Stonewall Jackson, Beresford Hope, and the meaning of the American Civil War in Britain

Author / Creator

Turner, Michael J. author

Available as

Online

Summary

"In his book, Michael Turner examines British sympathy for the Confederacy during the American Civil War and in the postwar period. He focuses on British-American interactions of the nineteenth cen...

"In his book, Michael Turner examines British sympathy for the Confederacy during the American Civil War and in the postwar period. He focuses on British-American interactions of the nineteenth century, responses to the American crisis, international perspectives on the war, the South, and the nature of the American Union. His study offers fresh insights gleaned from research into previously neglected sources and historical agents. Mainly, Turner explores new avenues of inquiry through an extended analysis of the ideas and activities of A.J. Beresford Hope (1820-1887), one of the leaders of the pro-southern lobby in Britain. Historians already know much about how economic interest, political ideas, and concern about Britain's global reach and geostrategic position influenced its foreign policy during the Civil War. Indeed, for these reasons, many people in Britain were sympathetic toward the Confederate cause. Hope spoke and wrote about them at length, but he also brought forth other considerations-social, cultural, and religious reasons why British people should favor the South. Turner suggests that modern scholarship has not paid these non-economic and non-political factors sufficient attention. During the war, Hope also noticed a tendency--which he forcefully expressed and promoted--to prefer the South over the North on the basis that southerners were engaged in a "heroic" struggle. By the 1880s, as he looked back on the war years, Hope suggested that respect for southern heroism was the main reason why British people had wished the Confederacy well. The lasting popularity in Britain of a renowned southerner, "Stonewall" Jackson, indicates to Turner that Hope was on to something. As well as using Hope's activism to cast light on pro-southern sentiment, he uses the British reputation of Jackson (from the 1860s into the early twentieth century) to facilitate a deeper understanding of contemporary ideas and affiliations. Turner suggests that Jackson rapidly became a British hero because of public support for his merits as a soldier and a man and because he was taken to represent values and goals that had widespread approval. Such was his stature that pro-southerners led by Hope arranged to set up a memorial in his honor and quickly raised more than enough money than needed to fund the project. Their Jackson statue was not completed until 1875, fully ten years after the end of the war. It was unveiled in Richmond, Virginia, in circumstances quite unlike those that had prevailed back in 1863, when it was commissioned shortly after Jackson's death. Turner includes a detailed discussion of the Jackson statue, the controversy surrounding it, and what it reveals about the meaning of the American Civil War in Britain. Turner's study fills a gap in the relevant historiography of British-American interaction during the nineteenth century. His work is also the first in-depth study of Hope as a leading pro-southern activist and of Jackson's reputation in Britain during and after the war. His work will attract readers interested in the American Civil War, the internationalization of the war, transnational approaches to the history of the war and southern history, and British policy and opinion during and after the war"--Provided by publisher.

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