Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South - Our Man in Charleston

Great book. Interesting for its telling of a little-known story. It enlarged my understanding of the Civil War and the attitudes of South Carolinians at the time. Wonderful to see an outsider's view into pre-war Charleston. It also gave me a better insight into Great Britain's position on slave trading and the war. Most of all, this is an excellent book for the narrative style that makes it as readable as a novel, while being a well documented historical work.

This book is a fascinating look into the mind-set of the South in the years leading up to, and just after the outbreak of, the Civil War, and particularly the role played by the British. The focus in on the politics, not the battles. It does this through the biography of Robert Bunch, the Crown's coonsul to Charleston, SC, who played a critical role maintaining a British connection to the South while pushing its agenda of abolitionism.

Interesting to history buffs because it is a British perspective on slavery and the Southern secession. Not fast-moving or great literary writing, but it is a point of view that I hadn't heard before.

According to this book England forbade slave trading and used 2 percent of the national income in order to stop it. But appart from these inanities this is a splendid book. Very informative and a good read.
A low level diplomat is placed in the center of the American secession - which is Charleston - and his reports shapes English policy.

This is another good read 1861: The Civil War Awakening

Anyone interested in the Civil War will find Dickey's book fascinating. His portrait of pre-war Charleston through the experiences of Robert Bunch is sobering. I enjoyed reading the British opposition to the slave trade and its attitude towards the Confederacy. Robert Bunch's observations are quite insightful.

It was very informative about the history of the South during that time period. The book was a little slow in reading however that was countered by understanding the Confederacy and it`s politics with England and Europe. Also interesting was the insight into the role of the Secretary of State Steward for the US and how he operated. It was all very interesting!

This book gave me a completely new perspective on the events leading up to the Civil War. I was able to see the United States from a British perspective, which gave me a better insight into how people overseas may view our country today. The book also includes wonderful character sketches which bring people to life in its pages. I really enjoyed reading this book.

This is a wonderful piece of historical writing that, although factual, has many of the qualities of a suspense novel about the Civil War. My wife started it and could't put it down once she'd read two chapters. Me likewise. He's a very skilled writer.

Good read with a lot of information that was new to me. The racial attitudes described still have linger in 21st century TX and other
former Confederate states. I sent this on to a daughter-n-law who is a Civil War afficionado.

What a story. It has started the ball rolling into a renewed interest in the Civil War. This story is Charleston-centric and captures the powerful grip slaveowners held in politics there, the center of action and Civil War flashpoint. Great great read start to finish

Interesting. Well documented. Well written true account of Civil War correspondence between British agent and other British personnel in UNITED STATES and England. Would England support the Confederacy because of their dependency on cotton supplied by the South? The South thought so. Why they didn't is answered in part by the role played by Robert Bunch in Our Man in Charleston.

Extremely interesting perspective: the slave South as viewed by a Brit with a conscience reporting on the American condition to his government while trying to live and survive among people whom he had to despise. The objective view of the outsider adds credibility and context. Compelling read. Could not put it down.

Excellent book about a little known figure in American & World history. Well laid out, good pacing, lots of very interesting sub-plots, plenty of detail without getting too heavy. Gave me a better idea of the times, people, events & attitudes, which is the sign of a good book.

This is a great story. Very interesting. I didn't expect it to be this good. Very good documented history lesson on slavery and our Civil War. Especially, because it comes from a non-US citizen's viewpoint.

Well-written, well-said, well-done, Mr. Dickey. A year or so ago, I started reading books written by British authors who wrote about America from a British point of view. It is a totally refreshing way to look at history that you KNOW already. As a history buff, my love of ALL history just grows as the years go by. Mr. Dickey’s story is told after he unearthed tons of primary sources in numerous data digs. The main character, Robert Bunch, slowly evolved out of the author’s searching of American and British sources. Mr. Dickey seems to be as surprised as I was that Robert Bunch accomplished as much as he did for the British.

