Tag Archives: international

The CSN’s Sunk Plans for the Great Lakes

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This interesting piece of what-if history discusses a scuttled Confederate plot to target Northern shipping ports on the Great Lakes. My first reaction was to scoff at how little impact one steamer could have, but then I remembered The Alabama.

There was, however, an opportunity. In order to avoid an arms race on the Great Lakes, in 1817, the United States and Britain agreed to demilitarize them. In the Rush-Bagot Agreement, both nations agreed to maintain only a handful of small armed vessels on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. By 1863, there was only one American warship on the Great Lakes: the 14-gun steamboat USS Michigan, which is pictured above.

If the Confederate Navy could hijack the Michigan and crew it with skilled sailors, it could ravage American forces on the Great Lakes unopposed by the United States Navy.

via The Confederate Navy’s Crazy Plan to Raid the Great Lakes – Neatorama.

Podcast #10 – “To Riot or to Rot”

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What should have been yesterday’s podcast is going up in the wee hours of today.  Technically this fits, as the Stalybridge riot was at its peak on the 20th of March, but I chose the initiation date of March 19th for the podcast commemoration.

This week, I’m discussing the Cotton Famine and its impact on British politics.  As the descendant of working-class Brits, I found this Civil War connection particularly interesting.

You can download the podcast here.

It’s Heeeeere!

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I’m in under the wire of my deadline, but I can proudly say I’ve checked a resolution off my list already: The first ever Civil War Podcast is ready to go! (Take that, 2013!)

To marvel at my lucid writing and dulcet tones (I know, I know – I am an admitted amateur!) click the Podcast tab in the menu bar, then the January link. Clicking on the “0101 the emancipation proclamation 1” link on the January page will download a copy of the audio file to your hard drive.*

The topic is, as you can no doubt guess, the Emancipation Proclamation, which was signed on this day in 1863. Much like Lincoln, I was slow to get moving on the topic, but as I’m sure Salmon Chase would say of me, “so you see, the woman moves.”

Sadly, I decided to scale back my podcasty undertaking from a daily podcast to a weekly one (frankly, it takes a lot longer to research, write and record a 6 minute podcast than you’d think) but I hope you enjoy the presentation, which includes a piano intro/outro of “We Are Coming Through the Cotton Fields”, performed by my good friend, Tom Nagy. Hopefully his lovely playing will offset my monotone.

*I need to find a solution for embedding the link without incurring hosting surcharges. Podcasting is not a cheap hobby!

The Brothers’ War and Family Ties

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Today’s link is an interesting blog describing an Australian who is a huge Civil War buff. As a Canadian who’s had a lifelong interest in the war, I’m not surprised there are others in the world with as strong an interest. One of my favorite tasks in keeping this blog is monitoring where my visitors come from.  Proof that this is a worldwide topic, this is my map as of this morning:

A few conversations with Len mean I now retreat apologetically if anyone welcomes me as a Civil War buff. It turns out he is regarded by many as the doyen of the Australian enthusiasts. The Atlanta History Museum, which I’ve visited, bought most of his private museum. A fellow collector of war mementoes, Andraus Tonismae, says: ”He astounds me. I’ve never come across such amazing recall. It is a steel-trap mind. And he had the best collection of artefacts outside the US.”

Seventy-five-year-old Len seems to know everything that happened in America from 1860 to 1865.

He acquired this knowledge, his collection and a library of 1800 books on the war, while he slapped gun-metal grey on the steel framework of the Sydney Harbour Bridge or embossed gilt in art deco cinemas and offices. For 20 years he was a painter and decorator. Later he became a paint salesman, then a workplace inspector.

His story proves, in his words, that ”the Civil War belongs to the world”. It probably proves something else as well: the enchantment of history, that all can fall in love with the sequences of the past, even if you spend your working days hanging wallpaper or staining and polishing. His life is about the power of self-education in a subject you love.

via Love is a battlefield.

Confederacy Museum Lecture

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Lucky people in the Richmond area have a chance to attend a free lecture on Britain’s role in the Civil War (and, presumably, the war’s effect on Britain, which is just as fascinating from what I’ve read.)

One hundred fifty years ago this September, the British cabinet considered intervention in the American Civil War. Economically dependent on Southern Cotton and impressed by Confederate military success, but revolted by Southern slavery, Britain’s leaders and people were torn in their loyalties. The course that Britain followed might well determine the outcome of the war in America.

