Over 200 Nova Scotians have been identified as fighting in the American Civil War (1861–1865), at least 119 of whom were Black. Most joined Maine or Massachusetts infantry regiments, but one in ten served the Confederacy (South). The total probably reached into two thousand as many young men had migrated to the U.S. before 1860. Pacifism, neutrality, anti-Americanism, and anti-Yankee sentiments all operated to keep the numbers down, but on the other hand, abolitionist sentiment ran high and there were strong cash incentives besides to join the Federal army. The long tradition of emigrating out of Nova Scotia combined with a zest for adventure also attracted many young men. The most well-known Nova Scotians to fight in the war effort are Charles Robinson (Medal of Honor), Joseph B. Noil, Robert Knox Sneden, Benjamin Jackson and John Taylor Wood, the latter becoming a naturalized citizen after the war. Three Black Nova Scotians served in the famous 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Hammel Gilyer, Samuel Hazzard, and Thomas Page.
Plaque to James J. Bremner and the Halifax Provisional Battalion Plaque, Main Gate, Halifax Public Gardens, Halifax, Nova Scotia
The British Empire (including Nova Scotia) declared neutrality, and Nova Scotia prospered greatly from trade with the North. Nova Scotia was the site of two minor international incidents during the war: the Chesapeake Affair and the escape from Halifax Harbor of the CSS Tallahassee, aided by Confederate sympathizers. Nova Scotia became a haven for Confederate Secret Service agents and supporters and had a role in engaging in blockade running with arms largely from Britain. Blockade runners stopped in Halifax to rest and refuel where they were to pass through the Union blockade to deliver supplies to the Confederate Army. Nova Scotia's role in arms trafficking to the South was so noticeable that the Acadian Recorder in 1864 described Halifax's effort as a "mercenary aid to a fratricidal war, which, without outside intervention, would have long ago ended. "U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward complained on March 14, 1865:
Halifax has been for more than one year, and yet is, a naval station for vessels which, running the blockade, furnish supplies and munitions of war to our enemy, and it has been made a rendezvous for those piratical cruisers which come out from Liverpool and Glasgow, to destroy our commerce on the high seas, and even to carry war into the ports of the United States. Halifax is a postal and dispatch station in the correspondence between the rebels at Richmond and their emissaries in Europe. Halifax merchants are known to have surreptitiously imported provisions, arms, and ammunition from our seaports, and then transshipped them to the rebels. The governor of Nova Scotia has been neutral, just, and friendly; so were the judges of the province who presided on the trial of the Chesapeake. But then it is understood that, on the other hand, merchant shippers of Halifax, and many of the people of Halifax, are willing agents and abettors of the enemies of the United States, and their hostility has proved not merely offensive but deeply injurious.
The war left many fearful that the North might attempt to annex British North America, particularly after the Fenian raids began (many Americans considered the Fenian raids as retribution against British-Canadian tolerance of and even aid to Confederate Secret Service activities in Canada against the Union during the Civil War (such as the Chesapeake Affair and the St. Albans Raid). In response, volunteer regiments were raised across Nova Scotia. British commander and Lt Governor of Nova Scotia Charles Hastings Doyle (after whom Port Hastings is named) led 700 troops out of Halifax to crush a Fenian attack on the New Brunswick border with Maine. This rather baseless scare was one of the main reasons why Britain sanctioned the creation of Canada (1867); to avoid another possible conflict with America and to leave the defense of Nova Scotia to a Canadian Government.