The main setting for the story is Charleston, South Carolina. In the decade before the American Civil War, Charleston is captured in great and loving detail. As Robert Bunch, the British consul assigned to Charleston, learns more and more about the very horrible evils of slavery, he commits himself to helping Britian figure a way to eliminate slavery in the Americas. To add a twist to the story, Mr. Bunch must pretend to endorse slavery to help defeat it. In other words, Robert Bunch was a spy for a foreign government. He was not actually against the Union as the Confederacy grew, but since he was a spy he actually was thought by the Union to be against America. The author, Mr. Dickey, tells his story in a way that reads like a spy novel. I kept saying to myself that this is not a Ludlum, or Clancy book of fiction, this was real.

We all know that the Union prevailed, the Confederacy lost and that slavery was banished. But do you understand how close other countries came to recognizing the Confederacy or starting a war with the Union? Mr. Dickey shows quite clearly that there were numerous opportunities for things to go horribly wrong. He explains it from a foreign point of view. It’s kind of scary to learn that what you were taught in school may not have been the exact way something happened. If you want to be surprised and amazed about history you thought you knew, but didn't, then this book is for you.

I had a great deal of enjoyment reading Mr. Dickey’s “Our Man in Charleston”. I hope this helps someone.

Reads like a great novel from first paragraph through the last page. To understand the Civil War[1861-1865] one must "see" into Charleston and South Carolina where the nation's previous most potent threat of secession had been attempted in 1832. This book is emotionally so engaging that
I wished the state had been allowed to secede, the sooner the better. Herein a former state attorney general is quoted: "South Carolina is too small to be a republic and too large for an insane asylum." The star of this biography/history of Charleston was the British Consul there from 1853 to February 1863. I have 100 "flagged" passages in my copy: One of the last is on page 292: "...Bunch's long record of dispatches about the Southerners,their politics,their key personalities and especially their craving for new slaves from Africa had slowed London's march toward recognition of the Confederacy."---To which I almost say "Amen", but, then, I also realize that some USA-

Abolitionists were as fanatical as the most fanatic of Charleston's "Fire-Eaters".
Which leads me to wonder if--The war was a "close thing"--A Southern victory at, say, Antietam/Sharpsburg, probably bringing in British and French arbitration and Southern independence might have been a lesser evil by saving 100,000s[4000,000?] of lives since the war would have been shortened by 2.5 years. Note that before Jefferson Davis died the last vestige of slavery had been declared ended[in Brazil]. I believe that
slavery in the CSA would have ended by that time too. The lesson: Be careful what stories you try to make true. Br true to.at least, a lesser, or better,the least evil if you wish to avoid greater evils.

Our Man In Charleston, by Christopher Dickey
4 of 5 Stars
A British Diplomat Spying In the Pre-Civil War South
Christopher Dickey’s new book “Our Man In Charleston” tells the story of Robert Bunch, the British consul in Charleston, SC in the years prior to and during the Civil War. The book is well-researched and provides an amazing level of detail concerning Bunch’s official duties, personal relationships, and covert activities on behalf of Great Britain.
Bunch begins as nothing more than an ambitious official in the British diplomatic service. However, he soon finds himself in a unique position to report on Southern political events, attitudes, and motivations in the years leading up to the Civil War. While personally opposed to slavery, Bunch is able to feign sympathy for Southern concerns and maintain friendships with many leading secessionists, reporting on their activities as the crisis develops.
The book provides fascinating insights into the intricate political and social factors leading up to secession and war. It explains the many competing and sometimes conflicting attitudes prevalent in the North, the South, and Britain, and how they interacted to produce a tragic conflict. It decsribes how many Northerners opposed slavery, but some actually financed slave trading expeditions for profit. Many Southerners, despite their support for slavery in America, actually opposed the re- opening of the African slave trade (which had been outlawed decades previously) due to the horrors of the “Middle Passage” slave transports. Others opposed the African slave trade simply because an influx of new slaves would reduce prices and devalue their existing stocks of domestic slaves. A third set sought to re-start the African slave trade to support new slave states that they hoped to create out West. Britain opposed slavery but desired Southern Cotton - they might have tolerated domestic slavery in America, but were violently opposed to the African slave trade. All of these factors were exacerbated by various hotheads, opportunistic politicians, and personality conflicts, and Bunch reported on them all.
I greatly enjoyed this book, and it taught me more about the true causes of the Civil War than anything I have read previously. Although Bunch died over a century and a half ago, it seems almost as if the author was able to interview him directly. Very few of the players on any side are portrayed in a wholly positive light, and these biases and personality faults give this account a distinct ring of truth. It is not an action story, and for some readers it may seem a bit slow, but you are bound to enjoy it if you are interested in the political currents, backroom intrigues, and social attitudes that influenced this critical period in American history.

