評論
打印
Toward the end of the war there were absolutely no medicines for the Southern soldiers, and guns were so scarce that it was proposed to arm one regiment with pikes. Nothing did more to break down Southern resistance than the blockade.
到戰爭結束的時候南方士兵已經徹底沒有藥品可用，他們尤其缺乏槍支，甚至有人提出用矛來武裝一個團。封鎖在摧毀南方聯盟的抵抗中發揮了無與倫比的作用。
404. The Confederacy, Great Britain, and France.
404．南方聯盟、大不列顛與法國
From the beginning of the contest the Confederate leaders believed that the British and the French would interfere to aid them. "Cotton is king," they said. Unless there were a regular supply of cotton, the mills of England and of France must stop. Thousands of mill hands-men, women, and children-would soon be starving. The French and the British governments would raise the blockade. Perhaps they would even force the United States to acknowledge the independence of the Confederate states. There was a good deal of truth in this belief. For the British and French governments dreaded the growing power of the American republic and would gladly have seen it broken to pieces. But events fell out far otherwise than the Southern leaders had calculated. Before the supply of American cotton in England was used up, new supplies began to come in from India and from Egypt. The Union armies occupied portions of the cotton belt early in 1862, and American cotton was again exported. But more than all else, the English mill operatives, in all their hardships, would not ask their government to interfere. They saw clearly enough that the North was fighting for the rights of free labor. At times it seemed, however, as if Great Britain or France would interfere.
在爭端剛剛出現的時候，南方聯盟的人以為英國和法國會介入并給他們以支持，他們說："棉花就是王"。如果沒有正常的棉花供應，英格蘭和法國的作坊就要停業，數以千計的作坊手工業者（男人、女人和兒童）馬上會挨餓，因此，法國政府和英國政府會對封鎖做出反應，甚至，他們可能迫使美國承認南方聯盟各個州的獨立。這個信念中頗有道理，因為美國的日益強大讓英國政府和法國政府感到害怕，他們希望看到美國四分五裂，但事情的發展完全出乎南方聯盟領袖們的預料。在美國棉花供給用盡之前，英格蘭開始從印度和埃及得到新的棉花供給。聯邦軍隊在1862年上半年占領部分產棉區，美國棉花重新出口。不管怎樣，英國作坊的工人再艱苦也不可能要求他們的政府干涉美國的內戰，他們十分清楚北方在為自由勞動權而戰，然而，有時看起來大不列顛或者法國會干涉這場戰爭。
