This book tells an interesting story. Despite its subtitle, the focus is less on the Foreign Office than on the interconnected activities of Confederate agents and their British contacts—arms manufacturers, shipbuilders, financiers, legal advisers, middlemen, politicians—as they conspired to provide the ships, weapons, and supplies that were so vital to the Southern war effort during the American Civil War. Attention is also given to US officials and their spies and allies, who tried to frustrate Confederate schemes, and to the lack of clarity within the British government, where there was no consensus about the nature and responsibilities of neutrality. The Foreign Enlistment Act of 1819 proved to be a cumbersome device and did not make for prompt or efficient decision-making, as British authorities tried to figure out how best to deal with the Confederates’ plots and US complaints and warnings. The central event in the book is the escape of the “No. 290” or Enrica, which became the CSS Alabama, at the end of July 1862, just before a detention order reached its place of departure. The Alabama, of course, went on to destroy many US vessels. Compensation demands relating to the Alabama and other British-built Confederate ships led to serious disputation between the British and US governments after the war.
Most of the details of this history, and the personalities involved, are already well known. Renata Eley Long's claims about new discoveries are somewhat overblown, but still, she does an excellent job in demonstrating the links between the main movers. Pro-Southern networks in Britain were built on family and marriage bonds, business dealings, political ambition, gentlemen's clubs, City speculations, and prior transatlantic ties, and if genuine sympathy for the Confederate cause motivated some, for others the spur was nothing but the prospect of quick and considerable monetary gain. The most important revelations offered in the book concern a Foreign Office clerk, Victor Buckley, whose relatives included dukes and earls, a distinguished general, a Liberal MP, and an official in the royal household; Queen Victoria was Buckley's godmother. Buckley was also linked with some of the merchants and manufacturers who did business with Confederate agents during the war. Long identifies Buckley as the “mole” who tipped the latter off regarding the imminent seizure of the Alabama, but she fails properly to establish why he did it. Buckley might also have been the beneficiary of a subsequent Foreign Office cover-up. Long suggests that this was meant to protect Britain's international reputation, to help preserve the Foreign Office's esprit de corps and ethos of elitism and reticence, and to keep the queen's godson out of a scandal. Perhaps there was a cover-up, but supposition is not the same as evidence.
At the end of the book, Long states that the postwar settlement of the Alabama claims was a turning point in Anglo-American relations that helped bring about the cooperation and friendship of the twentieth century. She also contends that developments in the American Civil War period changed British government and society: aristocratic control was reduced, the “Age of Empire” gave way to the “Age of Capital,” and the future belonged to the type of ruthless entrepreneurs who had connived to aid the Confederacy. It is a pity that these larger themes are not addressed earlier in the book—at greater length and more analytically—because, as they stand, Long's closing remarks are little more than afterthoughts. But they are important; they ought to be substantiated.
To be fair, though, this book does not purport to be an in-depth academic study. It barely engages with the relevant historiography. Its research basis is adequate, but a great deal in the book is not documented or referenced. Most of the works listed in the bibliography are not cited directly in the text, and the bibliography mixes together unpublished manuscripts, contemporary published sources, and secondary works willy-nilly. Long's brief introduction includes a “Note for Historians,” in which she explains that her book is “essentially a primary research-based work” that “sheds new light” but “does not seek to be a purely academic, revisionist text challenging the prevailing narrative offered in secondary sources.” Long's interest is really in “personal stories” and how “key actors” influenced naval and diplomatic events during the American Civil War (2).
The book is generally well written and easy to follow. Sometimes a name might be spelled incorrectly, or the title of a publication not italicized, but overall the style is impressive. Nevertheless, some readers will find the many asides (“personal stories”) distracting and even irrelevant. Some will be irked by Long's reliance on melodramatic language. Phrases like “a curious twist of fate” appear quite often. We learn early on that “the young Victor Buckley would become a pawn in a very dangerous game” (10), and as for his wife, Mary Stirling, “fate was holding a place for her within the footnotes of history” (22). Meanwhile, Long indulges in a lot of guesswork, qualifying many statements with such words as “probably,” “apparently,” and “it is reasonable to suppose.” Such qualifications may express admirable caution, but in excess they undermine reader confidence. More serious, perhaps, are various simplistic and ill-informed interpretations—about the queen's influence over government policy making, for instance, or the pro-Northern stance of Lancashire textile workers, both of which are exaggerated. The book also has some factual errors. For example, the Disraeli ministry of 1868 did not have a “slender majority” (170).
When read alongside more scholarly works on British aspects of the American Civil War, this book will be found useful, albeit with the limitations indicated above.
