American Civil War, - More Liverpool Connections

A person of major significance to the war whose name kept appearing in various papers, but not well known to many was Charles Kuhn Prioleau and the offices of cotton firm Fraser Trenholm
and Company in Liverpool.

Confederate Agent James Bulloch has been more prominent in Historian's attention over the years. Prioleau arrived in Liverpool around 1856 as a co partner of the company and resident Manager. Prioleau is seen to be active in Liverpool business circles almost immediately At a 4th July celebration of American Residents in Liverpool at the Adelphi Hotel, on an invitation to Nathaniel Hawthorne the U.S. Consul in Liverpool and famous American Literary figure, C.K. Prioleau is on the organising Committee.

Another South Carolinian of note is Allan Stewart Hanckel the son of a Charleston Clergyman. Hanckel was on the Trent when Mason and Slidell were arrested and took the papers from them into .'safekeeping". Hanckel is mentioned as one of the purchasers of the steamer Bermuda which attracted great interest from Union representatives. Hanckel settled in Liverpool after the war, marrying a local girl at West Derby church. They lived in Pexhill for a period of time, which is used by the University of Liverpool for astronomic research. Hanckel is buried in a Liverpool churchyard just down the road from the famous Liverpool thoroughfare of Penny Lane.

Fraser Trenholm and Company owned five sailing ships, the most notable being the Emily St Pierre named after George Trenholm's daughter. This vessel was captured outside Charleston during the war by the Union Navy and made a prize, but the Liverpool Captain William Watson managed to overpower the prize crew and sail the vessel back to Liverpool, to the pleasure of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. During the war Prioleau became a naturalised British citizen to be of better use to the Southern war effort. He married his Liverpool- born wife Mary Elizabeth Wright (the Belle of Liverpool Society) in 1860 at Walton Church, Liverpool. Prior to the siege of Fort Sumter, Prioleau sent a Blakely rifled cannon to Charleston. Over the years it has been widely mentioned that this gun fired the opening shot of the war, but this is not the case, as  they had been fired from shore batteries.

At the outbreak of the war almost 60%of the South's cotton was coming to Liverpool to feed the Lancashire Mills so the monies held by Fraser Trenholm were significant. During the war the whole banking of the Confederacy in Europe operated from Liverpool. Confederate Agent James Bulloch arrived at the offices in 10 Rumford Place (pictured) with Major Caleb Huse to purchase vessels, arms and ammunition (we received a Grade II English Heritage preservation order on this building in the late 1980's). Bulloch's purchase of the later to be named C.S.S. Alabama, Florida and Lairds Rams are for another story. During the war, a Le Carré -like espionage battle of epic proportions takes place from 10 Rumford Place and round the corner, at Tower Buildings where the Union Consul Thomas Haines Dudley helped by his private detectives conducts operations. In his early times in Liverpool, Prioleau purchases a house in Southbank Road, Aigburth.

This building was demolished for a school in the late 1930's; a similar building with a corrugated iron roof was round the corner in Huyton House Road which was demolished about 15 years ago. Prioleau later operated from two addresses in Liverpool, the magnificent 19 Abercrombie Square, still standing and its multitude of South Carolinian devices, including Bonnie Blue Stars, Gasden Palmetto Trees, Crescents, Stars and Magnolia leaves. Secondly, Allerton Hall on the outskirts of Liverpool mentioned extensively in many Civil War publications.

http://www.americancivilwar.org.uk/news_charles-k-prioleau-lost-for-the-cause_177.htm