A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War (183 page)

34.
MHS, Adams MSS, Diary of Charles Francis Adams, February 14, 1865, and
PRFA
, part 1 (1866), p. 165, Adams to Seward, February 16, 1865.

35.
Ibid., p.183, Adams to Seward, February 23, 1865.

36.
The situation in France also worried Adams after hearing in confidence from General McClellan’s former military adviser the Prince de Joinville that the emperor was building a large fleet at Cherbourg which he would be prepared to employ on behalf of the Confederates if Seward showed the slightest inclination to meddle in Mexico.

37.
Fitzgerald Ross,
Cities and Camps of the Confederate States
, ed. Richard Barksdale Harwell (Champaign, Ill., 1997), p. xix, Ross to Blackwood, March 24, 1865.

38.
Library of Congress digital online MSS, Lincoln MS, Belle Boyd to Lincoln, January 24, 1864. Sala had a robust view of sex and extramarital relations and Belle was not in a position to dictate their relationship. Sala’s contribution to the development of Victorian pornography is well documented, not least his co-authorship of the underground magazine the
Pearl
. After helping Belle, Sala became the ghostwriter for Lieutenant Colonel Heros von Borcke, Jeb Stuart’s staff officer, who published his memoir in 1866.

39.
See Louis A. Sigaud,
Belle Boyd—Confederate Spy
(Richmond, Va., 1944), pp. 185–87. Sigaud ponders the various rumors and half-truths concerning Hardinge and Grace.

40.
“We all agree, however,” wrote Slidell, “that the letter of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs is extremely insolent and offensive.” ORN, ser. 2, vol. 3, p. 1263, Slidell to Benjamin, February 24, 1864. Shortly after Kenner’s arrival in France, another emissary arrived: the French volunteer in the Confederate army Prince Camille de Polignac, who reached Paris on March 21, 1865, hoping to persuade the emperor that giving aid to the Confederacy would be beneficial to his long-term plans for Mexico. “When I left the country on what I expected to be a six month’s absence, I was unaware of the hopeless conditions of the affairs in the east,” he wrote subsequently. Jeff Kinaird,
Lafayette of the South
(College Station, Tex., 2001), p. 184.

41.
“The rumors lately prevalent coming from the South … [have] attracted much attention in England,” Mason wrote to Benjamin. “Many enquiries have been made of me by our well-wishers whether I thought it would be done. It is considered by them with much favor as a measure … whilst in their opinion it would be a first step toward emancipation.” Mason reassured Benjamin that he had disabused them of the idea. ORN, ser. 2, vol. 3, p. 1258, Mason to Benjamin, January 21, 1865.

42.
Robert W. Young,
Senator James Murray Mason
(Knoxville, Tenn., 1998), p. 180.

43.
Craig A. Bauer, “The Last Effort: The Secret Mission of the Confederate Diplomat, Duncan F. Kenner,”
Louisiana History,
22 (1981), pp. 67–95.

44.
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy
, 2 vols. (Nashville, 1905), vol. 2, p. 717, Mason to Benjamin, March 26, 1865.

45.
“Diary of John R. Thompson,” p. 99.

46.
Wallace and Gillespie (eds.),
Journal of Benjamin Moran
, vol. 2, p. 1393, March 14, 1865.

47.
Sheffield Archives, WHM 461 (31), Hill to Wharncliffe, February 17, 1865.

48.
PRO FO5/128, Hill to Russell, February 18, 1865.

49.
PRO FO 83/2223, Roundell Palmer to Russell, March 18, 1865.

50.
PRO FO5/1101, ff. 23–25, Robert Dalglish to Mr. Layard, February 24, 1865.

51.
PRO FO 5/1101, ff. 53–56, Robert Burley to Russell, March 25, 1865.

52.
Lord Lyons: A Record of British Diplomacy
, 2 vols. (London, 1914), vol. 1, pp. 139–41.

53.
PRO FO5/1009, d. 112, Russell to Bruce, March 24, 1865.

54.
PRO FO5/1009, d. 112, Lord Russell to Sir Frederick Bruce, March 24, 1865.

55.
Wallace and Gillespie (eds.),
The Journal of Benjamin Moran
, vol. 2, p. 1398, March 24, 1865.

56.
Ford (ed.),
A Cycle of Adams Letters
, vol. 2, p. 258, Charles Francis Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr., March 24, 1865.

57.
Ibid., p. 259, Charles Francis Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr., March 24, 1865.

Chapter 37: Fire, Fire

 
1.
South Carolina Historical Society, Feilden-Smythe MSS (41), Feilden to Julia, February 14, 1865.

 
2.
E. Milby Burton,
The Siege of Charleston
(Columbia, S.C., 1982), p. 321.

 
3.
Walker defended himself to the Foreign Office: “I have endeavoured, as I had done previously, to perform my consular duties with the utmost strictness and impartiality.” PRO FO5/1015, f. 287, Pinckney Walker to Mr. Burnley, February 20, 1865.

