On Wednesday, July 29, 1863, in England Queen Victoria addressed the British Parliament and candidly acknowledged that, given the recent Union triumphs on the battlefield, she saw no reason to divert from the strict neutrality which England had observed since the start of the American Civil War.
That statement must have disturbed Confederate representatives in England and throughout Europe who desired specifically English and French recognition of the Confederate States of America in return for Southern cotton.
King Cotton Diplomacy had deprived English manufacturers of Southern cotton, and thousands of laid off textile workers and their families by late July 1863 were without a source of income. But in truth, Southern failure on the battlefield “spoke” louder to Queen Victoria and the English government than Southern economic coercion.