George Nicholas Sanders (February 1812-13 August 1873) was a Confederate diplomat and Montreal-based agent.
Biography[]
George Nicholas Sanders was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1812, and he bred cattle and race horses before moving to New York. He edited the Democratic Review before serving as consul in London from 1853 to 1854, and he publicly advocated for the assassination of heads of state such as French emperor Napoleon III and supported revolutions on the European continent. His time in Europe saw him interact with revolutionary leaders such as Lajos Kossuth and Giuseppe Mazzini. During the American Civil War, he represented the Confederacy in diplomatic missions to Europe and Canada, and he negotiated with Britain to build ships for the Confederate States Navy. After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Sanders was accused of involvement in the killing, and Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt issued a $25,000 bounty for his arrest. The reward was dropped in November 1865, and Sanders later relocated to Paris in 1870 and prepared plans for the digging of rifle pits and zig-zags to defend the city from a Prussian siege. He later returned to the United States and died in New York City in 1873.