 
4.
South Carolina Historical Society, Feilden-Smythe MSS (40), Feilden to Julia, February 28, 1865.

 
5.
Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr.,
Bentonville: The Final Battle of Sherman and Johnston
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 2006), p. 32.

 
6.
Nelson D. Lankford,
An Irishman in Dixie
(Columbia, S.C., 1988), p. 25.

 
7.
Ibid., p. 32, March 4, 1865.

 
8.
Ibid., p. 39, March 9, 1865.

 
9.
Ibid., p. 42, March 10, 1865. Mrs. Brown, according to Lankford, was one of the couriers who carried messages between Richmond and the Confederates in Canada.

10.
Ibid., p. 48, March 13, 1865.

11.
John B. Jones,
A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital
, ed. Earl Schenk Miers (Urbana, Ill., 1958), p. 517, March 14, 1865.

12.
Conolly whiled away the time before dinner visiting other camps. At General Heath’s, he was surprised to meet Captain Sydney Herbert Davis, the British volunteer who had come to the Confederacy in 1863.

13.
At his hotel, Conolly bumped into the Hon. Maurice Berkeley Portman, whose own optimism about the war had been shaken by an encounter with Sheridan’s bummers.

14.
Jones,
A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary
, p. 520, March 19, 1865.

15.
South Carolina Historical Society, Feilden-Smythe MSS (45), Feilden to Julia, March 13, 1865.

16.
Ibid., (46), Feilden to Julia, March 25, 1865.

17.
The Saundersons of Saunderson Castle, County Cavan, were an old Anglo-Irish family with a large fortune to spend. Twenty-four-year-old Welly was the youngest of five brothers, three of whom belonged to the same regiment. “The trio were not without notoriety and were generally known as Rats No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3,” wrote a historian of the family: “They were always doing something dangerous.” Conolly was deeply impressed when Welly told him that he had even sold his commission in order to fight with Lee, unaware that the British Army officer had something to prove. Welly was desperately in love with Lady Rachel Clonmell, but her father thought he was a wastrel and had refused him permission to set foot in the house, let alone propose marriage. A. Lucas,
Colonel Saunderson: A Memoir
(London, 1908), p. 14. I am indebted to Derek Mayhew for this information.

18.
James M. Morgan,
Recollections of a Rebel Reefer
(Boston, 1917), p. 232.

19.
Southern Historical Society Papers, vol. 4 (Richmond, Va., 1877), ed. Revd. J. W. Jones, p. 22, fn.

20.
Virginia Historical Society, Diary of Llewellyn Saunderson, MSS5:1Sa877:1, March 31, 1865.

21.
Francis Dawson,
Reminiscences of Confederate Service 1861–1865,
ed. Bell I. Wiley (Baton Rouge, La., 1980) pp. 142–43.

22.
Virginia Historical Society, Diary of Llewellyn Saunderson, April 1, 1865.

23.
The Times
, April 25, 1865.

24.
Jones,
A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary
, p. 528, April 2, 1865.

25.
The Times,
April 25, 1865.

26.
Edward M. Boykin,
The Falling Flag: Evacuation of Richmond
(New York, 1874), pp. 12–13.

27.
Sallie A. Brock,
Richmond During the War: Four Years of Personal Recollections
(repr. Lincoln, Nebr., 1996), p. 367.

28.
W. C. Ford (ed.),
A Cycle of Adams Letters
(Boston, 1920), vol. 2, p. 263, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Charles Francis Adams, April 10, 1865.

29.
Lincoln and Grant had some memorable conversations during the president’s stay on the
River Queen
. Grant asked Lincoln about the
Trent
affair. Lincoln answered, “Yes, Seward studied up all the works ever written on international law, and came to cabinet meetings loaded to the muzzle with the subject. We gave due consideration to the case, but at that critical period of the war it was soon decided to deliver up the prisoners. It was a pretty bitter pill to swallow, but I contented myself with believing that England’s triumph in the matter would be short-lived, and that after ending our war successfully we would be so powerful that we could call her to account for all the embarrassment she had inflicted upon us.” Doris Kearns Goodwin,
Team of Rivals
(New York, 2005), p. 711.

30.
A. S. Lewis (ed.),
My Dear Parents
(New York, 1982), p. 131, Horrocks to brother Joseph, April 8, 1865.

Chapter 38: “A True-Born King of Men”

 
1.
Illustrated London News
, May 20, 1865.

 
2.
Michael Burlingame,
Abraham Lincoln
, 2 vols. (Baltimore, 2008), vol. 2, p. 793.

 
3.
John Hay and John G. Nicolay (eds.),
Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works
, 2 vols. (New York, 1922), vol. 2, p. 669, Lincoln to Grant, April 6, 1865.

 
4.
Ulysses S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
(New York, 2003), p. 593.