Australia and the American Civil War

Despite being across the world from the conflict, Australia was affected by the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

economically and by immigration. The Australian cotton crop became more important to England, which had lost its American sources, and it served as a supply base for Confederate

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

blockade runners. Immigrants from Europe seeking a better life also found Australia preferable to war-torn North America.

The Australian public was shocked by the revelation by a turncoat Russian officer, who claimed that a direct engagement was secretly planned by Russia in case the Confederacy was recognized by Britain. The Russian navy

Imperial Russian Navy

The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...

had just paid Australia a visit in preparation for launching attacks. Fear of a possible military confrontation led to a massive buildup of coastal defenses and to the acquisition of an ironclad warship

Ironclad warship

An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship in the early part of the second half of the 19th century, protected by iron or steel armor plates. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, La Gloire,...

.

Australia became directly involved when the Confederate navy visited in order to repair one of their warships. This led to protests from the Union representative at Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, while the citizenry of nearby Williamstown

Williamstown, Victoria

Williamstown is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 8 km south-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Hobsons Bay. At the 2006 Census, Williamstown had a population of 12,733....

entertained the Confederates and some Australians joined the crew. Accounts disagree as to whether Australians generally favored the Union

Union (American Civil War)

During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...

or the Confederacy

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

, as sorrowful demonstrations were held in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

when news arrived of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

's assassination.

Economics

Together, Australia and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

had 140 citizens, 100 of whom were native-born, who were veterans of the American Civil War. Some of these were originally Americans who came to Australia during the Victorian gold rush

Victorian gold rush

The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.- Overview :During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output...

of the 1850s. Officers during the war included one who gave Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

its first telegraph service, and another officer who mined for gold in Ballarat

Ballarat, Victoria

Ballarat is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately west-north-west of the state capital Melbourne situated on the lower plains of the Great Dividing Range and the Yarrowee River catchment. It is the largest inland centre and third most populous city in the state and the fifth...

.

Confederate blockade runners occasionally obtained supplies there, despite a historic fear of possible naval attack by Americans, a fear rooted in the actions of American privateers during the War of 1812

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

.

The war also caused the Lancashire Cotton Famine. As a result, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

saw a rise in its cotton industry, while the National Colonial Emigration Society in Britain was founded, although it had little ongoing relevance. This came about as a result of so many individuals from northern England being affected by the inability of the Southern United States

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

to ship cotton during the war. Once the war ended, little cotton from Southern Australia was imported to England. However, in the aftermath of the war some Australians were interested in acquiring the Fiji Islands and their cotton fields.

Another impact was the competition with Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

that Australia and New Zealand had with Irish immigration. The increasing Irish immigration was seen as an economic boon by these down under

Down Under

The term Down Under is a colloquialism which is variously construed either to refer to Australia and New Zealand, or Australia alone. The term comes from the fact that these countries are located in the southern hemisphere, below many other countries on the globe.The persistence of the media use of...

countries. One of the reasons for the increase was due to many Irish deciding against emigrating to the warring nations of North America.

Imperial Russian Navy

During the Civil War, the Union and Russia were allies

Uragan class monitor

The Uragan class was a class of monitors built for the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy. The ships were built to the plans of the American Passaic-class monitors, a design that was tested on a smaller scale on the USS Monitor...

against what they saw as their potential enemy, Britain. The Russian blue-water navy

Imperial Russian Navy

was stationed in San Francisco and from 1863 in New York—with sealed orders to attack British naval targets in case war broke out between the United States and Britain. This was threatened if Britain gave diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy.

The flagship of the Russian Pacific squadron, Bogatyr under Rear Admiral Andrey Alexandrovich Popov, officially made a friendly visit to Melbourne in early 1863. According to information passed on to Australian authorities in June 1864, Rear Admiral A.A. Popov had in the first half of the year 1863 received orders and a plan of attack on the British naval ships positioned near the Australian shore. The plan also included shelling and destruction of the Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart coastal batteries. The information was attributed to the Polish lieutenant Władysław Zbyszewski of the Bogatyr, who had deserted from service in Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

soon after Bogatyr left Australia, and found his way to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

to join the Polish January Uprising

January Uprising

The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...