A truly wonderful band called “Sons of Bill” sings a song entitled “Charleston,” about leaving Virginia, driving for hours, and arriving in Charleston to drink on the Battery and “stroll up and down King Street and find…a queen.” I have loved Charleston from the moment I first heard it described in the excellent Sigmund Brouwer murder mystery Out of the Shadows. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of visiting Charleston twice, and it hasn’t disappointed. The astonishingly decadent seafood and Italian fare, the exquisite mansions, and the bustle of the open air market delight the senses. For me, Charleston is all about architecture, atmosphere, and history.

I don’t read historical non-fiction very often, because I’m still a child at heart and like my stories usually to be rather fast-paced, but every once in a while I come across a non-fiction book that piques my interest enough that I attempt its challenge. I’m glad that I picked up Our Man in Charleston. The author, Christopher Dickey, writes with the power of extensive research behind him, and tells the story of Robert Bunch, the British consul in Charleston during the days leading up to the Civil War. Bunch was accepted as a member of Charleston’s high society, and as such was ideally placed to write detailed reports back to his superiors in Britain. He uncovered the appalling but bizarre truth behind the glittering parties and the opulent mansions all made possible through the work of slaves: “The frightful evil of the system is that it debases the whole tone of society–for the people talk calmly of horrors which would not be mentioned in civilized society. It is literally no more to kill a slave than to shoot a dog” (43). The elegant Charlestonians with consciences knew somewhere inside that what they were doing to the Africans was horrifically wrong, and as a result, nearly all of Charleston society had to live behind a tremendous facade of denial. Bunch regularly exposed this hypocrisy in his secret reports, and encouraged his superiors not to support the South in the Civil War.

Britain had abolished slavery decades earlier, and even the transatlantic slave trade had been abolished 50 years prior in the US, so thankfully in Britain by that time, it was very popular to be anti-slavery, despite the fact that the British relied so heavily on Southern cotton for making textiles. Bunch was thoroughly against slavery himself, and appalled by the plight of the Africans in Charleston. His clandestine fact-gathering and reports helped to sway the British government firmly away from supporting the Southern cause in the war.

What would Keats and Aristotle say? Dickey’s writing is compelling, authoritative, and detailed. His research is outstanding, and his prose is clear and insightful. His chapters are quite short, which makes them much easier to get through. His unlikely hero, a nobody, really, is a man worthy to be remembered for the remarkable part he played in the fight to end slavery in the Western world. Greatness of content, and greatness of execution. Plus moral beauty or excellence in terms of the motivations of the protagonist. Jolly good show!

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

The new British Consul, Robert Bunch, was not happy with his placement in Charleston. He hated the weather, detested slavery, found the town provincial, and the people arrogant. He'd been stationed there with the assignment to get a repeal of the Negro Seaman Act. Under this act, British sailors who were Negros were taken off their ship when it was in port and jailed. Britain wanted this law repealed and felt Bunch was the man to do it.

In spite of his dislike of Charleston and it's elite, Bunch had to become not only friendly with them, but a member of their society. He managed this very well, so well in fact that as war approached some in the North distrusted him as a secessionist. His reports to London and Lord Lyons, the ambassador in Washington, were some of the best intelligence they received on the Southern position. However, Bunch was playing a dangerous game and in the end it almost caught up with him.

