A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War (179 page)

13.
The Confederates had initiated the contact; it was the idea of Confederate gadfly and sometime agent George N. Sanders, whose dreams and schemes were forever ending in disaster. However, his powers of persuasion were legendary and—to the other Confederates’ dismay—Sanders had no sooner arrived in Canada when he latched on to Clay and Holcombe and brought them completely under his sway. He played them like puppets, thoroughly enjoying his power to script the occasion. “In my long life I have known no counterpart to this man,” recorded an observer. “He was a constant menace to the interests for which the commissioners were responsible.” Adam Mayers,
Dixie and the Dominion: Canada, the Confederacy, and the War for the Union
(Toronto, 2003), p. 65.

14.
Michael Burlingame,
Abraham Lincoln
, 2 vols. (Baltimore, 2008), vol. 2, pp. 669–70.

15.
George Templeton Strong,
Diary of the Civil War, 1860–1865
, ed. Allan Nevins (New York, 1962), p. 474, August 19, 1864.

16.
W. C. Ford (ed.),
A Cycle of Adams Letters, 1861–1865
, 2 vols. (Boston, 1920), vol. 2, p. 182, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Charles Francis Adams, August 20, 1864.

17.
David Herbert Donald,
Lincoln
(New York, 1995), p. 529.

18.
George Congdon Gorham,
Life and Public Services of Edwin M Stanton
, 2 vols. (New York, 1899), vol. 2, p. 149.

19.
Doris Kearns Goodwin,
Team of Rivals
(New York, 2005), p. 648.

20.
Library of Congress, Papers of Abraham Lincoln, “Blind Memorandum,” August 23, 1864.

21.
PRO 30/22/38, ff. 95–97, Lyons to Russell, August 23, 1864.

22.
PRO 30/22/38, ff. 85–90, Lyons to Russell, August 9, 1864.

23.
PRO FO5/1258, n. 73, Mary S. Hill to Lord Lyons, August 20, 1864.

24.
Widow of Andrew Cunningham, late a British subject: Correspondence between the State department and the British legation, relative to the claim of the widow of the late Andrew Cunningham, a British subject, improperly enlisted into the military service of the United States, March 5, 1866
(39th Congress, Hse Rep., 1866). Seward promised Lyons that Cunningham’s widow would receive his bounty and army pay without delay. But the War Department ignored his repeated requests.

25.
BDOFA
, part 1, ser. C, vol. 6, p. 313, Monck to Cardwell, September 26, 1864.

26.
Fitzgerald Ross,
Cities and Camps of the Confederate States
, ed. Richard Barksdale Harwell (Champaign, Ill., 1997), p. 228.

27.
Duane Schultz,
The Dahlgren Affair
(New York, 1998), p. 209.

28.
Mabel Clare Weaks, “Colonel George St. Leger Grenfell,”
Filson Club History Quarterly
, 34 (1960), p. 11, Grenfell to Mary, July 18, 1864.

29.
K. W. Wheeler,
For the Union: Ohio Leaders in the Civil War
(Columbus, Ohio, 1968), p. 50.

30.
The “Northwest” encompassed Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Iowa, states that not only felt little cultural or political affinity with New England, but also felt unfairly targeted by the tax system. The Knights of the Golden Circle had changed its name first to the Order of the American Knights, and then in 1864 to Sons of Liberty. Its membership remains impossible to determine, but at its height may have been as many as 300,000. The sons claimed to have a membership closer to a million.

31.
ORN, ser. 1, vol. 3, p. 714, Thompson to Benjamin, December 3, 1864.

32.
William Tidwell,
April ’65: Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War
(Kent, Ohio, 1995), p. 130.

33.
Weaks, “Colonel George St Leger Grenfell,” p. 10, Grenfell to “Hunter,” July 31, 1864.

34.
John W. Headley,
Confederate Operations in Canada and New York
(New York, 1906), p. 225.

35.
Oscar A. Kinchen,
Confederate Operations in Canada
, p. 58.

36.
Stephen Z. Starr,
Colonel Grenfell’s Wars
(Baton Rouge, La., 1971), p. 172.

37.
James Horan,
Confederate Agent: A Discovery in History
(New York, 1954), p. 129.

38.
D. Alexander Brown, “The Northwest Conspiracy,”
Civil War Times Illustrated
, 10 (May 1971), p. 16.

39.
Weaks, “Colonel George St. Leger Grenfell,” p. 11, Grenfell to William Maynard, August 31, 1864.

40.
ORN, ser. 1, vol. 3, p. 714, Thompson to Benjamin, December 3, 1864.

Chapter 32: The Tyranny of Hope

 
1.
ORN, ser. 2, vol. 3, pp. 1162–63, Hotze to Benjamin, July 4, 1864.

 
2.
W. C. Ford (ed.),
A Cycle of Adams Letters, 1861–1865
, 2 vols. (Boston, 1920), vol. 2, p. 165. Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr., July 8, 1864. Edward Chalfant,
Better in Darkness
(New York, 1991), p. 79.

