A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War (159 page)

Chapter 8: The Lion Roars Back

 
1.
William Howard Russell,
My Diary North and South
, ed. Eugene H. Berwanger (New York, 1988), p. 326, November 16, 1861. Russell made a mistake and called Macfarland, McClernand.

 
2.
BDOFA
, part I, ser. C, vol. 5, pp. 361–62, Lord Lyons to Lord Russell, November 19, 1861.

 
3.
New York Times,
November 18, 1861;
Sunday Transcript
, November 17, 1861.

 
4.
For example, Seward’s son Frederick, who was assistant secretary of state, wrote to the U.S. consul in Havana on November 22: “It gives the Department pleasure to acknowledge the great importance of the service which has been rendered by Captain Wilkes to his country.” D. P. Crook,
The North, the South, and the Powers, 1861–1865
(New York, 1974), p. 115.

 
5.
Charles Wilkes was the great-nephew of “Wilkes and Liberty” John Wilkes, the cheery eighteenth-century rogue who, in spite of himself, became a martyr and hero for political radicals opposing George III.

 
6.
Allan Nevins,
The War for the Union
, 4 vols.; vol. 1:
The Improvised War 1861–1862
(New York, 1959), p. 388.

 
7.
Russell,
My Diary North and South
, p. 327, November 19, 1861.

 
8.
The Times,
December 3, 1861.

 
9.
B. J. Lossing,
A Centennial Edition of the History of the United States
(Chicago, 1876), p. 587.

10.
Howard K. Beale (ed.),
The Diary of Edward Bates
(Washington, D.C., 1933), p. 202, November 19, 1861.

11.
Stephen W. Sears,
The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan: Selected Correspondence, 1860–1865
(New York, 1989), p. 136, McClellan to Mary Ellen, November 17, 1861.

12.
PRO 30/22/35, ff. 317–23, Lyons to Russell, November 22, 1861.

13.
Although the South was collectively holding its breath, in South Carolina a lonely General Robert E. Lee sent a little bouquet of violets to his daughter, and the following advice to his wife: “You must not build your hopes on peace on account of the United States going into a war with England.… Her rulers are not entirely mad, and if they find England is in earnest … they will adopt [peace]. We must make up our minds to fight our battles and win our independence alone. No one will help us.” Robert E. Lee,
Recollections and Letters
(New York, repr. 2004), pp. 51–52.

14.
Anthony Trollope,
North America
(repr. London, 1968), p. 138.

15.
PRO FO 519/178, Lord Clarendon to Lord Cowley, November 29, 1861, quoted in Crook,
The North, the South, and the Powers
, p. 131.

16.
As the Duke of Argyll wrote from France: “If such an act as that committed by the
San Jacinto
be allowed, I see nothing which would prevent any European Government seizing on board of our ships any refugees from their revolted provinces, who might be coming to England (as many do) to excite popular sympathy with their cause.”
George Douglas, Eighth Duke of Argyll (1823–1900): Autobiography and Memoirs
, ed. the Dowager Duchess of Argyll, 2 vols. (London, 1906), p. 180, Duke of Argyll to Gladstone, December 7, 1861.

17.
John Morely,
The Life of William Ewart Gladstone: 1809–1872
, 2 vols. (London, 1908), vol. 2, pp. 73–74, Gladstone to Argyll, December 3, 1861.

18.
Sir Theodore Martin,
The Life of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort
, vol. 5 (New York, 1880), p. 349. Prince Albert continued: “We are therefore glad to believe that upon a full consideration of the circumstances, and of the undoubted breach of international law committed, they would spontaneously offer such redress as alone could satisfy this country, viz. the restoration of the unfortunate passengers and a suitable apology.”

19.
“I think now the American Government,” he wrote, “under the inspiration of Seward will refuse us redress. The prospect is melancholy, but it is an obligation of honour which we cannot escape.” PRO, Cowley MSS, FO 519/199, Russell to Lord Cowley, December 7, 1861.

20.
Brian Jenkins,
Britain and the War for the Union
, 2 vols. (Montreal, 1974, 1980), vol. 1, p. 212.

21.
Nancy Mitford (ed.),
The Stanleys of Alderley
(London, 1968), p. 270, Lord Stanley to Lady Stanley, December 2, 1861.

22.
For some reason, he has generally been misidentified as Seymour Conway, although W. H. Russell refers to him properly as Conway Seymour.

23.
G. P. Gooch (ed.),
The Later Correspondence of Lord John Russell, 1840–1878
, 2 vols. (London, 1925), vol. 2, p. 321, Lord Russell to Lord Clarendon, December 6, 1861. In fact, Lord Clarendon thought that Russell was generally far too namby-pamby with Seward. “I don’t like the low tone taken by Johnny,” he told the Duchess of Manchester; “he is right not to be quarrelsome but humility is not the way to keep vulgarity & swagger in order & there is not a despatch from that beast Seward that does not contain some menace to us.” A. L. Kennedy (ed.),
My Dear Duchess: Social and Political Letters to the Duchess of Manchester, 1858–1869
(London, 1956), p. 208, Clarendon to Duchess of Manchester, December 25, 1862.

24.
Desmond McCarthy,
Lady John Russell
, p. 260, Lady John to Lady Dumferline, December 13, 1861.

25.
Letters of Sir George Cornewall Lewis
, ed. G. F. Lewis (London, 1870), pp. 405–6, Lewis to Twistleton, December 5, 1861.