Hear Dr. Amanda Foreman’s lecture September 27th, as she delves into the important role that Britain played during the American Civil War, the topic of her book, A World on Fire. Co-Sponsored by the University of Richmond’s Department of History, the lecture will be held in UR’s Ukrops Auditorium, Robins School of Business 7:30 – 9 p.m.

Confederacy museums Sept. 27 lecture covers Britains Civil War role.

How Egypt Won the War

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One of the things I love about history is the ripple effect: One splash in America’s pond leads to ripples that extend North to Canada, South to Mexico, and apparently even East to Egypt.

In less than a year’s time, Southern cotton exports would plummet by more than 50 percent and the European superpowers needed to quickly find a new source. It was then that the Ottoman Governor of Egypt, Said Pasha (who supported the Union and would follow the Ottoman policy of barring Confederate ships from Ottoman waters), saw an opportunity and ordered that his vast holdings of land in the Lower Nile be turned towards the production of cotton. Washington, delighted by the prospect, went so far as to send an official to Egypt to urge Said Pasha to produce even more cotton. Egypt, which previously accounted for only 3 percent of cotton exports to Europe, saw its profits boom from $7 million to $77 million in just four years. With Egyptian cotton flooding the European market, the demand for Southern cotton disappeared, as did European support for the Confederacy that was based, in part, on a need for the South’s cotton. This, in turn, crippled the Southern wartime economy that relied heavily on a demand for cotton, thus hastening the end of the war.

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/02/02/192091.html

Canada – Rogue State

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Well, while we could never really be considered any cog in an Axis of Evil, Canada did offer harbour (complete with extraneous “u”) to Confederate agents during the war years. http://www.cfhi.net/WilmingtonsWartimeCanadianConnection.phpthe site I mentioned yesterday details some of the efforts of the Confederate Secret Service, who coordinated cross-border activities during the conflict, including the St. Albans’ Raid and the attempt to burn down New York City.

I’ve added yet another e-book to the Library, this one written by one of the New York conspirators, and goes into great detail on the planning and (failed) execution of this and other raids.

Confederate Operations in Canada and New York

Canada Watches Closely

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The Gazette offers an interesting look at the anxiety Canadians faced as the Trent Affair unfolded. As colonial parent Britain sabre-rattled with Secretary of State Seward, Canadians wondered if their land would become a war zone.

Garrisons facing the U.S. border were meagre, and reinforcements were dispatched from Britain. But before they could arrive, Canadians themselves were already looking to their own defences.

In Christmas week alone, two companies of the Montreal Volunteer Artillery were organized. Capt. John Kelly and Lt. Angus Bethune volunteered as officers for the second battalion, Montreal Militia, while captains and subalterns of the fifth battalion were canvassing several neighbourhoods for recruits.

Lawyer Joseph Duhamel was raising a battalion in the Quebec suburb, in the eastern part of the city, to be known as la Garde Nationale. Former firemen were urged to sign up with the Montreal Fire Battalion. Pensioned exsoldiers were also called on to volunteer. Even members of a local snowshoe club, the Aurora, became a rifle company.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Civil+threat+spilled+anxious+Canada+1861/5907296/story.html

The Civil War and Mumbai Street Food

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This article is poorly written and misleadingly titled, but it is interesting to see the effect the war had on far flung places and mundane realities, in this case, the development of a popular Indian street meal.

This is when a group of Gujaratis began trading in the area now known as Dalal Street, starting Asia’s first stock exchange a few years later. They traded mainly in cotton, and many made fortunes in the period 1861-65 when global supply of the stuff was affected by the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln’s navy blockaded New Orleans and the Mississippi and Manchester’s looms came to a halt, sending cotton prices shooting. The Gujarati merchant is one of the world’s finest managers of uncertainty and he made a lot of money. These early globalizers worked, as today’s call centre workers, late into the night when rates were wired in and orders wired out at American and European times. By then everyone would be quite famished and the wives would be asleep at home.

This demand for regular food at an unusual time created a unique supply. The traders were served by street stalls that invented a late-night special: pav bhaji.

http://www.livemint.com/2011/08/04210819/What-Mumbaikars-owe-to-the-Ame.html?h=B