What did British officers think of the American civil war as it was happening?
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Re: What did British officers think of the American civil war as it was happening?
#2There's also an interesting paper written on the Vatican's view of the American Civil War: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25018756
Re: What did British officers think of the American civil war as it was happening?
#3Not mentioned: Towards the end of the Civil War, British officers became very concerned that the large and now experienced army might turn its attention North, as they had some 50 years prior. The Civil War was thus a direct catalyst for Canadian confederation.
Re: What did British officers think of the American civil war as it was happening?
#4this was disappointingly content-light. I'm curious about the subject, but this was barely even an introduction.
Re: What did British officers think of the American civil war as it was happening?
#5No post body was provided.
Re: What did British officers think of the American civil war as it was happening?
#6It would be interesting to know what Prussian officers thought of the battles as they soon after fought a few wars. But I can't read German.
Re: What did British officers think of the American civil war as it was happening?
#7In the Wealth of Nations (1776) Adam Smith refers to it as “an ongoing disturbance in our North American colonies” IIRC
Re: What did British officers think of the American civil war as it was happening?
#8In the Wealth of Nations (1776) Adam Smith refers to it as “an ongoing disturbance in our North American colonies” IIRC
"American Civil War" usually refers to the war in the 1860s. "American Revolution" is what we US people call the war in the 1770s.
Re: What did British officers think of the American civil war as it was happening?
#9I think the real answer and probably why the article is a bit light on actual anecdotes, is that Britain or its military at the time probably didn't think much of it all, especially from a military point of view. Plus they were super busy with imperial concerns, especially in the British Raj post-1857 rebellion.
The U.S., although gaining steam economically (pun intended), was still a backwater, rural, nation isolated by a whole lot of ocean (edit: I meant all this from a military point of view). I am sure the abolitionists in power in Parliament were interested in the outcome of the war from that point of view, but it was really of very little consequence to UK or Europe as a whole.
Re: What did British officers think of the American civil war as it was happening?
#10In the Wealth of Nations (1776) Adam Smith refers to it as “an ongoing disturbance in our North American colonies” IIRC
That was the American Revolution. The American Civil War typically refers to the conflict of 1861-1865.