Author: (SHEFFIELD, UNITED KINGDOM -- STEEL MANUFACTURING -- AMERICAN CIVIL WAR)
Title: Testament of the Sheffield Manufactories & C to Management of Consular Agent
Description: Raymond M. Stevenson (born 1840) was an American journalist in Pennsylvania who, after service in the Union Army during the Civil War, was appointed by Abraham Lincoln vice consul to the American Consul in Sheffield, England, a post he held until 1866, after which he headed west and resumed newspaper work in Colorado. DS, 3pp (lettersheet), 8¼" X 13½", Sheffield, Great Britain, 12 February 1864. Addressed to R.M. Stevenson. Very good. On blue stationery, a large group of makers of renowned "Sheffield steel "sign this letter to the new American consul. "In reply to your enquiries," it begins, "we the undersigned Merchants and Manufacturers in Sheffield and the [?} Neighborhood beg to say that your Consular Business has invariably been attended to with promptness and despatch, and to express our entire satisfaction with your existing [?] arrangements for the discharge of your official duties and also with the attention we have received from Messrs. Branson & Sonwith whom we have every confidence." It continues, "We further beg to say that we consider your office to be most centrally and conveniently situated for the despatch of Consular Business (having been used for that purpose for a great number of years) and that you could not meet with an office in a more suitable Locality." The bottom this of this page is then signed by twenty persons and/or firm names, the second leaf is signed by another twenty-one persons and/or firms and the third leaf is signed by twelve persons and/or firms. The first signer on the first page is Thomas Jessop, who adds "Mayor & Master Cutler." (Jessop,1804-87, serves as mayor of Sheffield 1863-64 and headed the steelmaking firm founded by his father -- on the second leaf he signs the firm's name, "Wm Jessop & Sons.") Nearby is John Brown (1816-96), who adds "Ex Mayor." (Brown was Jessop's predecessor in 1862-63, an important industrialist known as "Father of the South Yorkshire Iron Trade." He signs a second time as "John Brown & Co." on behalf of the firm.) Other signers on this page and the subsequent pages, in no particular order, include: John Martin & Co. major steel manufacturer and iron exporter; Charles Cammell & Co. iron works; Hargreaves, Smith & Co. knives of all sorts; Sanderson Brothers, steel manufacturers; Spear & Jackson (signed twice), woodworking tools manufacturers; John Wigfall & Co. butchers' knives; S & C Wardlow, knife and razor manufacturers; George Wostenholm & Son, cutlery, table knives and forks, pen and pocket knives; Wilson Hawksworth Ellison & Co. butchers' and skinning knives; Moulson Brothers, saws and tool manufacturer; Charles Wild (1823-86), knife manufacturer; William Wild (1810-69), spring-knife manufacturer; Joshpe Rodgers & Sons, cutlers and silversmiths; Jackson Newton, knife manufacturer; Frederick Reynolds (1814-77), razor manufacturer; Thomas Firth & Sons, steelmakers to the field armaments industry; and many more.. Scholar Lee Tigner notes in a 2017 essay that "Sheffield Cutlers were in full swing supplying the American demand through the Civil War.. Sheffield steel would have been found in most pockets on the battlefield at Gettysburg.." David Hay elaborates in a 2005 article that "Geoffrey Tweedale.. has shown how the American market was largely responsible for the remarkable expansion of the Sheffield crucible steel industry between the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War. In good years a third or more of Sheffield's steel output was sent across the Atlantic, in addition to the vast trade in cutlery and edge tools. Large fortunes were made from the American trade by the steel firms of Sanderson, Jessop, Vickers, Greaves, Butcher and Cammell." American steel manufacturing was scattered and unreliable in the mod 19th-century, and while the federal government made attempts to reduce its heavy reliance on Sheffield steel, including an 1861 tariff on imported goods, the need remained strong and the North remained anxious that their supply lines remain open. A steady supply of iron and steel, knives and edges weapons and material for gun manufactuting and all manner of other military uses was crucial to the federal government; there was concern that Great Britain would side with the Confederacy, who was in far greater need for imported goods than was the North -- and indeed at least one Sheffield steel firm had refused to sell materials to the U.S. government. When young consul Stevenson was appointed by Lincoln to the steel-producing center of England, one of his main charges would have been to insure the smooth, steady supply of materials to the federal government. This intriguing document appears to be the Sheffield steel industry's attempt to assure the American government that they would remain faithful supplies for the Union cause. A pencilled note in unknown hand on the blank fourth leaf ("Testament of the Sheffield Manufactories & c to Management of Consular Agent") gives title to this remarkable document. .

Keywords: Civil War Business


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