The Austrian Empire and the Confederacy
The American Civil War was the bloodiest conflict ever fought in the
western hemisphere of the world and, as such, attracted a great deal of
attention from other powers. Previously, I have discussed on these pages
how a war between two factions of republicans actually had a tremendous
impact on the monarchist cause in the Americas. Most of the ‘Great
Powers’ of Europe had an
interest
in the War Between the States. The British Empire had an economic
interest with southern cotton feeding the textile mills of England while
the industrial centers of the northern states were major competitors.
Indeed, only a few decades after the war ended with the north
victorious, the United States of America surpassed Great Britain as the
world’s largest economy and has remained so ever since. The tentative
steps of the Kingdom of Spain to
rebuild the Spanish Empire
in Latin America, the French-backed restoration of the Mexican Empire
and the French plans for a “Kingdom of the Andes” in South America all
depended on the Confederacy being victorious due to opposition to all
such endeavors by the Union government in Washington DC.
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| Emperor Francis Joseph |
The northern states were also home to large numbers of European
immigrants who had fled their countries after failed revolutionary
movements, so there were many Irish republicans in the north who
detested the British Empire and many liberal Germans who had fled in the
aftermath of the Revolutions of 1848. The only ‘Great Power’ to be seen
at least as supportive of the U.S. government was the Russian Empire
and this was mostly due to the fact that Britain and France were seen as
friendlier to the Confederacy and the Russians hoped to counter this
such as when Russia sold Alaska to the United States in order to prevent
it being added to Canada by the British in a potential future conflict.
The Austrian Empire was not extremely concerned about events in
America, having many pressing problems of their own to deal with at the
time, but that is not to say that they were not interested at all.
Although the Emperor of Austria, Francis Joseph, had opposed the whole
adventure, his younger brother was Emperor of Mexico and thus his fate,
and that of the Austrian volunteer corps sent to aid him in Mexico, also
depended almost entirely on the Confederates winning their
independence.
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| Captain Ross at Gettysburg |
As also pointed out previously, the Confederacy was also greatly
influenced by the style of the Austrian Empire. The uniforms of the
Confederate army were inspired by those of the Austrian light infantry
and the first Confederate national flag was inspired by the ensign of
the Austrian Empire, both being designed by the Prussian
artist Nicola Marschall.
The Emperor of Austria also had his own “eyes on the ground” so to
speak, in the person of Captain FitzGerald Ross, a British-born officer
of the Sixth Austrian Hussar Regiment. He made quite a stir in the
southern states with his waxed moustache and braided Hussar uniform, in
fact he was almost mobbed by admirers after being persuaded by some
Confederate officers to wear his full dress uniform, fur busby, dolman
and all, for a ride with them. He witness the Battle of Gettysburg, then
went to Richmond, Charleston and then Chattanooga, Tennessee where he
observed the fight from the lines of the Confederate General Braxton
Bragg. He also visited the Gulf coast, Mobile, Alabama and so on. Like
many, he was very impressed by the Confederate military and, like many
more, was also impressed by the southern ladies. He became an ardent
Confederate sympathizer, even to the point of picking up a rifle and
taking part in a battle during his long stay in the south. When Ross
finally returned to Europe, no matter what bad news reached him, he
remained confident that the south would ultimately win.
Such a thing would have, inadvertently, greatly expanded Austrian
influence in the New World given that the establishment of a Habsburg
monarchy in Mexico (or rather the ‘reestablishment’) would have given
Austria a sort of foothold in the region. Confederate President
Jefferson Davis was certainly aware of this and tried to enlist the
Prussian observer, Captain Justus Scheibert, as an envoy to Emperor
Napoleon III of France. He proposed a sort of Franco-Confederate
alliance, pointing out that in the Mexican War (of which Davis was a
noted veteran) the U.S. had defeated Mexico with only 12,000 men and
that if Napoleon would lift the Union blockade of the southern coast,
which Davis believed could be done with ‘the stroke of a pen’ and would
ensure a Confederate victory, he would supply 20,000 Confederate troops
to aid the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, explaining that southern troops
were adjusted to the climate and familiar with the fighting style of
the Mexicans.
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| Austrian officers in Mexico |
However, this, as we know, did not come to pass. Although tempted, none
of the European powers ultimately were bold enough to risk war with the
United States by recognizing the Confederacy (though Pope Pius IX did
address a letter to Jefferson Davis as President of the C.S.A.). When
the Confederacy fell, the effort to spread monarchy in the Americas
quickly fell apart. The U.S. government dispatched an army to the south
Texas border and warned the French to withdraw or face war. Napoleon,
not wishing to see the enterprise be for nothing, hoped that the
Austrian Empire would take up the French cause of supporting the Mexican
imperialists. A further 2,000 Austrian volunteers (roughly) were
assembled at the port of Trieste, ready to embark for Mexico and fight
for Emperor Maximilian. It was, though, at that point that the Union
government stepped in by way of U.S. Minister to Vienna John Lothrop
Motley who went to the Hofburg and informed the Austrian Emperor quite
bluntly that the U.S. recognized only Benito Juarez as the leader of the
legitimate Mexican government and that if the Austrian troops were
allowed to leave, the U.S. would consider the Austrian Empire to be at
war with the Mexican Republic and the U.S. Navy would take retaliatory
action on behalf of Mexico.
The expedition was thus canceled, the Austrian soldiers disbanded and the
Austrian Volunteer Corps already fighting in Mexico was promptly recalled. Many had already been slaughtered at the
Battle of Santa Gertrudis
where, seeing which way the winds were blowing, their comrades of the
Mexican Imperial Army had deserted in the middle of the battle to join
the republicans. The surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court House
in 1865 had set the dominos to falling, the Austrians pulled out and
shortly thereafter the Habsburg Emperor of Mexico was captured and shot,
the Austrian Emperor then even having a difficult time retrieving the
body of his slain younger brother. The Imperial House of Habsburg had
had a presence in the Americas ever since Philip the Handsome and
Charles V had held their Spanish crowns until the succession was taken
up by the Bourbons of France. In 1864, however, another Habsburg
returned to, he hoped, usher in a new era of monarchy in the Americas
but with the fall of the Confederacy, it was inevitable that the
Habsburgs would once again lose their place in the New World.
