21 Facts About Trent Affair

1.

Trent Affair was a diplomatic incident in 1861 during the American Civil War that threatened a war between the United States and Great Britain.

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2.

Trent Affair made clear that Washington considered the war strictly an internal insurrection affording the Confederacy no rights under international law.

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3.

Trent Affair was generally perceived to be pro-Union and was influential in dampening Napoleon's initial inclination towards diplomatic recognition of Confederate independence.

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4.

Trent Affair had no foreign affairs experience and did not speak French, but was assisted a great deal by the US consul general in Paris, John Bigelow.

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5.

Trent Affair selected John Slidell of Louisiana and James Mason of Virginia.

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6.

Trent Affair had a shallow enough draft to use the back channels and could make over 12 knots, more than enough to elude Union pursuit.

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7.

Trent Affair realized that the ship would need to use the "narrow Bahama Channel, the only deepwater route between Cuba and the shallow Grand Bahama Bank".

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8.

Trent Affair has a superabundance of self-esteem and a deficiency of judgment.

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9.

Just as Wilkes had predicted, Trent Affair passed through Bahama Channel, where San Jacinto was waiting.

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10.

The crew and passengers then threatened Lieutenant Fairfax, and the armed party in the two cutters beside Trent Affair responded to the threats by climbing aboard to protect him.

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11.

Wilkes would later claim that he believed that Trent Affair was carrying "highly important dispatches and were endowed with instructions inimical to the United States".

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12.

Trent Affair was then ordered to Boston where he delivered the captives to Fort Warren, a prison for captured Confederates.

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13.

Trent Affair reiterated that recognition of the Confederacy would likely lead to war.

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14.

Trent Affair spent several hours with the Admiralty and the Prime Minister.

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15.

The "San Jacinto" assumed to act as a belligerent, but the "Trent Affair" was not captured or carried into a port of the United States for adjudication as a prize, and, under the circumstances, cannot be considered as having acted in breach of international law.

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16.

Trent Affair felt that the existing force made up largely of steam ships was superior to the primarily sail ships of the Union fleet, and he was reluctant to incur additional expenses while Britain was in the process of rebuilding her fleet with iron ships.

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17.

When Palmerston, alarmed by the blockade and the Trent affair, pressed for increasing the number of regular troops in Canada to 10,000, he met resistance.

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18.

Trent Affair judged it "incredible that any Government of ordinary prudence should at a moment of civil war gratuitously increase the number of its enemies, and, moreover, incur the hostility of so formidable a power as England".

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19.

Trent Affair lay out his reasoning in the letter regarding the military strength of both nations in the region:.

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20.

The capture and search of Trent Affair was consistent with international law, and Wilkes' only error was in failing to take Trent Affair to a port for judicial determination.

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21.

Resolution of the Trent affair dealt a serious blow to Confederate diplomatic efforts.

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