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"Friends in Peace and War": The Russian Navy's Landmark Visit to Civil War San Francisco, by C. Douglas Kroll
Washington: Potomac Books, 2007. Pp. xvi, 188. Illus., maps, append., notes, biblio., index . $22.95. ISBN:1597970549.
The sojourn of Russian naval squadrons in
New York
and
San Francisco
over the winter of 1863-1864 is both one of the most curious and one of the most controversial footnotes to the Civil War.
In "Friends in Peace and War," maritime historian Kroll uses the Russian fleet that wintered at
San Francisco
to look at the reasons for the two visits, their political implications, and their impact on the local community.
Often viewed as an overt expression of Russian support for the
Union
, the wintering of the Russian fleet in the U.S. had more to do with the state of relations between
Russia
and
Britain
in the aftermath of the Crimean War and recent unrest in
Poland than any interest in America's domestic convulsions
. But Kroll does not dismiss the effect of the visit on American domestic affairs, for contemporary perception of the events did have important political influence, especially in
California
, where there a handful of pro-Confederate sympathizers were active.
While discussing these developments, Kroll also gives us a look at the Russian Navy in the mid-nineteenth century, California during the Civil War, and a number of excellent human interest stories, including Russian sailors suffering casualties while helping battle a devastating fire, and an amusing not-quite "love triangle" with a happy ending.
An interesting book.
Reviewer: A. A. Nofi
Buy it at Amazon.com
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