But as stated in his own book, in the Preface: At the outbreak of the American war, in common with many of my countrymen, I felt very indifferent as to which side might win; but if I had any bias, my sympathies were rather in favour of the North, on account of the dislike which an Englishman naturally feels at the idea of Slavery.

But soon a sentiment of great admiration for the gallantry and determination of the Southerners, together with the unhappy contrast afforded by the foolish bullying conduct of the Northerners, caused a complete revulsion in my feelings, and I was unable to repress a strong wish to go to America and see something of this wonderful struggle.

[6] Fremantle entered the Confederacy through the Mexican town of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on 2 April on board the Royal Navy frigate HMS Immortalité to avoid being in violation of the Union blockade, and crossed the Rio Grande into Brownsville, Texas.

[7] Within three hours of his arrival in the Confederacy, Fremantle encountered 'frontier justice' for the first time, finding the body of a renegade, known as Montgomery, half-buried and stripped of flesh at the roadside.

[10] After finally meeting with General Magruder shortly after leaving Brownsville, Fremantle continued his journey across the South Texas prairie, dutifully recording in his diary his observations about the taste of polecat,[11] the snuff habits of Texan women,[11] and allusions to the coarse language of his drivers and travelling companions.

[12] Here, he dined with General William Read Scurry, and observed that those Confederate officers he encountered were extremely complimentary about Great Britain and the Queen, even proposing toasts to her health and to the Empire.

The English observer finally left Texas on 8 May, arriving in Shreveport, Louisiana, and partaking of the hospitality of General Edmund Kirby Smith and his wife.

[16] On the advice of General Kirby Smith, Fremantle made his way to Monroe, Louisiana, to attempt to cross the river from there due to the uncertainty surrounding the status of Alexandria.

As the city had been evacuated and attacked only a few days earlier, Fremantle was treated with some suspicion by soldiers and locals, who expressed scepticism that an English officer should be travelling alone through the South.

Upon 'examination' by a mob in a hotel, Fremantle finally convinced a Confederate cavalry officer and an Irish doctor of his legitimacy, and was spirited away to meet General Joseph E. Johnston, who accepted the peculiar traveller into his company.

[20] After inspecting the defences of the city with General Dabney H. Maury, Fremantle briefly visited Montgomery, the former capital of the Confederate States, before arriving in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on 28 May.

[21] Here, Fremantle met yet more prominent figures, including Generals William J. Hardee and Leonidas Polk, and Clement Vallandigham, the leader of the Copperheads.

[25] Increasingly, Lieutenant Colonel Fremantle became possessed of a desire to get to the Confederate capital, Richmond, and from there attempt to locate the Army of Northern Virginia, with which he intended to journey for a while.

[27] En route to Richmond, Fremantle passed through Wilmington, North Carolina, and Petersburg, Virginia, before arriving in the Confederate capital two days after leaving Charleston.

From Fremantle's account, it is possible to conclude that the Confederate leaders may have been trying to impress their British visitor on the matter of diplomatic intervention, without real consideration of his lack of power to do so.

[32] On 2 July, the four foreign observers returned to the battlefield at 5 am, in time to witness a meeting between Generals Lee, Longstreet, Hill, John Bell Hood and Henry Heth.

[33] On the morning of 3 July, Captain Ross and Colonel Fremantle made an inspection of the town of Gettysburg itself, intending to get to the cupola of the seminary, which had been used by General John Buford as a vantage point two days earlier.

As the army fell back into Maryland, Fremantle met Jeb Stuart, the cavalry commander whose absence during the preceding battle cost Lee valuable intelligence.

Increasingly alarmed, Fremantle saw a black youth pursued by the mob, eventually finding refuge with a company of soldiers, to the disgust of the massed protestors.

[40] On 15 July, amidst the violence and terror gripping large parts of the city, Fremantle boarded the SS China, and began his voyage back to Britain.

[42] Fremantle married shortly after his return to Great Britain, and served with his regiment until 1880, when he was placed on half pay after 28 years of service without seeing any active duty.

[44] After the fall of Khartoum and the departure of the British from the Sudan, Fremantle stayed for a brief time in Cairo, then returned to England in 1886, serving in the War Office as Deputy Adjutant-General for Militia, Yeomanry and volunteers.

[43] During his time on the island, Fremantle became a popular governor, presiding over political decisions such as the matter of mixed and non-Catholic marriages, and the issue of the payment of reparations to the Maltese ecclesiastical authorities from the Napoleonic Wars.

[43] On the centenary of his funeral, a ceremony marking the restoration of his grave in Woodvale Cemetery, near Brighton, was conducted by his descendants and by Civil War re-enactors from the United States.

In 1952, however, historian Walter Lord published a revised edition of Three Months in the Southern States, retitled The Fremantle Diary, which featured an introduction by the editor and detailed references.

[47] Part of the reason for the enduring fame of Fremantle compared to his fellow observers may be his role in Civil War literature and film, thanks to the success of Michael Shaara's historical novel, The Killer Angels.

[49] However his appearance is substantially different from reality: in the movie he is shown in a scarlet British uniform sipping tea from a china cup, whereas, being in an unofficial capacity, he was dressed in a "gray shooting-jacket" and had been living rough like many others in the country.