. The naval history of the Civil War . pinions existing it would havebeen wiser for our Government in its thenweak condition to have avoided anythingthat could in any way be considered unjusti-fiable, and to have endeavored as much aspossible to prevent collisions of any kindwith foreign powers, unless it was positivelyclear that we were in the right. On the 8th of November, 1861, an eventoccurred which created the wildest excite- (63) 64 ment throughout all parts of the UnitedStates and Great Britain; in fact, all Europelooked on with anxiety, anticipating a warbetween England and the Norther
. The naval history of the Civil War . pinions existing it would havebeen wiser for our Government in its thenweak condition to have avoided anythingthat could in any way be considered unjusti-fiable, and to have endeavored as much aspossible to prevent collisions of any kindwith foreign powers, unless it was positivelyclear that we were in the right. On the 8th of November, 1861, an eventoccurred which created the wildest excite- (63) 64 ment throughout all parts of the UnitedStates and Great Britain; in fact, all Europelooked on with anxiety, anticipating a warbetween England and the Northern Statesof the Union. This excitement grew out of the arrest ofthe British mail steamer Trent on thehigh seas, by Captain Charles Wilkes, of the THE NAVAL HISTORY Eustis and McFarland. attaches to the com- missioners. The Trent was one of aline of Britishsteamers which ran regularly between VeraCruz and Havana, thence to St. Thomas,and from there to England. The company had a contract with theBritish Government to carry the mails, and. CAPTAIN CHARLES WILKES. United States frigateSan Jacinto. andtaking from hei four male passengers whoclaimed the protection of the British flag. Two of these gentlemen were and Slidell, formerly members of theU. S. Senate, who were now bound to Eu-rope as commissioners from the Confeder-ate Government to the Courts of Englandand France; the other two were Messrs. its steamers had ample accommodations forthe passenger travel between England andthe West Indies. The Trent left the port of Havana onthe morning of the 7th of November, un-der the command of Captain Moir. Nothing of interest occurred until aboutnoon of the 8th. when, in the narrow pas-sage of the Old Bahama Channel, opposite OF THE CIVIL WAR. Go the Panador Grande light, from theTrent was seen a steamer ahead, appar-ently waiting and showing no colors. The Trent at this time was on herlegitimate voyage; she had touched at noport in the Southern Confederacy, and hadheld no c
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