Posted on 10/17/2015 1:46:27 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
It’s hard to determine which is more surprising: the British aching to send troops and materiel to aid the Confederacy during the Civil War or that the first “Special Relationship” was between the U.S. and Russia against the British. Both of these facts are true and for the latter negating the former, we can thank one Cassius Marcellus Clay.
Clay was more than just a namesake for the greatest boxer of all time. He was also a politician, representative, officer in the Mexican War and Civil War, abolitionist, and ambassador with a pedigree in badassery. This man once frightened an opponent so much that the man killed himself the night before they were supposed to duel, which is probably the only duel story to top Andrew Jackson’s.
When Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860, he tapped Clay to be his ambassador to the Imperial Russian Court in St. Petersburg. Since the Civil War broke out before Clay left for Russia in 1861 and there were no Federal troops in Washington at the time, Clay raised an Army of 300 volunteers to maintain an active defense of the capital until troops arrived.
(Excerpt) Read more at wearethemighty.com ...
Meanwhile the Prussian-born Karl Marx was already about 33 years old and setting the stage for the destruction of Russia.
And the birth of Lenin was only about 9 years away.
And the birth of one of the deadliest mass murderers of all time , Stalin, was only about 17 years in the future.
He later became Muslim.
“On examination it was found that the ball, as I pulled up the scabbard of my Bowie-knife, in drawing the blade, had entered the leather near the point, which was lined with silver, and was there lodged.”
Relative of Henry Clay ???
“Relative of Henry Clay ???”
Yes, a cousin.
Wow, fascinating history which I never remember anyone mentioning when the boxer changed his name. I wonder if he knew he was changing his name from that of an emancipator to that of an enslaver? Or was his decision similar to that of an Obama voter, color based, though odd, as Mo was not black or white, but middle eastern/Mediterranean.
So Cassius Clay was actually an honorable, historic name for a Black man after all.
Thank you did this informative post.
Did = for
Read later!
To say the British were “aching” is probably over the top.
“To say the British were “aching” is probably over the top.”
It’s not at all over the top for much of the British elite, aristocracy, industrialists, military officers, and Royal navy officers. Politicians responsible for maintaining American wheat imports responsible for much of the British diet, the lower class labor, and British abolitionists were not so enthusiastic or outright opposed. Many Royal Navy officers wee allowed to ostensibly resign their officer’s commissions in order to serve the Confederate Navy and Army, yet were later able to recover those resigned commissions.
the website is not opening for some reason
FWIW, it’s working here.
I don’t think so. Even before the Trent Affair there were Brits who wanted to side with the confederates - even if only to meddle.
Do a search for William Gladstone or Lord John Russell (just to name two) who more or less continually agitated on behalf of the rebs.
A private citizen protecting himself with the most modern military weapons of the time, cannons. What would our “Dear Leader” and his pet BATF say about that?
My browser doesn’t like the website either...it looks like a java script issue.
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