Confederate Activities in England

FSPowers

Cadet
Joined
Aug 21, 2005
Location
San Antonio, Texas
Just read a book called Guns for Cotton- England Arms the Confederacy by Thomas Boaz. This book details the efforts of Confederate agents to purchase ships, arms and equipment for the CSA in England.

Ships purchased there included the CSS Alabama, CSS Florida, CSS Shenandoah, and CSS Tallahassee. Other ships included the two "Laird Rams" which were inpounded in order to avoid a war between the UK and the US.

Also purchased was supplies that were necessary to keep an army equipped in the field, including; Acid, Artillery Pieces, Artillery Carridges, Axes and Pickaxes, Bacon, Bayonets, Beef, Beer, Belts, Belt Buckles, Binoculars, Biscuits, Blankets, Books, Boots, Bottles, Bricks, Brooms, Bullets, Bullet Moulds, Candles, Canned Meat, Canteens, Cap Pouches, Cartridges, Cartridge Boxes, Chains, Cloth for Uniforms, Coal, Coffee, Copper, Cutlasses, Cutlery, Drawers, Eating Utensils, Engineers' Equipment, Files, Fish, Glue, Gunners' Equipment, Gunpowder, Harnesses, Hats, Haversacks, Horseshoes, Ink, Ink Stamps, Iron Beams, Knapsacks, Leather, Lumber, Manuals, Map Paper, Matches, Medical Equipment, Medicines, Mill Board, Needles, Nails, Officers' Braid, Overcoats, Paper, Percussion Caps, Pig Iron and Lead, Pins, Planks, Pork, Printing Presses, Printing Type, Railroad Track, Rank Badges, Revolvers, Rifled Muskets, Rifle Slings, Saddles, Salt, Saltpeter, Scabbards, Screws, Shirts, Shoes, Shovels, Soap, Socks, Stationery, Steel, Sugar, Swords and Sabers, Tea, Thread, Trousers, Twine, Unbrellas, Uniforms, Wheels and Hubs, and Wool.

Other items inported included the latest fashions from London and Paris, popular amongst Southern women.

Getting them in was a task in itself. It invoved ships known as blockade runners. These vessels had to be fast in order to get past the US Navy blockade. For example, a blockade runner leaves Wilmington, NC with a load of cotton. first, they had to get past the Yankee ships blockading the channel. Next they had to sail across the Atlantic, all the while keeping a look out for US warships. The crew breathed easier when they entered British territorial waters. Upon arriving in Liverpool, the cotton was offloaded and supplies that was bought by a Confederate agent was loaded. The return trip would have the same anxiety until the ship reached Wilmington with its cargo.

Another way to get cargo into the Confederacy was to sail into Matamoros, Mexico and use wagons to get the goods across the Rio Grande and into Texas, from where the supplies can be shipped to the armies. This worked mainly for the Western armies, since after July 1863, the Mississippi River was held by the Union and getting supplies across would be difficult at best.

A popular method was to ship the supplies in a British ship (and therefore avoiding being stopped by Union vessels, as the North did not want a repeat of the Trent incident) to Nassau, the Bahamas. The cargo would be split between two or three Confederate ships and sent on their way.

An interesting way to establish credit for the Confederacy was the use of cotton as a method of payment. The French investment firm Erlanger and Company agreed to sell bonds backed by Southern cotton. These bonds were issued for 40,000 pounds of cotton for 1000 Pounds Stirling or 25,000 French Francs. The total to be issued was 3,000,000 Pounds Stirling or 75,000,000 French Francs. On March 19, 1863 the bonds were issued in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Liverpool and Paris. The issue netted the Confederates 16,000,000 Pounds Stirling, badly needed monet to but supplies with. Sadly for the investors, the cotton that was to be delivered was instead seized by the US. Attempts to reclaim the money fron the US was rebuffed, the reasoning being that the US could not be held responsible for the actions of a government that they did not acknowledge. Some of the bonds survive and can be bought by collectors for at least $2000.

All in all this book makes an interesting read for those interested in the foreign operations of the CSA.
 
Thanks, Mr. Powers, for filling in some of the details in the big picture.
Ole
 
FSPowers said:
Just read a book called Guns for Cotton- England Arms the Confederacy by Thomas Boaz. This book details the efforts of Confederate agents to purchase ships, arms and equipment for the CSA in England.

Ships purchased there included the CSS Alabama, CSS Florida, CSS Shenandoah, and CSS Tallahassee. Other ships included the two "Laird Rams" which were inpounded in order to avoid a war between the UK and the US.

Also purchased was supplies that were necessary to keep an army equipped in the field....Other items inported included the latest fashions from London and Paris, popular amongst Southern women.

