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10 2 The American Civil War
George G. Meade, John Sedgwick, and other
subordinates had told Hooker they 'would
never willingly go in battle under him
again.' Although Lee's information was
faulty, her sentiment underscored the lack
of trust in Hooker.
The North could take heart from the fact
that Great Britain and France had backed
away from recognizing the Confederacy. In
mid-September 1862, with Lee's victories at
the Seven Days and Second Manassas in
mind, Prime Minister Viscount Palmerston
and Foreign Secretary Lord John Russell had
concluded that confederacy was winning
the war. If Lee triumphed again while in
Maryland, suggested Palmerston, Britain and
France should offer 'an arrangement upon
the basis of separation' between the United
States and the Confederacy.
The Union soldiers who fought at
Antietam helped change the picture
radically. Following Lee's retreat and
Lincoln's issuance of the preliminary
proclamation of emancipation, Palmerston
decided that the 'whole matter is full of
difficulty, and can only be cleared up by
some more decided events between the
contending armies.' In late October, the
British Cabinet rejected a French proposal for
a six-month armistice and suspension of the
Union blockade. Because emancipation had
been added to the northern agenda, it would
take a spectacular series of Confederate
victories to bring European intervention.
Each side girded for another round of
campaigning in late spring 1863. During the
lull after Chancellorsville, events in the
Western Theater contended for primacy.
'Affairs in the South West now engage all our
attention,' stated Catherine Edmonston on
23 May. For two years, Union forces had
fought to gain control of the Mississippi
river, and the Confederacy retained just two
bastions on that mighty waterway - at
Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Port Hudson,
Louisiana. But whatever happened west of
the Appalachians and along the Mississippi,
no one doubted that future confrontations
between the Army of the Potomac and the
Army of Northern Virginia would do much
to shape the destinies of the two North
American republics.