Ebook: In the shadow of the Alabama : the British Foreign Office and the American Civil War

Overview: This book looks at an allegation of betrayal made against a young Foreign Office clerk, Victor Buckley, who, it was claimed, leaked privileged information to agents of the southern States during the American Civil War. As a consequence, the CSS "Alabama" narrowly escaped seizure by the British government and proceeded to wage war on American shipping. Victor Buckley's background is examined against the hitherto erroneous belief that he was an insignificant member of the foreign office staff. The American minister Charles Francis Adams oversees a network of spies endeavoring to prove contravention of The Foreign Enlistment Act. The South's agents, Captain James D. Bulloch and Major Caleb Huse, are the prime targets, and a battle of wits ensues as Bulloch oversees construction of his ships on Merseyside. A member of a prominent City family offers to enlist the help of a relative who, he claims, holds a confidential position in the Foreign Office. The Confederate agents are soon receiving information about the status of Anglo-American diplomacy and are able to outwit the Union spies and dispatch arms and supplies to the South. Their coup d'etat is achieved with the arrival of a message that hurries the Confederate's most formidable warship out of British waters. After the escape of the "Alabama," the government moves to curtail Bulloch's operations.