Getting them in was a task in itself. It invoved ships known as blockade runners. These vessels had to be fast in order to get past the US Navy blockade....


Also.....some of the blockade runners were built in England.

Almost a whole fleet of ships were built (or existing ships purchased) in England for the Confederacy.

Some were more successful than others...others built to late to play any effective role in the war-

Adventure
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa1/adventure.htm

Albatross
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa1/albatross.htm

Curlew (see #2)
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa2/curlew.htm

Hercules
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa5/hercules.htm

Penguin
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa7/penguin.htm

Plover
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa8/plover.htm

Rappahannock (see #2)
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa8/rappahannock.htm

Rosina
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa8/rosina.htm

Ruby
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa8/ruby.htm

Santa Maria
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa8/santa_maria.htm

Snipe
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa9/snipe.htm

Widgeon
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa10/widgeon.htm





Advance
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa1/a_d_vance.htm

Agrippina
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa1/agrippina.htm

Ajax
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa1/ajax.htm

Alabama
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa1/alabama.htm

Alar
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa1/alar.htm

Alexandra
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa1/alexandra.htm

Atlanta
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa1/atlanta.htm

Bahama
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa1/bahama.htm

Bat
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa1/bat.htm

Bermuda
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa2/bermuda.htm

Castor
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa2/castor.htm

Chickamauga
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa2/chickamauga.htm

City of Richmond
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa2/city_of_richmond.htm

Colonel Lamb
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa2/colonel_lamb.htm

Condor
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa2/condor.htm

Cornubia
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa2/cornubia.htm

Deer
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa3/deer.htm

Falcon
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa3/falcon.htm

Georgia
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa4/georgia.htm

Georgiana
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa4/georgiana.htm

Greyhound
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa4/greyhound.htm

Flamingo
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa4/flamingo.htm

Florida (see #3)
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa4/florida.htm

Harriet Pinckney
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa5/harriet_pinckney.htm

Juno
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa6/juno.htm

Laurel
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa6/laurel.htm

Phantom
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa7/phantom.htm

Owl
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa7/owl.htm

Ptarmigan (aka Evelyn)
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa8/ptarmigan.htm

Robert E. Lee (1863).......21 voyages.........7,000 Bales Cotton
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa8/robert_e_lee.htm

Shenandoah
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa9/shenandoah.htm

Stag
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa9/stag.htm

Tallahassee (aka Atalanta)
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa9/tallahassee.htm
 
Thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the reference, it sounds like a most interesting read! I'm reading a lot of Confederate naval history and of course, James Bulloch's name comes up again and again. Interestingly, he was also the uncle of later U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.

I understand that he never did return to the US after the War: he died and is buried in England.

Capt. Coxetter
 
Still going on!

I have the Southern Cross on the wall of the Garage. I drink Jack Daniels, lurve The New Orleans Saints and like Lynyrd Skynyrd!
 
Capt Coxetter said:
Thanks for the reference, it sounds like a most interesting read! I'm reading a lot of Confederate naval history and of course, James Bulloch's name comes up again and again.
I understand that he never did return to the US after the War: he died and is buried in England. Capt. Coxetter
Bulloch wrote a book on his duty in Europe:
The Secret Service of The Confederate States In Europe, or,
How the Confederate Cruisers Were Equipped.
It has an intro by Philip Van Doren Stern
I have the paperback print from Modern Library and was only $16.95.
Chuck in IL.
 
FSPowers said:
Just read a book called Guns for Cotton- England Arms the Confederacy by Thomas Boaz. .

Private individuals also purchased vast amounts of munitions directly from the UK, Hamptons legion was equiped, inc arty, directly from the UK and was sent in a chartereed boat ( Bermuda) from the UK to SC, as it was it was to late and its 7000 stand of firearms was sent to the AoT instead, only the Blakley arty going into service with Hampton in Va.
 
I have the Southern Cross on the wall of the Garage. I drink Jack Daniels, lurve The New Orleans Saints and like Lynyrd Skynyrd!
Until you profess an inclination for cold beer, riding a Hog, loving 11 losers, and one wired rocker will get you nowhere. However having the Southern Cross displayed counts, which is immediately negated because it doesn't hold a prominent place in the home. On to Richmond!
Ole (where in heck is that "wink" smiley?)
 
Oooo! That's harsh Ole!

Sooner or later The (S)aints gotta win the superbowl - law of averages!:laugh2:

I do adore Cold beers but I have to say I find the Yankee ones a trifle 'watery' not enough alcohol! Try a 'Becks' or 'Holsten' 5% abv!!

Or English Abbott Ale also 5% ABV...........

I do have a Mississippi state flag on the wall of my office. Does that count?

'Sweet Home Alabama'............:thumbsup:
 
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