A Confederate Englishman: Henry Wemyss Feilden

A Confederate Englishman: The Civil War Letters of Henry Wemyss Feilden edited by W. Eric Emerson and Karen Stokes

Being a member of the Victorian Military Society as well as the ACWRTUK, Henry Wemyss Feilden’s letters caught my eye. Second son of a baronet, he had already seen service in the British Army during the Indian Mutiny and the Second Opium War in China when he sold his commission and, in early 1863, ran the Federal blockade into Charleston. He obtained a captain’s commission in Richmond and joined the staff of General P.G.T. Beauregard in the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. There he served as Assistant Adjutant General under Beauregard, Samuel Jones, and William Hardee, handling administrative work while observing the defense of Charleston and related operations. During the war he married Julia McCord of Charleston: the bulk of the letters are his lively, affectionate, and often optimistic correspondence with her (and some earlier family letters). The volume also includes official reports and a selection of later letters that sketch his postwar career as a British Army officer, Arctic explorer, and naturalist. Feilden would live long enough to see the First World War concluded.

The letters offer a fascinating outsider’s perspective on the final two years of the war in the most southern of theatres. Feilden describes the bombardment and siege conditions in Charleston, his administrative duties (more thoughts on that in a moment), an 1864 inspection tour of Florida after the Battle of Olustee (providing great detail on conditions there), the evacuation of Charleston, Sherman’s advance, and the Battle of Bentonville. I was particularly intrigued that, although he was an experienced combat officer, Feilden’s professional experience saw him given administrative roles. Was he sidelined as a foreigner or was his experience more usual as a staff officer (as any civilian can be trained to fire or stop a bullet)? I’m still pondering that one.

Feilden is frequently optimistic about Confederate prospects in the letters themselves, though his postwar annotations acknowledge that much of this was intended to sustain the hopes of his wife and her family. His views on Union conduct, Southern civilians, and related matters largely align with those of many of his southern companions. He is distinctly British though when talking about Black soldiers. His imperial experience makes him much more confident in their conduct as trained soldiers.

We have recently had a talk on the more famous British observer Arthur Fremantle (watch out for it here on our website and on our YouTube channel), but it was good to hear the thoughts of another Englishman who spent a good deal longer than Fremantle’s three months in the South. Overall, I found it a worthwhile and well-edited volume.

Ryan Diamond