NF Philip Leigh's The Confederacy at Flood Tide - 3/24/2020 Book Chat Transcript

Non-Fiction

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  • @Philip Leigh is proud to launch his book:
    • The Confederacy at Flood Tide:
      The Political and Military Ascension, June to December 1862
    • Published May 25, 2016
    • Belatedly Launched on CWT on 3/23/2020
    • Buy it on Amazon
Below is a Transcript of the Book Chat with Philip Leigh from Tuesday, March 24, 2020!

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The British responded to the Union defeat at Second Bull Run by giving serious consideration to recognizing the Confederacy. As noted in the introduction both the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary seemed poised to do it. They held a meeting, much like a cabinet meeting, in October to decide and agreed at that time to just keep watching. That was after Antietam and the prelim Emancipation Proclamation
 
What other options did the CSA have during this period that may have turned things differently?
 
British supplies of cotton were getting quite low in June of '62 and they did not know that supplies would start to grow again in January '63. With that, British recognition was lost, probably forever.
 
Wallyfish: The British did not like slavery but they wanted cotton. By taking the moral high ground with the EP Lincoln made it clear that the war was at least partly about slavery. Before that, it must be emphasized, that Lincoln did not admit the war was about slavery. Thus the Europeans took him at his word and assumed that it was about Southern self-determination.
 
Supplies started coming from Egypt, Brazil, India, and West Africa. But also, they were getting supplies from America. After Memphis and New Orleans fell in April and May of 1862 Northern cotton traders went into the Mississippi Valley and bought cotton. Most went to New England but some was exported to Europe.
 
It was a very profitable business. Southerns sold the cotton because their menfolk were off to war and the families remaining behind needed subsistence supplies. They sold cheap. Cotton went from $0.13 a pound before the war to a high of $1.90
 
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