Even before Fort Sumter was fired upon, the Confederate government began organizing a supply line to obtain military equipment from abroad. The operation was run by an unlikely combination of military experts and aristocratic Charleston financiers, whose goal was to import the military supplies the resource-poor South couldn't manufacture.

Many supplies came from England, where official neutrality masked a widespread sympathy for the South. Working hand in hand with Confederate agents, manufacturers and contractors in Liverpool and throughout England provided vast amounts of military goods, and transported them on British ships to British ports in Bermuda and Nassau. There, the goods were exchanged for the Southern cotton that was desperately needed to sustain the English milling industry.

Profit and patriotism came together to form one of the largest foreign supply operations in history. By the end of the War, despite the blockade and a government whose finances were in disarray, the South had obtained some $200 million worth of foreign arms and equipment.

"In conclusion, I would strongly recommend this entertaining little book to all acquisitions librarians for a Civil War Collection and to all readers with even passing interest in the subject."

“The Northern Marine”, Benjamin Trask

About: Thomas M. Boaz

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