Sam Leith Sam Leith

Far from idealism

Sam Leith on the chaos and carnage of the American Civil War, in which slavery was always a secondary issue, battles began accidentally and volunteers enlisted on a whim

issue 06 November 2010

If you think the Special Relationship has been looking strained in recent years, consider its condition during the American Civil War(1861-65). In 1863, an anonymous letter was delivered to Charles Francis Adams at the US legation in London:

Dam the Federals. Dam the Confederates.Dam you both. Kill you damned selves for the next 10 years if you like; so much the better for the world and for England. Thus thinks every Englishman with any brains. NB PS We’ll cut your throats fast enough afterwards for you if you ain’t tired of blood, you devils.

Brevity, they say, is the first grace of style. The feeling that letter encapsulates ran pretty high in England. For us, the Civil War was — as Amanda Foreman’s new book shows — a colossal economic, political and diplomatic pain in the backside. But it was a pain that — strive as we might — couldn’t very well be avoided.

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