John Bigelow's "France and the Confederate Navy" is a contribution of great value to the history of this country's international relations during and for a few years subsequent to the Civil War. Mr. Bigelow has an interesting story to tell of the efforts of Confederate agents to build and fit out in the ports of France and with the connivance of the French Government, several heavily-armed vessels-of-war. His narrative is unconventional in form and lively and entertaining in matter. As the representative of this Government in France he learned of all the steps that were taken to make the French ports the base of naval operations for the Confederates, and he gives a readable account of his moves to checkmate this scheme. The escape of one of the vessels, the "Stonewall," brought matters to a crisis, but happily the war was ended before she reached an American port. Mr. Bigelow's narrative, which has much of the interest of a romance, is supplemented by documents from both Union and Confederate sources.
–The Book Buyer, Vol. 5 [1888]