Bit of a late reply but one of my 'inlaw' relatives was in the Royal Artilary and this is a bit from his history
Owing to the probability of war with the Northern States over the “Trent” affair, the 10th brigade was diverted from the West Indies to Halifax. Irwin’s battery journeyed from Saint John, New Brunswick, to Montreal in sleighs during February 1862.
This is the Wiki info on the Trent Affair.
The
Trent Affair, also known as the
Mason and Slidell Affair, was an international diplomatic incident that occurred during the
American Civil War. On November 8, 1861, the
USS San Jacinto, commanded by
Union Captain
Charles Wilkes, intercepted the British
mail packet RMS Trent and removed, as contraband of war, two Confederate diplomats,
James Mason and
John Slidell. The envoys were bound for
Great Britain and
France to press the Confederacy’s case for
diplomatic recognition by Europe.
The initial reaction in the
United States was to rally against Britain, threatening war; but President
Abraham Lincoln and his top advisors did not want to risk war. In the
Confederate States, the hope was that the incident would lead to a permanent rupture in
Anglo-American relations and even diplomatic recognition by Britain of the Confederacy. Confederates realized their independence potentially depended on a war between Britain and the U.S. In Britain, the public expressed outrage at this violation of neutral rights and insult to their national honor. The British government demanded an apology and the release of the prisoners while it took steps to strengthen its military forces in
Canada and the Atlantic.
After several weeks of tension and loose talk of war, the crisis was resolved when the Lincoln administration released the envoys and disavowed Captain Wilkes's actions. No formal apology was issued. Mason and Slidell resumed their voyage to Britain but failed in their goal of achieving diplomatic recognition.
