These firms acted as commissioned purchasing and financial agents, middlemen, with the various arms manufacturers in England.
[2][3] At the onset of war in 1861 the south had very little manufacturing potential and were in desperate need of arms, military ordnance and other supplies which it could not obtain from the industrialized north, now an enemy of the Confederate States.
[7] The senior director of Sinclair, Hamilton and Company was Archibald Hamilton, a Confederate sympathizer, a senior director of the firm Fraser, Trenholm and Co, and an arms expert who was familiar with every arms manufacturer in England, and frequently arranged business with them.
[8][9][10] Directors of Sinclair, Hamilton & Company included, Robert Adams, Richard Ashton, Archibald Cockburn, John Shorter, merchants, William Dray, an engineer and manufacturer, and George Fry who acted as solicitor.
[11][12] Charles K. Prioleau, a senior partner of Trenholm, became interested in supplying the Confederacy in an attempt to salvage his business when the cotton trade, which was vital to both the economies of the Confederate states and the numerous mills in Lancashire, collapsed as a result of the Civil War and the Union Blockade.