26.
The purchases were actually a coincidence. At the start of the war, the United States had 3 million pounds of saltpeter in reserve, which was all that had been left over from the Mexican–American War. The U.S. Navy commissioned Lammot Du Pont to replenish the country’s supply before the
Trent
incident took place. It just so happened that he began loading his prodigious cargo on November 28, the day after England received news of the seizure. Once the ban was in effect, Charles Francis Adams advised Du Pont to offload the saltpeter surreptitiously in limited amounts in order to avoid flooding the market.

27.
Regis Courtmanche,
No Need of Glory: The British Navy in American Waters
(Annapolis, Md., 1977), p. 59.

28.
Mitford (ed.),
The Stanleys of Alderley
, p. 271, Lord Stanley to Lady Stanley, December 4, 1861.

29.
Ibid., p. 271, Lord Stanley to Lady Stanley, December 6, 1861.

30.
Somerset RO, Somerset MSS, d/RA/A/2a/34/7/1, Admiral Milne to Duke of Somerset, January 24, 1861. Milne also feared the loss of the West Indies as a possible result of the war: “The defence our West India Islands, also Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the St. Lawrence in spring, causes me much anxiety, but in so far as the force at my disposal will admit I will do all I can to defend them from aggression, but your Grace and the members of the Board must be aware the large naval force which these defensives will require, and that the efficiency of our ships will in a great measure depend on the supply of coal at the various stations.” December 22, 1861.

31.
Kenneth Bourne, “British Preparations for War with the North, 1861–1862,”
English Historical Review
, 76/301 (Oct. 1961), pp. 600–632, at p. 609.

32.
Some pessimists within the War Office feared that victory would be impossible without a deus ex machina–like intervention such as General MacClellan refusing to part with any troops until spring, Confederate activity tying down the majority of Federal troops, a cold winter inhibiting deployment, or New England states such as Maine turning against the Union.

33.
Army Historical Research
, vol.19, pp. 112–14, Lieutenant Colonel G. J. Wolseley to Major Biddulph, December 12, 1861.

34.
G. H. Warren,
Fountain of Discontent: The Trent Affair and Freedom of the Seas
(Boston, 1981), p. 130.

35.
Mitford (ed.),
The Stanleys of Alderley
, p. 274, Lord Stanley to Lady Stanley, December 20, 1861.

36.
Bourne, “British Preparations for War with the North, 1861–1862,” p. 616.

37.
Owen Ashmore (ed.), “The Diary of James Garnett of Low Moor, Clitheroe, 1858–65,” vol. 2: “The American Civil War and the Cotton Famine, 1861–65,”
Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire for the Year 1971
, 123 (1972), pp. 105–43, at p. 114, December 3, 1861.

38.
MHS, Adams MSS, Diary of Charles Francis Adams, vol. 9, December 11, 1861.

39.
W. C. Ford (ed.),
A Cycle of Adams Letters, 1861–1865
, 2 vols. (Boston, 1920), vol. 1, pp. 75–77, Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr., November 30, 1861. Although Bright claimed to have a poor opinion of Lord Lyons, whom he had met once, when he had the opportunity to speak with him properly, he decided that Lyons was, “a sensible man, calm of temper and serious.” R.A.J. Walling (ed.),
The Diaries of John Bright
(New York, 1931), p. 407.

40.
T. Wemyss Reid,
Life of the Right Honorable William Edward Forster
(London, 1888), p. 344, Forster to his wife, December 4, 1861.

41.
Spectator
, December 7, 1861. Bright was fortunate that no one knew or remembered how he had warmly greeted Senator Slidell when the latter visited England a few years before. Then, he wrote in his diary: “Thro’ the Park with Cobden. With him afterwards to dine at Fenton’s Hotel with Mr. Brown, M.P. Among those present was Mr. Slidell, American Senator, who appeared to be a sensible man with more of the Englishman than American in his manners.” Walling (ed.),
The Diaries of John Bright
, p. 151.

42.
Deborah Logan (ed.),
The Collected Letters of Harriet Martineau
, 5 vols. (London 2007), vol. 4, p. 312, Martineau to Henry Reeve, December 4, 1861.

43.
Sarah Agnes Wallace and Frances Elma Gillespie (eds.),
The Journal of Benjamin Moran, 1857–1865
, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1948, 1949), vol. 2, p. 922, December 12, 1861.

44.
Warren,
Fountain of Discontent
, p. 142.

45.
Wallace and Gillespie (eds.),
The Journal of Benjamin Moran
, vol. 2, p. 923, December 14, 1861.

46.
“I am here quietly waiting the developments of events over which I have no control,” Adams complained to Motley, the minister to Austria, “and in which I had no participation.” Edward Chalfant,
Both Sides of the Ocean
(New York, 1982), p. 346.

47.
Weed had assumed that Seward’s trip to London in 1859 had been a success. Instead, he discovered that “every idle word he spoke here, in society, is treasured up and a bad meaning given to it. For example, he made enemies of a Noble Household for laughing at the enormous sums of money paid for Paintings. At another Dinner Table he gave offense by insisting that English Books were absurdly expensive, and that American re-productions were just as good, etc etc etc.” Such boorish behavior would not have won Seward friends anywhere. In the first instance, he betrayed himself to be a philistine, and in the second, unscrupulous, since the American reproductions were cheap only because they were printed in defiance of copyright, thus depriving English authors of their royalties.