This is an excellent book about the Civil War. It is well researched including much of the correspondence from Bunch with the tensions in the South as background. In Bunch's mind and in the mind of Lord Palmerston, Prime Minister, the issue was slavery and the potential reopening of the African slave trade. It is very clear in this book that in fact reopening the slave trade and conquering territory in Central and South America for more land to support their cotton based economy was a major consideration in the minds of many in South Carolina.

I highly recommend this book. Bunch is a fascinating character. Although the book is serious history, the description of his activities makes the book as interesting to read as a novel. If you're a Civil War buff, don't miss this one.

I reviewed the book for Books for Bloggers.

I bought this book after having read excerpts from it in an article entitled Confederate Madness Then and Now published in the dailybeast dot com. Dickey's book reads like a novel, as the allusion to Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana indicates. But Our Man in Charleston is not really a spy novel. It is a novel about outrages of the past, in this case slaveryThe book resonates with the removal of the confederate flag from the capitol of Charleston, SC., a flag that was actually not the confederate flag but a battle flag of General Lee's that anti-Civil Rights Southern racists started using in the late 1950s. Dickey makes it more clear than ever that the Civil War was fought over slavery, not states rights. No pro-secessionist ever mentioned states rights except when objecting to northern states not obeying the Fugitive Slave Act. How the audacious, grand lie that the war was over something as abstract as states right ever got told and gained currency is a story that remains told. Dickey recently does a lot to show how bogus that alibi is. Although Our Man in Charleston is sometimes repetitive and often provides character sketches of people who play a minor and momentary role in the story, the book is well worth reading for the global perspective Dickey takes on the Civil War. I really did know much at all of the Confederacy's interest in gaining recognition from Britain and even less about friction between South Carolina and Britain over the renewal of the slave trade in the 1840s. Dickey's discussion of the Crimean War drew British warships away from Africa where they had been trying to stop American slave ships. I didn't know anything about the fight over Cuba either. Dickey is an excellent prose stylist. . Dickey has a fascinating story to tell about the British role in the Civil War, and he tells it very well.

If you have ever wondered what kept the British from officially recognizing the Confederacy, this book will provide the answer. The Confederacy tried every trick in the book to get France and Britain to provide official recognition of it as a nation, but was never able to do so. France wanted to, but would not do so unless Britain took the lead. Why the British didn't is pretty much explained in this book, along with numerous other political and economic analyses many history books of this period do not cover.

At its heart was a small time British counsel, Robert Bunch, who played both sides: pretending to support southern slave views in Charleston, while providing the British Foreign Office with all the information it needed to deny official recognition of the Confederacy. He did so at the risk of his life and that of his family. He did it so well, Union Secretary of State Seward did everything in his power to destroy Brunch and his career, unaware that Bunch was one of the Union government's best allies in the international political war between the Union and the Confederacy.

During the years preceding the Civil War, Robert Bunch may have been the perfect individual to gather and disseminate relevant information with respect to events that would have impact on Great Britain, both politically and economically. Described as slight and unimposing, Bunch was “…a man well met but easily forgotten …”

In this thoroughly researched nonfiction work that begins in 1853 with Bunch’s arrival in Charleston, South Carolina, Christopher Dickey tells the story of British Consul Robert Bunch and his years as an British operative in the South. ”Our Man in Charleston: Britain’s Secret Agent in the Civil War South” provides insight into a man who abhorred slavery and the attitudes of slave owners. “… Bunch was deeply disturbed by the mixture of arrogance and fear, cruelty and luxury, piety and hypocrisy that were so deeply ingrained in Southern culture …” Yet Bunch had one very necessary quality that allowed him to operate undetected “…an agreeable mien helped him win the trust of people …”

”Our Man in Charleston” disabuses the ideas that Great Britain supported the South and that it was of significant importance to the British Empire. There was “…one huge and complicated goal that every British government had pursued for fifty years: the elimination of the African slave trade…” Because their textile industry depended on cotton from the South, the British had tolerated “…the ugliness of the structure behind it…” As a result, “…Southerners had come to expect …complacency about their “peculiar institution …”

