Dispatches from Bermuda: The Civil War Letters of Charles Maxwell Allen, United States Consul at Bermuda, 1861- 1888

Historians of the Union's actions against the Confederate blockade-runners in Bermuda during the Civil War and of William H. Seward's foreign policy will be disappointed in this volume of the correspondence and diplomatic dispatches, from the National Archives, of Charles Maxwell Allen, U.S. consul to Bermuda. Allen wrote personal letters sparingly to Seward, and no responses are included. Despite this caveat, the letters in this collection, edited by Glen N. Wiche, provide a rich and hitherto unpublished account of businessman Allen's consulate in Bermuda between his appointment in 1861 and his death in 1 888 (he was buried on the island). Allen arrived in a hostile environment - Bermuda has been called the "Offshore Confederacy" (p. 13). During his tenure, his office was broken into, and he was physically accosted.