The Trent Affair was a diplomatic incident in 1861 during the American Civil War that threatened a war between the United States and Great Britain. The U.S. Navy captured two Confederate envoys from a British Royal Mail steamer; the British government protested vigorously. American public and elite opinion strongly supported the seizure, but it worsened the economy and was ruining relations with the world's strongest economy and strongest navy. President Abraham Lincoln ended the crisis by releasing the envoys.
On November 8, 1861, USS San Jacinto, commanded by Union Captain Charles Wilkes, intercepted the British mail packet RMS Trent and removed, as contraband of war, two Confederate envoys: James Murray Mason and John Slidell. The envoys were bound for Britain and France to press the Confederacy's case for diplomatic recognition and to lobby for possible financial and military support.
Public reaction in the United States was to celebrate the capture and rally against Britain, threatening war. In the Confederate States, the hope was that the incident would lead to a permanent rupture in Anglo-American relations and possibly even war, or at least diplomatic recognition by Britain. Confederates realized their cause potentially depended on intervention by Britain and France. In Britain, there was widespread disapproval of this violation of neutral rights and insult to their national honor. The British government demanded an apology and the release of the prisoners and took steps to strengthen its military forces in British North America (Canada) and the North Atlantic.
President Abraham Lincoln and his top advisors did not want to risk war with Britain over this issue. After several tense weeks, the crisis was resolved when the Lincoln administration released the envoys and disavowed Captain Wilkes's actions, although without a formal apology. Mason and Slidell resumed their voyage to Europe.
The TrentAffair was a diplomatic incident in 1861 during the American Civil War that threatened a war between the United States and Great Britain. The...
Navy ships RMS Trent, a British steamship involved in the TrentAffair during the US Civil War SS Trent, a steamship built in 1899 Trent-class lifeboat...
by Britain and France. A serious diplomatic dispute erupted over the "TrentAffair" in late 1861 but was resolved peacefully after five weeks. British intervention...
1861 "TrentAffair," a diplomatic controversy involving the U.S. Navy's removal of Confederate commissioners from the British mail-steamer, RMS Trent. On...
"TrentAffair" in November 1861. A US Navy ship seized two Confederate diplomats (James Murray Mason and John Slidell) from the British steamer Trent....
Civil War between 1861 and 1865, he commanded USS San Jacinto during the TrentAffair in which he stopped a Royal Mail ship and removed two Confederate diplomats...
Britain and the United States were high due to incidents such as the TrentAffair, blockade runners loaded with British arms supplies bound for the Confederacy...
provoked the TrentAffair, also known as the Mason and Slidell Affair, which almost led to war between the United Kingdom and the United States. Trent continued...
Maryland and elsewhere, and he averted war with Britain by defusing the TrentAffair. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the...
between the U.S. and Britain over the Trentaffair, which began when U.S. Navy personnel boarded the British ship Trent and seized two Confederate diplomats...
Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers War based income tax Seaports blockade RMS TrentAffair Habeas Corpus suspended Emancipation Proclamation West Virginia statehood...
Holyhead to Stafford in 1862, while conveying despatches relating to the TrentAffair. The Lady of the Lake class was the second type of locomotive designed...
Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers War based income tax Seaports blockade RMS TrentAffair Habeas Corpus suspended Emancipation Proclamation West Virginia statehood...
captain of James Adger began the legal questions that would be used in the TrentAffair by loudly speaking of his mission while intoxicated on brandy. Earl Russell...
Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers War based income tax Seaports blockade RMS TrentAffair Habeas Corpus suspended Emancipation Proclamation West Virginia statehood...
Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers War based income tax Seaports blockade RMS TrentAffair Habeas Corpus suspended Emancipation Proclamation West Virginia statehood...
such as the Aroostook War in 1838–39, the Pig War in 1859, and the TrentAffair in 1861. In late 1813, emperor Alexander I of Russia offered to mediate...
of the film adaptation of the novel. 1862 by Robert Conroy. After the TrentAffair, the United Kingdom joins the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy...
Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers War based income tax Seaports blockade RMS TrentAffair Habeas Corpus suspended Emancipation Proclamation West Virginia statehood...
Slidell of Louisiana, who was later involved in the American Civil War's TrentAffair. Mackenzie was the captain of USS Somers when it became the only US Navy...
Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers War based income tax Seaports blockade RMS TrentAffair Habeas Corpus suspended Emancipation Proclamation West Virginia statehood...
Therefore, Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, the diplomat who solved the TrentAffair; Sir Algernon McLennan Lyons, Admiral of the Fleet; and Richard Lyons...
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