Originally tasked with working to have the Negro Seaman Law changed, Bunch found his role growing broader as the issues of “…slaves and slavery…and the eruptions of bellicose hostility between the United States and Britain heightened…” Further, as secessionists began to work toward separating from the Union he observed “…the political momentum lay with the relentless minority manipulating a feckless majority…” Focusing on Britain’s welfare, Bunch felt “…there was no long term benefit for Britain if it supported the breakaway states…the Confederates would be ostracized…regarded as little more than growers of cotton and rice…”

”Our Man in Charleston: Britain’s Secret Agent in the Civil War South” provides readers with a unique view on the years immediately preceding the Civil War. The perspective of the British on the growing tension in the United States and their desire to protect their own economic interests are no different from those of world powers today. Approximately two-thirds of Christopher Dickey’s book focuses on the years between 1853 and the taking of Fort Sumter in 1861 and on Robert Bunch’s ingratiating himself into the world of Southern gentry for the benefit of Great Britain.

Readers who enjoy history and learning about long-neglected, but important facts about individuals who had an impact of Civil War America will find ”Our Man in Charleston: Britain’s Secret Agent in the Civil War South” a fascinating read. Individuals who wish to read more about the period of time during which this book takes place will find a list of selected references following the main text.

Reading this book is like reading the American Civil War from a British perspective. Robert Bunch was born in 1820 to an American mother and an English father, and he was sent to Charleston, South Carolina as a British consul in 1853. By then tensions between North and South concerning the abolition of slavery was waging fiercely, and England, although siding with the North, needed to remain neutral in order to continue to trade in cotton.

So what we have here is the story of Northern and Southern politicians with an Englishman in the middle. Interesting in all this are rumors of slave uprising and abolitionist interventions, especially after the 1857 Supreme Court Dred Scott decision and then the 1859 armory raid by John Brown in Harper's Ferry, WV. Bunch supported John Brown's actions, but had to keep his opinions quiet around the Southerners. Yet his many secret letters to consuls in DC show otherwise. Bunch risked losing his job if his true feelings about slavery had been revealed. The presidential elections were also coming up later that year.

Author Christopher Dickey did an impressive job with his research here. Most of the information for this book comes from letters Bunch had written to ministers both in DC and London and from dispatches from British diplomats of that time. While most of the narrative is in third-person, what Dickey does here is depict a very vivid image of sentiments in the South just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War and briefly afterwards. England had to be careful herself to avoid getting tangled up in another war with the United States, and Bunch, who expressed his disdain for slavery, had to pretend he was a sympathetic Southerner.

This different angle of the Civil War makes this an interesting read because topics come up that are not usually mentioned in standard US history textbooks, and perhaps only avid historians are aware of all that went on in the South in the 1850s. American ships were intercepted at high seas carrying African slaves in hidden compartments. Jefferson Davis wanted to maintain Cuba as a Southern slave-holding state. While Bunch was not a real spy, having to wear two faces during tense times makes this an interesting read with a new perspective.

Every American schoolchild past a certain age is familiar with at least the basics of the story behind the beginnings of America's Civil War, but even the better-informed Civil War history aficionado might be unaware of the role played by a then-minor (and nowadays virtually unknown) emissary of the British government named Robert Bunch. Relations between the United States, Great Britain, and the upstart southern states (later the Confederacy) were delicately balanced on a knife's-edge of intrigue, politics, and finance, and Bunch, as the British consul in Charleston, S.C. -- the epicenter of Southern secessionism -- played a role that has been virtually unknown until the publication of this excellent historical work.

I was taken aback by the realization, gained through reading this book, of the extreme virulence of the feelings of the Southern cotton growers, especially the self-styled elite of Charleston, and indeed all of South Carolina, regarding slavery. The depth of the self-delusion and rationalization which these people employed to support their beliefs that slavery was the "Christian" thing to do and actually raised the stature of "their Negroes" is horrific. Robert Bunch, as the representative of the British government (which opposed slavery and actively battled the slave trade on the high seas) had to walk a tightrope during his tenure in Charleston, which began nearly a decade before the outbreak of the Civil War, pretending to be sympathetic to the slave-owners while he reported to his superiors in the Foreign Ministry on the political climate in the area.

