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The Milne Papers - Volume III: The Royal Navy and the American Civil War, 1862-1864 (Hardcover)
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The Milne Papers - Volume III: The Royal Navy and the American Civil War, 1862-1864 (Hardcover)
Series: Navy Records Society Publications
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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This collection covers the period February 1862-March 1864, which
constituted the final two years and one month that Rear-Admiral Sir
Alexander Milne commanded the Royal Navy's North America and West
India Station. Its chief focus is upon Anglo-American relations in
the midst of the American Civil War. Whilst the most high-profile
cause of tension between the two countries - the Trent Affair - had
been resolved in Britain's favour by January 1862, numerous sources
of discord remained. Most turned on American efforts to blockade
the so-called Confederacy, efforts that often ran afoul of
international law, not to mention British amour-propre. As
commander of British naval forces in the theatre, Milne's decisions
and actions could and did have a major impact on the state of
affairs between his government and that of the US. While noting in
one private exchange with the British ambassador to Washington,
Richard, Lord Lyons, that he had been "enjoined to abstain from any
act likely to involve Great Britain in hostilities with the United
States," Milne added ominously, "yet I am also instructed to guard
our Commerce from all illegal interference" and it is plain from
his correspondence that both he and the British government were
prepared to use force in that undertaking. Thus, between apparently
high-handed behaviour by the US Navy and Milne's and the Palmerston
government's resolve not to be pushed beyond a certain point, the
ingredients for a major confrontation between the two countries
existed. Yet most of Milne's efforts were directed toward
preventing such a confrontation from occurring. In this endeavour
he was joined by Lyons and by the British government. No vital
British interest was at stake in the conflict raging between North
and South, and thus the nation was unlikely to become directly
involved in it unless provoked by rash US actions. Yet there was no
shortage of such provocations: the seizure of British merchant
vessels bound from one neutral port to another, detaining such
ships without first conducting a search of their cargo for evidence
of contraband of war, the de facto blockade of British colonial
ports, apparent violations of British territorial waters, the
seizure of British merchantmen off the neutral port of Matamoros,
Mexico, and the use of neutral ports as bases of operations by US
warships among them. In responding to these and other sources of
dispute between the US and Britain, Milne proved adept at pouring
oil on troubled waters, so much so that in a late 1863 letter to
Foreign Secretary Lord Russell, Lyons lamented his impending
departure from the station: "I am very much grieved at his
leaving....No change of admirals could be for the better." This
collection centres upon Milne's private correspondence, especially
that between him and Lyons, First Lord of the Admiralty the Duke of
Somerset and First Naval Lord Vice Admiral Sir Frederick Grey. It
also includes private letters to and from many of Milne's other
professional correspondents and important official correspondence
with the Admiralty.
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