The Trent Affair: The Civil War Mix-up That Almost Brought England Into The War

 

The San Jacinto stopping the Trent at sea. John Slidell (right), James Mason (left)

Early in the war, the Confederate States pinned their hopes on attracting military and financial assistance from the European powers, but securing their help was not that easy. Jefferson Davis was one of the biggest stumbling blocks to recognition. Rather than develop a consistent foreign policy aligned with the needs of his potential allies, Davis believed the commissioners should stress the importance of cotton to the prosperity of the British economy. He also wanted the commissioners to make a play for sympathy and emphasize the moral issues the South was fighting for (while also downplaying slavery). Vice President Alexander Stephens favored exchanging cotton for arms and ammunition.

 

R. B. Rhett, a South Carolina politician, suggested a more balanced approach. He wanted to form a treaty of a commercial alliance with England and France that created offensive and defensive obligations. He favored imposing a ten percent tariff on countries that did not accept the treaty, and he wanted to give the commissioners liberal powers to form alliances.

 

In the end, Jefferson Davis won out. He sent a three-person delegation comprising William Lowndes Yancey, Ambrose Dudley Mann, and Pierre Rost to Europe in February 1861.

 

In London, the commissioners had an informal meeting with Lord John Russell, the British Foreign Secretary, in early May before word of the attack on Fort Sumter reached England. Not long after that, Mr. Gregory introduced a motion in the House of Commons to recognize the Confederate States as an independent nation. The house did not act on it.

Gunboat St. Louis In The Civil War

 

The gunboat St. Louis, launched on October 12, 1861, was one of seven Cairo-class gunboats built to carry the war onto the western rivers.

With 13 guns and a draft of just six feet, it brought heavy firepower into waterways that larger warships couldn’t reach. It initially operated under Army control, with naval officers commanding it.

In February 1862, the St. Louis helped capture Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. Days later, it carried Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote into the attack on Fort Donelson. Confederate gunners hit it 59 times and disabled it. Its armor offered protection, but it wasn’t invincible.

The gunboats had an advantage at Fort Henry. It stood on low ground, and rising river water had flooded part of it. Foote’s vessels could fire straight into the defenses. The bombardment forced the fort’s surrender before General Grant’s infantry arrived.

Fort Donelson was a different fight. Its batteries stood high above the Cumberland River, giving Confederate gunners a commanding view of the approaching boats. On February 14, they battered Foote’s squadron during a ninety-minute exchange. Foote was wounded, and the gunboats withdrew. Grant’s army continued the fight ashore and captured the fort on February 16.

A Double Murder At Rahway, New Jersey

 

Edith Janny (The Evening World. August 23, 1918)

August 22, 1918, was supposed to be a fun day for Edith Janny and her friend Genevieve Hendrickson. They enjoyed a leisurely day at Seidler’s Beach, frolicking in the sand. Later that night, around 9:30 p.m., Arthur Kupfer and Isaac Saxe picked the girls up and drove them back to Perth Amboy.

 

Kupfer dropped Saxe and Hendrickson off at their homes around 10:30 p.m. and headed to the Highland Park Hotel. Kupfer and Janny stayed there from 11 p.m. until shortly after midnight, possibly as late as 12:30 a.m.

 

Rudolph Osterwald, the hotel proprietor, refused to let them spend the night because “it would look bad for the hotel.” Mrs. Osterwald told the girl, “It would be better for her to go home—no matter what her mother might say—than to wait until morning and then appear, showing plainly to the neighbors that she had been out all night.”

Somewhere along the way home, bandits hijacked the car and killed Kupfer and Janny.

University of California (Berkeley) & Stanford University Rugby Teams 1913

 

I found this great image showing the 1913 University of California (Berkeley) and Stanford University Rugby Teams. They were to meet on the turf at Palo Alto on November 8, 1913. The San Francisco Chronicle said the teams were evenly matched. 

Stanford had the "better balanced fifteen, but whetther the Cardinal can succeed in playing its own style of game is what gives Stanford no more than an even break after the initial whistle."

Therefore, it was anyone's guess who would win.

Alfred Morrison: The Mount Vernon Dream Killer

 

Alfred Morrison (The Evening World. April 6, 1900)

A sneak thief stole an overcoat from Alfred Morrison’s back porch Thursday evening. When he went to bed that night, he fell asleep with a big cavalry revolver under his pillow.

His younger daughter, Josephine, slept in the bed with him. His wife and youngest child slept in a smaller bed on the other side of the room. 

Alfred Morrison woke up at 2:30 a.m., standing beside his wife’s bed, holding his pistol. “Run for a doctor, quick,” she screamed, “you’ve hit me.”

Much like Walter Mitty, Morrison was an excitable guy who lived in a vague, dreamlike state. For example, that night, he pictured himself fighting off a hoard of burglars, not his wife.

Lemp Brewery In St. Louis: Makers Of Falstaff Beer

 

Lemp Brewery in St. Louis, Missouri
(color drawing after a photo in the St. Louis Star & Times. March 14, 1914)

The Lemps knew how to get their name in front of people. They put it on bottles, advertisements, and the side of a smokestack. By the 1870s, they ran the largest brewery in St. Louis.

 

Before all that, there was a grocery store.

 

Johann Adam Lemp came to St. Louis in 1838. He’d learned to brew in Germany and started making beer while running his store. The lager found customers. Enough of them that groceries stopped being the principal business.

 

The family claimed 1840 as the brewery’s founding year. Historians haven’t quite settled that, but records show brewing operations by 1841. Adam called it the Western Brewery and set up near the riverfront.

 

He had beer to make and a problem to solve.

 

Lager needed to stay cold while it aged. St. Louis got hot, and a brewer couldn’t leave barrels sitting through a Missouri summer and expect everything to turn out fine.

 

Adam used caves.

New York City At The Start Of The Revolution

Harper's Weekly Magazine published this print of New York City in 1776 in its February 19, 1876 issue. It's a great look at New York City at the start of the American Revolution.