# American Civil War: Did the UNION have any allies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2002, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-civil-war-did-the-union-have-any-allies/108037 "2002-05-09T06:27:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-civil-war-did-the-union-have-any-allies/108037/21 "2002-12-03T21:08:28Z")
Well, to hear [Winston Churchill](http://www.winstonchurchill.org/ffhwsclee.htm) tell it, it was the Brits what won the war through by intervention after the Union was trounced on the battlefield. > [@](#): > > But we must return to our main theme and to the procession of tremendous events which followed the Northern defeat at Gettysburg and the surrender of Washington. Lee’s declaration abolishing slavery coupled as it was with inflexible resolve to secede from the American Union, opened the way for British intervention. I think that wraps things up rather nicely, don’t you Dr. Turtledove? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-civil-war-did-the-union-have-any-allies/108037/22 "2002-12-03T23:15:19Z")
Nametag: I hadn’t read about that incident, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Union and Confederate ships fought all over the world. I think the CSS Alabama was taken or sunk after a battle with a Union ship (the Kearney??) off the coast of France, a battle that delighted the locals from what I’ve read. See a recent issue of the American Heritage which has an article about the last action of the Civil War, a ship that was fighting near the Arctic Circle. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2002, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-civil-war-did-the-union-have-any-allies/108037/23 "2002-12-04T00:03:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mighty Maximino \* > \*\*The Union warship _San Jacinto_ boarded the British mail steamer _Trent_ and took two Confederate diplomats into custody, in what everyone conceded was a violation of the laws of the sea. After that incident, there was a movement in Britain for war with the US (they sent some troops to Canada, as a show of seriousness), but after a couple of months the whole thing blew over. The US needed a couple of shipments of munitions, so they turned the diplomats back over to the British and life returned more or less to normal. The Emancipation Proclimation made European recognition of the Confederacy politically impossible – there were massive public pro-Union demonstrations in Europe following it. Prior to that, Europe would have loved to recognize the Confederacy, but they were hedging their bets to see who’d win. They were somewhat worried about giving aid to the South and then losing it if the South lost – which is indeed what happened. \*\* Have you or **Guy** read _Stars and Stripes Forever_ by Harry Harrison? ---
**Author:** ![Pythagras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/45deac/32.png) [@Pythagras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pythagras)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2002, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-civil-war-did-the-union-have-any-allies/108037/24 "2002-12-04T02:24:30Z")
Well I’d hope we’d count Indian allies too… The Confederates were allied with the Cherokee nation IIRC. I dont know anything else about Indian allies - but that would be an interesting aside to the civil war to study. ---
**Author:** ![YPOD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e99b99/32.png) [@YPOD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YPOD)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2002, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-civil-war-did-the-union-have-any-allies/108037/25 "2002-12-04T04:16:13Z")
Peyote: Yor’re almost there - I think it was the USS Kearsarge that sent the Alabama to the bottom. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2002, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-civil-war-did-the-union-have-any-allies/108037/26 "2002-12-04T05:33:05Z")
A few comments on some points already made here. Lincoln certainly wanted to avoid war with Britain, France, or any other nation. But it was Secretary of State Seward who deserves the most credit on the American side for defusing the Trent crisis. In the face of demands from the both sides that the other side publically admit it was wrong and issue an apology, Seward was able to draft a public statement that everyone was able to accept. Rarely has political obfuscation served so nobly. British opinion was complex. On the one hand, there were textile manufacturers and workers who wanted continued access to Confederate cotton. On the other hand, there imperialists who saw the embargo as an opportunity to develop a British controlled cotton industry in Egypt. On the third hand, there was a strong anti-slavery movement in Britain which would have abhored any support of the CSA. On the fourth hand, from a foreign affairs standpoint it made sense to support the breakup of the United States which was a growing rival of Britain. On the fifth hand, British liberals had held up the United States as an example of the widespread democratic government they wanted to enact in Britain and wanted the US to demonstrate it could handle a crisis. On the sixth hand, British conservatives opposed these same democratic ideas and wanted to show that the US would collapse. On the seventh hand, American merchant ships supplied about a third of the world’s shipping and embargoing them would probably cause a global economic crisis. On the eighth hand, the British military was still recovering from the damage it received in the Crimean War and probably was in no shape to launch a major expedition to North America anyway. As for the Indians in the Civil War, I’d recommend reading “Between Two Fires”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-civil-war-did-the-union-have-any-allies/108037.md?page=1)