alternatehistory.com

22 June

News of the Charleston Incident reaches Richmond, and all the newspapers of the Confederacy. There are three broad strands of opinion - one of them is that this is terrible because they have seriously annoyed the British, another that this is only right and proper, and a third that the actions of Bythesea were beyond the pale and that honour demanded satisfaction (though this is a view somewhat tempered by the matching view that the capture of Richard Nelson was also outrageous).
The first strand is distinctly more common outside South Carolina.
The old argument of King Cotton makes a reappearance as well.

23 June

The Union has no idea what to make of this.

24 June

Archer makes Bermuda, and Bythesea submits a full and detailed report of the events. Milne pointedly does not ask questions about the nearly one hundred black slaves (now ex slaves) on board - the official report explains that there was no time to check for Richard Nelson's RN tattoo and that therefore all those who might have been Richard Nelson had to be taken for inspection on board Archer - and sends his fastest vessel to London to inform the government of the situation.
He also sends the Landrail to Gosport to inform the British Ambassador to the Confederacy (Derby) of the Archer version of events.

26 June
Robert E. Lee, driven to frustration by the persistent difficulties he has had over clearing Arlington of unneeded fortifications and troubled by the events in Charleston (and the way that South Carolina may have gotten the entire Confederacy into a war) formally declares his interest in election to the Confederate Congress. The elections are later this year (Confederate elections take place in odd-numbered years, partly because the Confederacy declared independence in 1861 and partly because it's not what the Union does) though there is not a Senate seat currently available so Lee will run for the House.
This is quite well received by local Virginians, who remember Lee as a skilled general.


27 June

Derby formally requests an apology from the Confederate government in general, the State of South Carolina specifically, and Charleston in particular. He gets the first one of these, and in light of this hints that the British government may be inclined to pursue a policy of specific responsibility over this issue not related to the national government but to one of the states.

29 June

Bulloch reports on the state of the Confederate Navy.
Bluntly, they have not much of a chance against the Royal Navy, even if all their ironclads participate, unless the British essentially let them win - the amount of force deployed against the Union shows this. He feels confident that commerce raiding and keeping a port open is possible, but it would take the concentration of most or all of the Confederate navy to be sure as too many ships are still building. (The Laird Rams have been purchased by the British, at quite a good price, and the new Confederate ships such as the re-armoured Charleston or the "three Presidents" are still at Gosport.)

Charlestonians feel that their city's extensive defences, and their own locally-built ironclads (Chicora, Palmetto State and the under-construction Berkeley), will allow them to give the Royal Navy a bloody nose. There is also a general if slow mobilization taking place in South Carolina.
Other states of the Confederacy are being extremely reluctant to match this, and privately the Confederate States Navy has decided that it will only risk their other ironclads - much less those under construction - if ordered by the national government.


2 July
News of the incident arrives in Britain (from both Halifax and Bermuda at almost the same time due to which ships were sent from where) - to widespread outrage, shock from Mason at the stupidity of his countrymen and a certain sense of deja vu from more than one public figure.
Palmerston makes a speech in which he describes the capture of Richard Nelson as a public outrage, and meanwhile Cabinet determines to send an ultimatum in accordance with Derby's stated intentions.
At the same time, the HMS Great Eastern is made ready to travel to South Carolina as a support ship, along with a fleet including the Royal Oak and Pisces as ironclads. Superb is also ordered to make ready for sea.
Notably, the fleet is equipped across the board with Palliser shells for their most powerful guns.

4 July
With the formal rejection of the British demands, the small China Station fleet in Yokohama is instructed to enforce compliance on the Japanese Government and on Satsuma Domain by seizing their merchant ships as security. Satsuma Domain is picked as the first target to try and encourage the Bakufu to agree.