So it was an opportune time for Lincoln to suggest that representatives of the United States and Great Britain meet to discuss ending the war. Disraeli eagerly accepted though it galled the British beyond all measure. He had to remind the country from the House that the war with Russia continued and was far more dangerous to the well-being and safety of the Empire. He made the argument that the war had not gone entirely the American’s way. They had lost their gold mine of California and that the Royal Navy still stopped American trade. The Americans could not mint coin from battlefield victories. Lincoln realized this as well as the fact that the country’s niter supply was reaching its end. The United States would quickly arrive at a point where it had nothing to shoot and nothing to pay for it if it did.
The sticking point, though, was Canada. The British would spend themselves into ruin rather than give up any part of the Empire, especially one where three million of their own race lived. The war would continue until the Union flag flew there again. Secretary Seward and the new British foreign secretary, George Villers, Lord Clarendon, met in Havana under the good offices of the Spanish government to hammer out a solution. In the end it was a simple return to the status quo ante, with the centerpiece of a trade of California for Canada. The Seward-Villers Treaty, or the Treaty of Havana, as it was more commonly called, was signed on July 24, 1865.
It was amazing how many parties were so upset by the peace. The Russians were livid for Lincoln had shamelessly violated their treaty by making a separate peace. His response was that the country needed peace, but he sweetened their disappointment by agreeing to sell them repeating weapons in any quantity they wanted.8 The Irish seethed that Canada was not traded for Irish independence. That would have killed the treaty in its cradle for the British would no more cede Ireland than Wales or Scotland. They also had the ultimate argument—they held it, and the Irish Republic was a political corpse. That hardly satisfied the more die-hard and fantasy-prone element for whom political reality was not a strong suit. They were to find a welcome home in the Democratic Party.9 Finally, Lincoln also had to withstand the public’s outrage that considered Canada just spoils of war, especially since the United States had been trying so long to take it. The campaign to oppose the treaty ran under the motto of “Three Times is Lucky!”10
Still Lincoln would not budge on the treaty he had so publicly signed and submitted to the Senate. “California for Canada is a good deal. California’s got gold and Canada’s got ice. It doesn’t take a lawyer to figure that out.”11 He knew, though, that he had to provoke the American people’s respect for the core principle of the consent of the governed and so had insisted in the treaty that the return of Canada be contingent upon a plebiscite among Canadian voters on whether they wanted incorporation into the Union or return to British sovereignty. The resulting vote was a resounding acclamation of loyalty to the Empire and their sovereign. The American public was both disappointed and chagrined that anyone would pass up a chance to become an American, but the treaty in the end passed by one vote. Needless to say, Lincoln had the two votes of California’s senators.12
Seward also extracted a treaty from the French. It had something to do with the threat of “Get out Mexico or we will drive you out,” and the down payment on that threat was made by a hundred thousand man army assembling in Texas under Sheridan’s command.
As it was, public attention soon turned to the pressing issues of reintegrating its own wayward states into the Union and the fate of millions of former slaves. It was to be an unending series of vexations for Lincoln, who consoled himself that if the war had continued for another year untold more lives would be lost and ruin inflicted on the country. As peace settled over North America, Russia marched into the Balkans, sparking off a chain reaction that set the rest of the world on fire—but that would be another story.
APPENDIX A
Order-of-Battle at the Battles of Chazy
18–23 March 1864
British Army
Montreal Field Force (Maj. Gen. James Hope Grant) (30,100)
Headquarters Staff (100)
The Royal Guides or the Governor General’s Bodyguard (150)
9th (The Queen’s Royal) Lancers (650)
1/16th Foot (750)
12th Battalion Volunteer Infantry (Canadian)
21st Battalion Volunteer Infantry (Canadian)
1st Division (13,950)
1st Montreal Brigade (2,750)
1st Battalion, The Rifles
1st Battalion The Prince of Wales Regiment (Canadian)
2nd Battalion The Queens Own Rifles (Canadian)
3rd Battalion Victoria Volunteers Rifles of Montreal (Canadian)
G Battery, 4th Artillery Brigade (Field)
3rd Hamilton Brigade (2,000)
1/47th Foot
11th Battalion Volunteer Infantry (Canadian)
13th Battalion Volunteer Infantry (Canadian)
8th Battery, 10th Artillery Brigade (Garrison)
12th Brigade (4,600)
78th (Highland) Foot
26th Foot
73rd (Perthshire) Foot
17th Levis Battalion Volunteer Infantry (Canadian)
