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- THE RUSSIAN FRIGATE " OSLIABA " NOW IN THE HARBOR OF NEW YORK
- according to a report in " Harpers Weekly " of 1863
- during my research to the following historcal events:
- ( Russian Fleet -- Spending the winter in America in the year 1863)
- I have detected the following report :
From the article “Europe and the Civil War” posted at http://www.civilwarhome.com/europeandcivilwar.htm the following explanation is given.
“Singularly enough, the one European country which showed a definite friendship for the Northern government was Czarist Russia. In the fall of 1863 two Russian fleets entered American waters, one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific. They put into New York and San Francisco harbors and spent the winter there, and the average Northerner expressed both surprise and delight over the visit, assuming the Russian Czar was taking this means of warning England and France that if they made war in support of the South, he would help the North. Since pure altruism is seldom or never visible in any country’s foreign relations, the business was not quite that simple. Russia at the time was in some danger of getting into a war with England and France, for reasons totally unconnected with the Civil War in America; to avoid the risk of having his fleets icebound in Russia ports, the Czar simply had them winter in American harbors. If war should come, they would be admirably placed to raid British and French commerce. For many years most Americans believed that for some inexplicable reason of his own the Czar had sent the fleets simply to show his friendship for America”.
Sidebar: President Lincoln was unaware that the Russian fleet was coming and their arrival caught him totally by surprise "
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