A first order of business for Bunch was to work toward a repeal, or at least modification, of a South Carolina law which allowed the state authorities to seize Negro sailors from foreign vessels in South Carolina ports - the ostensible reason being to prevent free blacks from inciting rebellion amongst the local slaves. This law is an indication of the level of paranoia exhibited by the white population of Charleston, and South Carolina in general.

As tensions rose between the slaveholding states and the northern free states, the information which Bunch sent to his political masters became ever more important, as the slave states attempted to parlay Great Britain's reliance on their cotton to feed the Midlands mills into an assurance of diplomatic recognition by the British Empire. All through the decade leading up to the beginning of the war, and even after the onset of hostilities - with the first military action of the war taking place in Charleston Harbor, when Confederate forces which had occupied Fort Moultrie fired upon the Federal garrison in Fort Sumter - Bunch concealed his true feelings of loathing toward the institution of slavery in order to remain in the good graces of the Southerners who were the unwitting sources of the intelligence he passed to his Ministry. Indeed, he did such a good job that he came under the scrutiny, and suspicion, of Lincoln's mercurial Secretary of War, William Henry Seward.

"Our Man in Charleston" is a well-written account of events which affected the fate of virtually the entire Western world in the latter years of the 19th Century, and how they were influenced by a man whose name and actions were, before this book's publication, almost totally forgotten. It is fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the events leading up to the American Civil War, and important reading for any serious student of Western history in this period.

Despite having read a number of books about the Civil War this book introduced me to an aspect of Civil War diplomacy/spying of which I knew little about. It is an interesting read that should appeal to and Civil War or history buffs.

The book explores the activities of Robert Bunch who was British Consul in Charleston, South Carolina beginning in 1853. While personally against slavery, as was the British government, Mr. Bunch let those around him believe he favored it allowing him access to key figures in the South leading up to and during the Civil War. Interestingly Bunch was viewed as friendly toward the South by the North when in fact he was against British involvement in the war.

The book looks at the Southern leaders from the perspective of Bunch as well as British diplomatic relations with the United States during this time. The book suggests that the one of the key reasons Britain kept out of the war was its unwillingness to support slavery in the South in any form.

While I have read about American and British diplomacy during the civil war I never knew about Mr. Bunch. I also never realized how strong a role Britain’s hatred of slavery played in its refusal to help the South.

This book is in part a history of the Civil War from a British perspective and in part a spy novel of sorts where a British Consul pretends to favor slavery and the South when he supports neither. History and Civil War Buffs should really enjoy this as well as anyone with an interest in the Civil War.

I like reading popular history, but I’ve never had much interest in reading about Civil War era America. I’ve no idea why. Perhaps it’s because the war always seemed so insane, especially coming as it did on the heels of the Crimean War and the lessons the world should have learned about the horrors of modern artillery and massed firepower. Or perhaps it’s because the institution of slavery always struck me as so violative of the ideals America claimed to hold dear at the time of its founding that I never believed any book could adequately explain how slavery was not just tolerated, but a central part of American culture, for an additional 100 years. Regardless, something about Christopher Dickey’s book, Our Man in Charleston: Britain’s Secret Agent in the Civil War South, made me want to read it. Perhaps it was the British angle. I don’t know. But I’m very glad I did read it as it is very good.

Dickey relates the experiences of Robert Bunch, the British consul in Charleston beginning in 1853. Bunch, like many in his government, hated slavery and those engaged in it. But Bunch had to pretend to like the people of Charleston, including many slave owners, as his government had tasked him with convincing the South Carolina government to overturn the Negro Seamen law, a law under which any black seamen arriving in South Carolina (on board a British or any other nation’s ship) would be imprisoned until their ship departed. That is if they were lucky. They might, while imprisoned, be sold into a life of slavery by scurrilous prison guards, never being seen again. This, for obvious reasons, infuriated the British government, a government that had already spent several decades trying to put an end to the world slave trade.

