COMMUNICATION

In 1860, at the time our Civil War began, it took at least 10 days to get a message from America to Britain.; from Washington D.C. to London.  TEN DAYS, if you were lucky!  Holy smoke!  The only courier service was by sailing ship.

For a long time, the British thought the South would win or was winning the war.  The government of the United Kingdom was all for that.  Britain did a huge amount of trade with our southern states - especially in cotton.  The end of slavery would obviously hamper cotton production.  I think if communications had been better, the UK would have given more direct help to the South in waging the war.  Who knows, the capital of our country could be in Richmond, Virginia.