Thomas F. Harney

[John Fazio]

(11-21-2014 12:46 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Thanks Bill, I wasn't sure

Gene:

No country recognized the Confederacy. Great Britain might have, because there was a lot of sentiment for the South among her ruling class (Their mouthpiece, The London Times, was solidly pro-South), but the diplomacy of Charles Francis Adams, the fact that her intelligence services felt a Confederate victory was unlikely and that she would therefore have to deal with a re-united United States, and the fact that crop failures due to weather made Northern wheat more valuable to her than Southern cotton, prevented it. France would not do so without Britain. There was another factor: Two Russian fleets dropped anchor in American waters in 1863, one in New York, one in San Francisco. The officers and seaman from the New York fleet were feted to a magnificent parade up Broadway, complete with music, Russian and American flags, etc. St. Ptersburg was effectively serving notice on Britain and France that if they intervened on the side of the Confederacy, that she would intervene on the side of the Union. St. Petersburg wanted an American ally because she was then engaged in a major struggle with G.B. and France for the control of Cental Asia.

John