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A World on Fire_ Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War - Amanda Foreman [482]

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Seymour wrote to Lord Russell on May 9, 1862: “I have just seen a letter from an English officer (a man who has seen a great deal of service) who has been taking a look at the Federal army. A finer one—or one better provided with all things necessary he never—he says—saw—and he adds … ‘that it would require a force of 100,000 men to keep them out of Canada.’ Meanwhile he says that he does not trace much hostile feeling towards us, and that he has met with a great deal of civility from the Federal Officers.” PRO 33/22/39, f. 163.

42. Richard Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction (1879, repr. New York, 1992), p. 21.

43. He claimed to be the son of Brigadier Sir Charles Wyndham of the 5th Light Cavalry, and a Frenchwoman named Zoë Vauthrin. His mother allegedly gave birth to him in the middle of the English Channel, on board the Arab. But there was no HMS Arab in commission in 1833, nor did the Royal Navy have a Captain Charles Wyndham. Nor was he the son, illegitimate or otherwise, of Lord Leconsfield, although there was a Captain Charles Wyndham, killed in action at Jagdalak on October 29, 1841.

44. Edward G. Longacre, Jersey Cavaliers (Hightstown, N.J., 1992), p. 47.

45. Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction, p. 53.

46. Ruth Scarborough, Siren of the South (Macon, 1997), p. 53. This same Henry Kyd Douglas has been accused of being the man responsible for Robert E. Lee’s Antietam battle plans falling into Federal hands. Wilbur D. Jones, “Who Lost the Lost Order?,” Civil War Regiments: A Journal of the American Civil War, 5/3 (1997).

47. Mary Sophia Hill, A British Subject’s Recollections of the Confederacy (Baltimore, 1875), pp. 19, 20.

48. Wyndham’s lieutenant colonel reported: “All the officers, as far as I could see, behaved bravely in trying to rally their men, but to no avail. They retreated without order and in the greatest confusion—for the most part panic-stricken.” OR, ser. 1, vol. 15/1, p. 680.

49. Longacre, Jersey Cavaliers, p. 92.

50. Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, 3 vols. (repr. New York, 1970), vol. 1, p. 432.

51. James I. Robertson, Jr., Stonewall Jackson (New York, 1997), p. 429.

52. Ibid., p. 449.

53. Wilmer Jones, Generals in Blue and Gray (New York, 2006), p. 80.

54. PRO 30/22/36, ff. 87–90, Lyons to Russell, May 6, 1862. “So strongly have I been impressed with the necessity of being at the seat of Government, that with the exception of the two months … attendance upon the Prince of Wales, I have been only four nights absent from Washington,” he wrote apologetically.

55. West Sussex RO, Lyons MSS, box 300, Lord Lyons to Augusta Lyons, May 6, 1862.

56. When Lyons called on Seward to say goodbye, Lyons reassured him that it would be far better for him to spend his holiday in England than at an American resort, cut off from both capitals. Seward agreed, reported Lyons. “There was, [Seward] was happy to say, no difficult question pending between the two governments.” PRO FO 5/831, ff. 171–74, Lyons to Russell, June 9, 1862.

57. The legation often acted as a missing persons bureau. Instructions like this one to the consulate in New York were not uncommon: “to insert in the New York Herald and New York Tribune the following advertisement: ‘Ashley Norton Jones, otherwise called George Temple, who is believed to be serving in the United States Army, is earnestly entreated, for the sake of his afflicted parents to communicate at once with the Reverend Rush Buel, 44 William Street, Providence, RI. His parents will consult his wishes on all matters. Officers or comrades are requested to call his attention to this notice’. Notice should appear every alternative day for a month.”

58. Bayly Ellen Marks and Mark Norton Schatz, Between North and South: A Maryland Journalist Views the Civil War. The Narrative of William Wilkins Glenn, 1861–1869 (Cranbury, N.J., 1976), pp. 64–65, June 15, 1862.

59. Just before he left, on June 13, Lyons informed the Foreign Office that Congress had voted to recognize the Republics of Haiti and Liberia. Previous administrations

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