U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward unilaterally declines an offer by French Emperor Napoleon III to mediate the conflict between the U.S. and the Confederacy.

Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward unilaterally declines an offer by French Emperor Napoleon III to mediate the conflict between the U.S. and the Confederacy.
The leaders of Great Britain express new reluctance to recognize Confederate independence, and Emperor Napoleon III of France proposes foreign mediation between the two warring factions.
Confederates try to curry favor with France, and Great Britain suffers a severe economic downturn due to the lack of southern cotton.
September 5, 1863 – Confederate Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith urged foreign envoy John Slidell to get France to intervene on the Confederacy’s behalf so
September 5, 1863 – Charles Francis Adams, U.S. minister to Great Britain, threatened war unless the British stopped clandestinely building warships for the Confederacy. Adams
August 3, 1863 – Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s Federal Army of the Tennessee underwent vast reductions following its capture of Vicksburg. By this month,