 
3.
On June 28, 1864, Rose recorded the following conversation in her diary: “Called upon Lady Chesterfield. Lady Derby was there, Marchioness of Ailesbury also came in. Much talk upon politics.… I asked, ‘Will ministers go out?’ Answer, ‘No.’ The radicals have promised to support the Gov. in their peace policy and there will be a division of 25 or 30 in support. Lady C: ‘I don’t believe they can have such a majority, not more than five or 6.’ In that case it will be a defeat. Then they will dissolve Parliament and go to the country. They love office too well to go out. Lady C: ‘They will be hard pressed.’ Lady A: ‘Yes but you will see, they will manage it.’ The discussion is put off for Monday. Lord Derby will man it in the House of Lords. Mr. Disraeli in the Commons.” North Carolina State Archives, Private Collections, PC 1226, Rose O’Neal Greenhow Papers, London Diary, p. 103

 
4.
MHS, Adams MSS,
Diary of Charles Francis Adams,
July 8, 1864.

 
5.
Greenhow, London Diary, p. 111, July 8, 1864.

 
6.
William Flavelle Monypenny,
Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield
, vol. 3 (London, 1916), p. 405.

 
7.
Mary Ellison,
Support for Secession
(Chicago, 1972), p. 153.

 
8.
Greenhow, London Diary, p. 119, July 21–24, 1864.

 
9.
The Times
, July 26, 1864.

10.
PRFA
, 1/2, (1864), p. 229, Adams to Seward, July 28, 1864.

11.
Ibid., p. 223, Adams to Seward, July 21, 1864.

12.
Ibid., p. 250, Adams to Seward, July 29, 1864.

13.
Greenhow, London Diary, p. 115, July 14, 1864.

14.
Ibid., p. 123, August 7, 1864.

15.
Diane Fontaine Corbin,
A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury
(London, 1880), p. 223.

16.
Greenhow, London Diary, p. 122, August 1, 1864.
The Private Journal of Georgiana Gholson Walker
, ed. Dwight Franklin Henderson, Confederate Centennial Studies, 25 (Tuscaloosa, Ala., 1963), p. 94, May 16, 1864. Rose procured the best ophthalmologist in London for Georgiana’s child, who pronounced the condition to be incurable.

17.
ORN, ser. 2, vol. 3, p. 1184, Mason to Benjamin, August 4, 1864.

18.
MHS, Adams MSS, Diary of Charles Francis Adams, August 1, 1864.

19.
The Letters of Henry Adams
, vol. 1, p. 441, Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr., July 1, 1864.

20.
MHS, Adams MSS, Diary of Charles Francis Adams, July 30, 1864.

21.
Greenhow, London Diary, p. 123, August 7, 1864.

22.
Ibid., p. 128, August 10, 1864.

23.
ORN, ser. 2, vol. 3, p. 1143, Hotze to Benjamin, June 3, 1864.

24.
Library of Congress, Hotze Papers, private letterbook, Hotze to Witt, June 18, 1864.

25.
Punch
, August 6, 1864.

26.
Andrew Ross,
David Livingstone: Mission and Empire
(London, 2002), p. 190.

27.
Timothy Holmes, ed.,
David Livingstone, Letters and Documents, 1861–1872
(London, 1990), p. 100, Livingstone to W. C. Oswell, October 21, 1864.

28.
Sarah Agnes Wallace and Frances Elma Gillespie (eds.),
The Journal of Benjamin Moran
, vol. 2, p. 1327, September 16, 1864.

29.
Ibid., p. 1329, September 22, 1864.

30.
NARA, M. T. 185, roll 8, vol. 8, Consul Eastman to Seward, August 24, 1864.

31.
PRFA
, 1/2, (1864), p. 313, Charles Francis Adams to Seward, September 29, 1864.

32.
The Duchess of Sutherland’s antislavery petition of 1852, “The Affectionate and Christian Address of Many Thousands of Women of Great Britain and Ireland to Their Sisters, the Women of the United States of America,” was signed by more than 500,000 British women. It caused considerable offense in both the North and the South. But at least that petition was addressed to the citizens of the United States. Kershaw’s intention to present the petition to the Northern government was both preposterous and presumptuous.

33.
Library of Congress, Hotze Papers, private letterbook, Hotze to Benjamin, September 2, 1864.

34.
Belle Boyd,
Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison
(New York, 1965; repr. Baton Rouge, La., 1998), p. 206.

35.
Ibid., p. 208; Wallace and Gillespie (eds.),
The Journal of Benjamin Moran,
vol. 2, p. 1317, August 25, 1864.

36.
MHS, Adams MSS, Diary of Charles Francis Adams, September 5, 1864.