While Bunch was engaged in his assigned task, events around him unfolded to the point where South Carolina and a number of other Southern states seceded from the Union, ultimately starting the American Civil War. Bunch was there throughout the pre-war period, during secession, and through at least a portion of the Civil War (I don’t want to give too much away). In the process, Bunch seems to have become not only the best consul, but the best anti-slavery spy, the British had in the Confederacy, insightfully reporting on ongoing events, and even accurately predicting future events, in a stream of missives to his superiors in Washington and London, all the while at risk of being killed by those he lived amongst if his activities and anti-slavery views were discovered. Bunch at the same time dealt with a constant onslaught of lesser problems for his government and for Brits in the area, most of which he resolved in an admirable manner.

There’s much more to the book, but saying more would give too much away. What I will say is that the book should be required reading in the US as it has much to teach us. The book makes it very clear that secession, the Civil War, and the Confederate battle flag (all of which seem to be in the news at the moment) had very little to do with states’ rights or tariffs as many in the South would have the world believe since the end of the war. Bunch’s clear-eyed observations and reporting, and Dickey’s compelling narrative, make it plain that all three were about slavery plain and simple. The setting of the book in Charleston, which is also sadly in the news these days, is also enlightening as it reveals how steeped in slavery Charleston and its people were and how much of a history of racism the state has. While better days are hopefully within sight for the city of Charleston and the state of South Carolina, it’s always good to know one’s history. Especially when it’s as well and accurately told as by Dickey. Highly recommended.

If you think you've read everything worth reading about the Civil War think again. Christopher Dickey's work "Our Man in Charleston" gives readers the perspective of a British consul in Charleston and the intrigue surrounding the central question of whether England would side with the Confederacy. Dickey uses personal correspondence by Robert Bunch, the 32-year-old British consul to Charleston, to highlight the passions erupting in the Confederacy at the time. It is a revealing portrait of the run-up to the Civil War, open hostilities with the bombing of Fort Sumter and the near total destruction of Charleston by the end of the war. Along the way, Dickey paints horrendous portraits of the brutality of slavery and the efforts of businessmen in the north and the south to perpetuate it. The book is tragic in many respects but above all illustrates what happens when passion replaces reason in our human relations.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It provided fascinating glimpses into the pre-war South mentality and the long-simmering issue of slavery in the US.
This is a well-written book with captivating details which really pull the reader into the story. I doubt it captures the average southerner's perspective, but it is likely an all-too-accurate picture of the ruling classes & bureaucrats who sat at the top and didn't want to risk any change to the status quo. This makes sense, because Bunch was a diplomat and I imagine his job ensured he would interact primarily with the ruling class personalities. I especially loved the deeper backstory regarding the historic events at Fort Sumter. Also, the author probably found the perfect length for this book, because everything in it feels necessary and it is a pretty quick read, considering the topic.

The Civil War is just one historical event that continues to fascinate me as a reader. The author does a magnificent job of detailing the ins and outs of what occurred in our nation at a time when chaos reigned. I am continuously learning so much about what was going on at a time when many people even knew where their next meal was coming from.
The author packs so much information into his book that it really causes the reader to become engrossed with the intrigue that happened off the battlefield. As I read I was humbled as I learned of events that never entered my thinking before. Of course, today many people are even on a higher alert for those who are observing them or interested in what their activities may be.
What the author shares never before entered my mind as a possibility at a time we look back on as perhaps being centered on the battlefield. Some of the nefarious transactions weren’t easy to read such as the way some viewed lives as of little to no value, no caring what happened to them even when separating loved ones.
There are some real historical figures readers will learn about who were brave and worked diligently behind the scenes to improve life for all. The nonfictional book is one that lovers of history will want on their shelves to share with others for generations. Here is a great book that will make a great gift for the lover of history, the Civil War or secret agents!