. This information about Popov's plans was forwarded by a fellow Pole, a certain S. Rakowsky. Similar attack orders are known to have been given to the Atlantic squadron under Rear Admiral Lessovsky, that was sent to New York at the same time.

CSS Shenandoah

The CSS Shenandoah

CSS Shenandoah

CSS Shenandoah, formerly Sea King, was an iron-framed, teak-planked, full rigged ship, with auxiliary steam power, captained by Commander James Waddell, Confederate States Navy, a North Carolinian with twenty years' service in the United States Navy.During 12½ months of 1864–1865 the ship...

arrived in Australian waters on January 17, 1865. Off the coast of South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

at 39°32'14"S and 122°16'52" E, her crew spotted an American-made sailing ship named the Nimrod and boarded it. Having ascertained it was a British ship, the Shenandoah left it alone.

On January 25, 1865 the Shenandoah made harbor at Williamstown, Victoria

Williamstown, Victoria

, near Melbourne

Melbourne

, in order to repair damage received while capturing Union whaling ships. At seven o'clock in the evening, Waddell sent a Lieutenant Grimball to gain approval from local authorities to repair their ship, with Grimball returning three hours later saying they were granted permission. The United States consul, William Blanchard, insisted that the Victorian government arrest the Confederates as pirates, but his pleas were ignored by Victoria's governor, Sir Charles Henry Darling

Charles Henry Darling

Sir Charles Henry Darling KCB was a British colonial governor.He was born at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, the son of Major-General Henry Darling and nephew of General Sir Ralph Darling....

, who was satisfied with the Shenandoah’s pleading of neutrality when requesting to be allowed to undertake repairs. Aside from a few fist fights between Americans, there was no direct conflict between the two warring sides. However, there were eighteen desertions while ashore, and there were constant threats of Northern sympathizers joining the crew in order to capture the ship when it was at sea.
The local citizenry was very interested in the Confederate ship being in Port Phillip Bay. While at Williamstown, James Iredell Waddell

James Iredell Waddell

James Iredell Waddell was an officer in the United States Navy and later in the Confederate States Navy.-Biography:...

, the captain of the Shenandoah and his men participated in several "official functions" the local citizens arranged in their honour, including a gala ball with the "cream of society" at Craig's Royal Hotel in Ballarat and at the Melbourne Club

Melbourne Club

The Melbourne Club is a male only club, established in 1839 and located at 36-50 Collins Street, Melbourne; adjacent to the women-only Lyceum Club. The club is made up of approximately 1500 members; admission being by invitation only...

. Thousands of tourists came to see the ship every day, requiring special trains to accommodate them. After being treated as "little lions", the officers of the Shenandoah later reflected that the best time of their lives was given to them by the women of Melbourne.

After leaving Australia, the Shenandoah captured twenty-five additional Union whaling ships before finally surrendering at Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, England in November, 1865. Those surrendering included 42 Australians who had joined the crew at Williamstown; sources differ as to whether the Australians were stowaway

Stowaway

A stowaway is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as an aircraft, bus, ship, cargo truck or train, to travel without paying and without being detected....

s or illegally recruited. Waddell did refuse Australian authorities to see if Australians were aboard the ship prior to sailing from Williamstown on February 18. Four Australians were arrested to prevent them from joining the Confederate ships, and Governor Darling allowed the Shenandoah to sail away, instead of firing upon it. Waddell's official report said that on February 18 they "found on board" the 42 men, and made 36 sailors and enlisted six as marines. One of the original Confederate crewmen, midshipman John Thomson Mason, stated that they just happened to find the stowaways, of various nationalities, and enlisted them outside of Australian waters. He further said one of the stowaways was the captain of an English steamer that was at Melbourne at the time; the Englishman became the captain's clerk

Captain's clerk

A captain's clerk was a rating, now obsolete, in the Royal Navy for a person employed by the captain to keep his records, correspondence, and accounts. The regulations of the Royal Navy demanded that a purser serve at least one year as a captain's clerk, so the latter was often a young man working...

