Great question on Reddit regarding Great Britain and their involvement in the American Civil War. I want to share the question and my response on this blog.

The comment was, “I’ve read many times about the hope the Confederate government had about England and/or other European nations recognizing them. Can someone recommend a good book or source on this subject? I’d like to know how close it actually came to happening, the internal conversations in England, confederate liaisons, etc.”

I read the Civil War trilogy, The Army of the Potomac, by Bruce Catton, and he discussed the involvement of Great Britain. Here is my response to the Reddit user’s question.

From the book “Mr. Lincoln’s Army” by Bruce Catton.

“The Federal mainspring had run down. That will-o’-the-wisp of the confederacy, foreign intervention, was on the verge of doing true. The Prime Minister of Great Britain, having compared notes with the Foreign Secretary, was getting ready to propose to the British Cabinet that England take the lead in inducing a concert of powers to step in and bring the Civil War to an end – which, of course, could only mean independence for the Confederacy. The Foreign Minister, agreeing, added that if such a concert of powers could not be arranged, England ought to go ahead on its own hook, granting full recognition to the South. The two men were waiting now to see how the invasion of Maryland turned out before taking final action. In the White House, Lincoln had finally come to see that the war could not be carried on any longer as a simple fight to re-establish the Union. There had to be a broader base: the fight had to be pinned to a cause, something that would change the entire emotional climate, both at home and abroad, turning the deep vitality of the radical group into an asset rather that liability, making foreign intervention impossible no matter what military setback might take place on the hills of Maryland or Pennsylvania. There was but one step possible: the war had to become a war for human freedom, a war to end slavery. Otherwise it was lost. So he had in his desk the draft of the Emancipation Proclamation – that amazing document which is at once the weakest and the strongest of all America’s state papers (208-209). Later on, “One week later he issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, and the war was transformed. Their real effect was first seen afar off, in London, where they gave this war in America a new aspect, so that statesmen found to their surprise that it was something with which they could not interfere. In October the Emperor of France formally proposed that England, France, and Russia step in and bring about a six months’ armistice – which, in its practical effect, would mean (and was meant to mean) independence for the Confederacy. Britain’s Foreign Minister recommended acceptance for the proposal. But the British Cabinet rejected it, for a pro-Confederate in England now was an apologist for slavery, whether he liked it or not. In substance, then, the Proclamation meant that Europe was not going to decide how American Civil War came out. It would be fought out at home (322-323).

Again, great question and something that we don’t hear much when discussing the American Civil War.

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