On 7 January 1901, a seventy-seven year-old American died at 76 Canning Street, Liverpool. His name was James Dunwoody Bulloch and his death certificate gave his occupation as "Naval Representative of the late Confederate States of America (retired)". This was the end of an extraordinary chapter in Liverpool's history, for Bulloch had first arrived in the city in 1861 at the start of the American Civil War. His story is one of great drama involving secret agents, international politics and raiders on the high seas.
Bulloch was sent to England by the Confederate States Government as one of their chief secret agents. His mission was to obtain warships and armaments for the Confederacy Navy to help lift the crippling blockade by the Northern states of the Southern ports. The blockade was also bringing unemployment and poverty to Lancashire as goods which would have normally left the southern states for Liverpool, such as cotton, were stopped. The Crosby district, near Liverpool, formed the background to the plotting and intrigue of the Civil War years and Bulloch remained there for over a decade before moving to the city of Liverpool.
Because Britain was a neutral power, Bulloch was a 'secret' agent, and he had to pretend he was in business as a private individual. His business dealings on behalf of the South were complicated because of the need not to break British neutrality regulations.
In reality both the British authorities and the American Government in Washington DC (which sent its own agents to shadow him) knew about his mission. The situation that developed in Liverpool saw each side watching the other, and agents spying on agents. | 