A Battery, 5th Artillery Brigade
15th Dublin Brigade (3,800)
1st Battalion, 10th Foot
29th Foot
45th Foot
5th Battalion Royal Light Infantry of Montreal (Canadian)
6th Battalion Hochlega Light Infantry (Canadian)
D Battery, 5th Artillery Brigade
Artillery Brigade (1,250)
Division trains (800)
2nd Division (13,500)
11th Hussars (600)
Guards Brigade (2,200)
2/Grenadier Guards
2/Scots Fusilier Guards
2nd Battery, 10th Brigade
Portsmouth Brigade (3,500)
53rd Foot
55th Foot
58th Foot
20th Battalion Volunteer Infantry (Canadian)
H Battery, 8th Artillery Brigade
1st Kingston Brigade (2,800)
1/6th Foot
1/15th Foot
14th Battalion Volunteer Infantry (Canadian)
15th Battalion Volunteer Infantry (Canadian)
F Battery, 4th Artillery Brigade (Field)
2nd St. Johns Brigade (2,900)
1/30th Foot
86th Foot
15th Battalion Volunteer Infantry (Canadian)
16th Battalion Volunteer Infantry (Canadian)
D Battery, 4th Artillery Brigade (Field)
Artillery Brigade (1,300)
Division Trains (800)
United States Army
Army of the Hudson (Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, Maj. Gen. George H. Sharpe, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman) (54,310)
Staff: 200
Scouts: 50
Army Provost Marshal Brigade (2,600)
27th Indiana
2nd Massachusetts
3rd Wisconsin
Army Trains: 3500
XI Army Corps (Maj. Gen. Adolph von Steinwehr) (17,410)
2nd Division (Brig. Gen. Orlando Ward) (8,250)
1st Brigade (2,500)
33rd New Jersey
134th New York
154th New York
2nd Brigade (2,900)
33rd Massachusetts
55th Ohio
73rd Ohio
3rd Brigade* (2,850)
27th Pennsylvania
73rd Pennylvania
136th New York
3rd Division (Maj. Gen. Carl Schurz) (8,450)
1st Brigade (3,100)
45th New York
143rd New York
101st Illinois
2nd Brigade (Col. Wladimir Krzysanowski) (2,600)
58th New York
119th New York
141st New York
3rd Brigade (Col. Frederick Hecker) (2,750)
68th New York
80th Illinois
82nd Illinois
>
Corps Artillery (710)
1st New York Light, Battery I
New York Light, 13th Battery
1st Ohio Light, Battery I
1st Ohio Light, Battery K
4th United States, Battery G
XII Army Corps (Maj. Gen. Alpheus Williams—not present) (24,900)
1st Division (Brig. Gen. Thomas H. Ruger) (8,550)
1st Brigade (2,950)
123rd New York
145th New York
46th Pennsylvania
2nd Brigade (2,700)
13th New Jersey
107th New York
150th New York
3rd Brigade (2,900)*
5th Connecticut
10th Connecticut
3rd Maryland
1 Artillery Battery (attached)
2nd Division (Brig. Gen. John W. Geary) (8,050)
1st Brigade (Col. Charles Candy) (2,500)
5th Ohio
7th Ohio
29th Ohio
2nd Brigade (Col. George A. Cobham, Jr.) (2,650)
29th Pennsylvania
109th Pennsylvania
111th Pennsylvania
3rd Brigade (Col. David Ireland, Col. Paul Vivian) (2,900)
60th New York
78th New York
102nd New York
3 Artillery Batteries
3rd Division (7,700)*
1st Brigade (2,800)
66th Ohio
28th Pennsylvania
147th Pennsylvania
2nd Brigade (2,200)
61st Ohio
82nd Ohio
75th Pennsylvania
3rd Brigade (2,700)
26th Wisconsin
137th New York
149th New York
Corps Artillery (Maj. John A. Reynolds) (600)
1st New York Light, Battery M
Pennsylvania Light, Battery E
4th United States, Battery F
5th United States, Battery K
3rd Cavalry Division (Maj. Gen. George A. Custer) (5,650)
1st Cavalry Brigade (1,800)
2nd New York
5th New York
18th Pennsylvania
2nd United States, Battery M (120)
2nd Cavalry Brigade (2,500)
1st Michigan
5th Michigan
6th Michigan
7th Michigan
New York Light, 6th Battery (130)
3rd Cavalry Brigade (1,100)
1st Vermont
1st West Virginia
Total number of troops committed: 38,950
*Formations formed from the reorganization of the Army of the Hudson following the influx of veterans, volunteers, and drafted men following the beginning of the war with the British.
APPENDIX B
Stations of the British Army
(Corrected to 27th August, 1863, inclusive)1
Great Britain
London
1st Life Gds (Regent’s Park)
2nd Life Gds (Hyde Park)
Royal Horse Gds (Windsor)
12th Lancers (Hounslow)
3/Grenadier Gds (St. Georges Brks)
1st Coldstream Gds (Portman St)
2nd Coldstream Gds (Windsor)
1/Scots Fus Gds (Wellington Brks)
1/60th Foot (Tower)
Aberdeen
33rd Depot Bn
Aldershot
6th Dragoon Gds
13th Hussars
3/Grenadier Gds
1/3rd Foot
1/6th Foot
1/24th Foot
37th Foot
59th Foot
2/60th Aldershot
64th Foot
*73rd Foot
76th Foot
87th Foot
4th Arty Bde
A Troop Royal Engr Train
10th Co, RE
24th Co, Re
26th Co, RE
Military Train (2nd Bn)
Military Train (5th Bn)
Birmingham
1st Dragoons
2nd Dragoons
Brighton
*9th Lancers
Chatham
1st Depot Bn
2nd Depot Bn
3rd Depot Bn
7th Co, RE
20th Co, RE
22nd Co, RE
35th Co, RE
36th Co, RE
37th Co, RE
38th Co, RE
39th Co, RE
40th Co, RE
Colchester
4th Depot Bn
8th Depot Bn
9th Depot Bn
Devenport
1st Co, RE
Dover
*78th Foot
85th Foot
2nd Arty Bde
Edinburgh
3rd Hussars (Piersbill)
4th Hussars (Newbridge)
10th Hussars (Newbridge)
92nd Foot
Glasgow
41st Foot
19th Co, RE (Survey)
Gosport
*26th Foot
Jersey
61st Foot
Kensington
2nd Co, RE
Maldstone
Cavalry Depot
Manchester
14th Hussars
49th Foot
Norwich
18th Hussars
Parkhurst
5th Depot Bn
Pembroke
8th Depot Bn
Plymouth
1/2nd Foot
75th Foot
5th Arty Bde
Portsmouth
2/1st Foot
Bayonets, Balloons & Ironclads: Britain and France Take Sides With the South Page 46