Russians!

This is coolbert:

From Suite 101 and the article by Christopher Eger we have the details of a remarkable incident from the American Civil War the aspects and implications of which are little known or appreciated.

"The Cossacks Are Coming, Aren't They?"

"The misinterpreted Russian Navy mission in the US Civil War may have accidentally helped the North win the conflict."

The Russians are coming!

And on almost this exact date 150 years ago the Russians did arrive, and did so in force!

And much welcomed, President Lincoln and the entire Federal cause most grateful.

"Suddenly, on September 24, 1863, two separate Russian naval squadrons arrived in US waters unannounced on both the East and West coasts. The Russian Atlantic fleet on the US East Coast had sailed from the Baltic and arrived at New York under command of Rear Admiral Lesovskii with three large frigates and three smaller vessels. The fleet included the new and fearsome 5,100-ton US-built screw frigate Alexander Nevsky with 51 sixty-pounder naval guns. The Russian Pacific fleet that arrived on the West Coast in San Francisco was under command of Rear Admiral Popov and consisted of four small gunboats and a pair of armed merchants cruisers. The ships were saluted, and allowed entry as being on a friendly port call."

Those Russian Imperial Navy squadrons arriving in New York City and San Francisco and engaging in maneuvers and exercises for a period of nine months subsequent a strong show of solidarity with the Union cause and the abolitionist movement.

Czar Alexander II, Czar of all the Russians only less than two years earlier having emancipated 23 million serfs. Alexander finding common cause with the aspirations of President Lincoln.

That arrival of the Russian naval squadrons seen as a warning to other European powers [England and France] not to intervene in the American Civil War on the side of the Confederacy.

The Union cause thanks to the efforts of the American Ambassador Cassius Marcellus Clay indeed having a very powerful and strong foreign ally.

Devoted readers to the blog more than likely will correctly assume that this "show of solidarity" was not so totally 100 % altruistic. Czar Alexander did have an intention that was not so totally selfless, only fifty years after the fact that role of the Russian navy in American waters understood within a much wider context.

Read that entire Suite 101 article and then YOU WILL KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY!

coolbert.