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The news of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

caused demonstrations of sorrow in Sydney

Sydney

. An editorial in Melbourne's "The Age

The Age

The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...

" newspaper on June 27, 1865 reported that in Sydney the assassination of Lincoln had caused great indignation. There were many Australian sympathizers that wanted to put an end to slavery, a central issue with Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln on slavery

Abraham Lincolns position on slavery was one of the central issues in American history. Initially, Lincoln expected to bring about the eventual extinction of slavery by stopping its further expansion into any U.S. territory, and by offering compensated emancipation...

and his Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...

. A memorial service was held in Sydney's Prince of Wales Opera House on Sunday afternoon July 9, 1865. There were strong feelings of anger at public meetings against the killer of Lincoln, a person so dedicated to his country. They figured he was a genius who rose "from a log cabin to the White House."

A public meeting was held in Sydney to express sympathy for Lincoln's death and a meeting of American citizens held on June 26, 1865 had decided to forward a letter of condolence to Mrs. Lincoln, to contribute for a monumental tablet, and wear mourning for a month. There was a letter of sympathy sent to Lincoln's wife

Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary Ann Lincoln was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and was First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.-Life before the White House:...

from the mayor of the city of Sydney expressing the city's condolences.

News of Lincoln's assassination was reported in the Melbourne's "The Age" on June 24, 1865. In the Melbourne newspapers, editorials were prominent. There was mention in the Melbourne Herald

Port Phillip Herald

The Port Phillip Herald was first published as a semi-weekly newspaper on January 3, 1840 from a weatherboard shack in Collins St. It was the fourth newspaper to start in Melbourne.The paper took its name from the region it served...

for June 26, 1865 that many of the American houses in town carried their national ensign at half-mast as a mark of respect to the memory of the late President. William Blanchard, the U.S. Consul in Melbourne at the time, on finding out the news of Lincoln's death, caused the consular flag to be kept at half-mast until July 4, 1865. The City Council of Melbourne passed a resolution "expressive of its horror and detestation of the atrocious murder of the late Chief Magistrate."

There were other letters of sympathy from Australia. They came from the Polish and Hungarian Refugees in Melbourne dated July 4, 1865; Citizens of the Swiss Republic Residents in New South Wales; Sydney Irish National League, NSW Branch, dated July 22, 1865; and from the mayor of Sydney Municipal Council dated July 17, 1865. Another letter of sympathy came from the town of Geelong in Victoria, addressed to "Mrs. Lincoln, Washington, America" dated August 22, 1865.

Aftermath

The residents of Melbourne, realizing they were vulnerable to attack by others, especially the Russians due to the events during the war, hurried to build coastal defense forts. This included the government of Victoria requesting an ironclad ship to be sent to protect the colony, after the values of ironclads were demonstrated during the American Civil War's Battle of Hampton Roads

Battle of Hampton Roads

The Battle of Hampton Roads, often referred to as either the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack or the Battle of Ironclads, was the most noted and arguably most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies...

. The monitor HMVS Cerberus

HMVS Cerberus

HMVS Cerberus is a breastwork monitor that served in the Victoria Naval Forces, the Commonwealth Naval Forces , and the Royal Australian Navy between 1871 and 1924....

was constructed during the late 1860s, and duly arrived in Victoria in 1871.

In 1872 the British government paid the United States $3,875,000 as a result of the assistance provided to CSS Shenandoah and other Confederate ships in Victoria and other ports controlled by Great Britain, after an international jury ruled on the case in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 1972, the American Civil War Round Table of Australia was founded. Its secretary, Barry Crompton, has the largest library dedicated to the American Civil War outside the United States, with over 4,000 pieces as of 2005.

Self-government

When the six colonies of the Australian continent federated

Federation of Australia

The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...

to form a self-governing nation in 1901, Australia favored the British model of government as they had misgivings about America's powerful postwar "monarchical" presidency. Australians also opposed the importation of "coloured labour", in part due to fears of a similar civil war breaking out in Australia. A further precautionary measure was evident in the addition of the word "indissoluble" to the Federal Constitution of 1897–1898 in Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, to prevent the "political heresy" of secession as engaged in by the Confederacy.

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