Confederate Agents

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CONFEDERATE AGENTS

CONFEDERATE AGENTS refers to the diplomats who represented the Confederacy during the Civil War. Confederate President Jefferson Davis sent agents to Mexico, Canada, France, Britain, and many other nations around the world. The agents purchased supplies, bought ships, secured loans, and propagandized on behalf of the Confederacy. Many Southern states and even some Southern railroads sent their own agents to represent their interests in foreign markets. A multiplicity of cotton agents—state, Confederate, and army—brought such confusion that the Confederate government ultimately centralized agent activity into two departments, one for the Lower South and one for the Trans-Mississippi region.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Crook, David P. The North, the South, and the Powers: 1861–1865. New York: Wiley, 1974.

Owsley, Frank Lawrence. King Cotton Diplomacy: Foreign Relations of the Confederate States of America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959.

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See alsoConfederate States of America ; Lower South ; Mason-Dixon Line ; Seal of the Confederate States of America .

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Confederate Agents

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Confederate Agents