Thomas F. Harney

[Linda Anderson]

(11-22-2014 11:24 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Hope you will not forget him as he was born in my hometown Kiel (and assassinated due to a plot by his wife): http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_III_of_Russia
I think the Russians did basically side with the Union and sought an alliance with her, and demonstrating this was a nice, welcome side effect of the action, but not the reason. I think Russia would never have intervened nor "invested" any efforts in any kind of active support as I believe by the time of the Union victories at Antietam, Vicksburg and Gettysburg, British and French interest in invention was zero. At that time neither of the belligerents was worth taking any risk or costs regarding the explosive situation at home (in Europe).

In October 1862, the Russian vice chancellor, Prince Gorchakow, had assured the US chargé d'affaires, Bayard Taylor, in writing, that Russia would not participate in any form of European intervention in the American conflict. ("Proposals will be made to Russia to join in some plan of interference. She will refuse any invitation of the kind.")

Here's a little more info about the Russian fleet from A World on Fire by Amanda Foreman.

"Two weeks earlier, four Russian warships had sailed into New York Harbor. Their appearance took the country by surprise. The press speculated that Czar Alexander II had sent the fleet as a goodwill gesture to the North. Some people even wondered whether the czar was making a covert offer of military aid - "Thank God for the Russians," wrote Gideon Welles in his diary. But when Seward questioned the Russian minister, Baron Stoeckl, about the fleet's visit, the baron was vague. The real reason the czar had sent his fleet to North America was in order to keep it ready in case Russia resumed hostilities against England and France. The Russian admiral of the fleet had orders to give every impression of military support short of actually lying."

Foreman's source is When the Guns Roared: World Aspects of the American Civil War by Philip Van Doren Stern.