In 1861 the British Mail steamer the TRENT was stopped on the high seas by the union ship, SAN JACINTO, and two Confederate commissioners bound for France & Britain were forcibly removed by Federal, armed marines. War was only narrowly averted by Prince Albert redrafting a strongly worded letter from the Government, thus permitting an honourable apology and the return of the two commissioners. At the time Prince Albert was ill with typhoid fever and died a few days later.

A British warship provided a bigger threat to the Union Navy than the whole of the Confederate fleet. HMS WARRIOR, launched in 1860, was so advanced, being the first true ironclad, that it was doubtful whether the artillery of the time could pierce her iron hull. A section was built at the Union Navy Yard and tests carried out. Eventually an exploding shell was developed but most of the Union ships were incapable of being fitted with the type of armament required. HMS WARRIOR was herself outdated by the end of the decade and was subsequently used as a training ship and eventually as a floating jetty at the Milford Haven oil terminal. In1979 she was rescued from the scrap heap, fully restored at Hartlepool; and is now open to the public at Portsmouth. She is the only remaining example of the transition from sail to steam, being fitted with both.

Although Great Britain declared her neutrality, both the Union and Confederate causes were supported by various influential businessmen and shipments of arms and equipment were made from here in large quantities supplying both sides. Fantastic profits were made by running war supplies through the Union blockade to the besieged Southern ports.

Shoes and boots from the factories in Northampton, paper made at Wookey Hole for confederate bank notes, buttons manufactured in Birmingham and Manchester, blankets, drugs, tents, muskets, ammunition and even false teeth were all shipped out although the paperwork never showed the true destination.

Ships were bought and sold or purposely built as blockade runners. The most feared Confederate commerce raider, the ALABAMA, was built secretly at Laird's yard in Liverpool. She was sunk by the USS KEARSAGE off the coast of France. The survivors were picked up by two British yachts and her Captain and Senior Officers landed in Southampton. Her surgeon, a Welshman was drowned when he refused to leave until the wounded had been rescued. In the 1870s, the International Court of Arbitration ruled that Great Britain pay a heavy compensation for the Union merchant ships lost to the ALABAMA.

The very last surrender of the American Civil War took place in Liverpool when the CSS SHENANDOAH surrendered to HMS DONEGAL having made a nine thousand mile journey to do so. Unfortunately she had been decimating the northern whaling fleet in the Pacific not knowing that the war had ended some seven months previously.

HMS DONEGAL survived until the 1920s ending her life as a training ship alongside HMS WARRIOR when both were used as part of the HMS VERNON gunnery school. By coincidence, a photograph survives showing the two together at this time.

So why the American Civil War? One answer is because we were a part of it. Over 50,00 British citizens fought in it and many of the American citizens were recent immigrants from the UK so British accents were common. A second response is because this war, more than any other, was a turning point in weaponry and tactics. At the start they were still using Napoleonic tactics, muzzle loading muskets and smooth bore canon. By the end they were using trench warfare, breech loading repeating rifles, mortars, mines (including those placed in and around Southern routes to the sea to enforce the blockade. These were called torpedoes), aerial reconnaissance, blackouts, submarine attack (the Hunley), the machine gun had been invented and the first battle of the ironclads had taken place. This is where modern warfare really began and somewhere between 620,000 and 650,000 died in the space of four years. This was a fascinating, terrifying, extraordinary time that has been remarkably well documented thanks to the use of the camera and the willingness of participants from officers down to ordinary men to record their experiences for posterity. Finally, we've met a bunch of people who are fun to be with and a way of life for the weekend that allows you to switch off the pressures of the modern world and step back in time to a period when everything came down to basics: food, friends and staying alive. No mobile phones, no computers, no TV, no microwaves, and because we're not really trying to kill each other, no stresses. Come along and find out for yourself. It's the perfect antidote to the modern world.