Civil War Confederate Navy, CSS Shenandoah, 1863

Civil War 1863 Dated Letter: One page letter in ink written on February 10, 1863 by Edmund Hammond, British Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to "James Edwards, Esq., 106 Bloomsbury, Oxford Street, Manchester" advising him that Earl Russell has acknowledged "the receipt of your letter of the 7th instant, containing information relative to the construction of a vessel in the Clyde supposed to be intended for the use of the Government of the so-styled Confederate States; and I am in reply to convey to you his Lordship's thanks for that communication."History: While Great Britain remained officially neutral throughout the Civil War, a number of vessels were constructed in British shipyards that ended up in Confederate service, most famously the CSS Alabama under Captain Raphael Semmes. In this instance, the ship in question may have been the CSS Shenandoah, which was built by Alexander Stephen & Sons on the River Clyde in Glasgow, and was launched in August of 1863, The Shenandoah, commanded by Captain James Waddell, became infamous for its sinkings of Yankee Whaleships in the Arctic, and was the last Confederate "Commerce Raider" to surrender in November 1865. The dmaage rendered by the CSS Alabama, CSS Shenandoah and others led to the "Alabama Claims" against Great Britain by the US Government, leading to a diplomatic settlement in Geneva, Switzerland in 1871.

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