three banks in St. Albans, as part of a larger plan to raise money for the Confederacy and lure Union troops north to defend the Canadian border. The robbery of the first bank was successful, with the raiders taking cash from the vault and from patrons who had come to make deposits. The men forced their prisoners to swear allegiance to the Confederacy before locking them in the bank. A Union officer, Captain George Conger, of the 1st Vermont Infantry Regiment, who was home on leave, gathered a group of townspeople to fight back. Encountering this unexpected resistance, the raiders retreated, attempting to set fire to the town as they went. The Confederates were able to escape to Canada with $88,000 U.S. dollars. They were eventually arrested by the Canadian government, but because Canada was a neutral nation and the raiders had been acting as Confederate soldiers, they were not allowed to be extradited to the United States. The money, however, was returned to the St. Albans bank.
Image: Confederate raiders rob the bank at St. Albans (St. Albans Historical Society and Museum)
