The Alabama Claims

From Wikipedia.

The Alabama Claims were a series of  demands for damages sought by the government of the United States from the United Kingdom in 1869, for attacks on its merchant shops by commerce raiders of the Confederate Navy built in British shipyards during the war.

The claims were against all such Confederate ships, but took the name Alabama after the most famous of those vessels.  At one time the Confederates had essentially driven U.S. shopping from the world seas.

Caleb Cushing was involved with these.  The U.S. Revenue Cutter Caleb Cushing was named after him.  This is the ship that Charles W. Read captured in Portland Harbor, Maine, which I have been writing about.

An international arbitration endorsed the American position in 1872.    Britain settled the matter by paying the United States $15.5 million and ending the dispute.

--Old B-Runner