The Trent Affair, 1861
Arnold Whitridge recounts the brief but dangerous nineteenth century Anglo-American naval crisis that almost led to war.
On the afternoon of November 27th, 1861, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, the American Minister to the Court of St. James’s, was examining the ruins of Pontefract Castle when he was rudely jerked back to the present by a telegram from his Legation. Monckton Milnes, with whom he was staying at the time, saw him open and read the telegram, and noticed his complete calmness as he told the party that he had received “stirring news.” The Adams family is not easily flustered and Charles Francis was no exception to the rule.
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