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The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed one month before the beginning of the American Civil War, on March 17, 1861, after the conquest of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by Giuseppe Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand. On July 27, six days after the rout of the Union army at the First Battle of Bull Run, Seward accepted the suggestion of James W. Quiggle, consul to Antwerp, and instructed minister Sanford to travel to Turin to recruit the popular Garibaldi.R. J. Amundson, "[http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/civil_war_history/v014/14.1.amundson.html Sanford and Garibaldi]". Civil War History 14#.1 (1968): 40–45.

Betraying the secrecy of the mission, Quiggle wrote to Garibaldi and implied that the Italian would receive supreme command of the Union Army. This idea was confirmed to Garibaldi by Sanford's messenger, Joseph Artomi, before Sanford arrived in Italy and without his knowledge or approval.Fry, J. A. (1973). The Messenger to Garibaldi: Henry S. Sanford and the Offer of a Union Command to Giuseppe Garibaldi. Essays in History, 17. In reality, Lincoln and Seward only wanted Garibaldi to lead the army defending Washington, D.C. from a possible Confederate attack. King Victor Emmanuel II was at the time trying to keep Garibaldi out of government, but he was reluctant to let him leave the country, because he wanted him ready for a possible campaign against French-occupied Rome or Austrian-held Venice,Zettl, H. (1976). Garibaldi and the American Civil War. Civil War History, 22(1), 70-76. while others including Enrico Cialdini wanted Garibaldi to fight the brigandage in Southern Italy. The king consented to let Garibaldi leave for America after a direct appeal from him. In early September, Garibaldi met twice with Sanford. He demanded supreme command because he would be of little use otherwise, and the authority to abolish slavery when the "time seemed ripe", lest the war "appear like a civil war in which the world at large could have little interest or sympathy". Sanford replied that not even Lincoln had the authority to give such powers, and the negotiations ended. In his final report to Seward, Sanford wrote that Garibaldi "could do nothing co-operatively — never has — and my own conviction, while impressed with his many great qualities, is he never can. What he does he must do by himself and in his own way." Some historians consider that Garibaldi never was interested in going to the United States and only used the affair to pressure Victor Emmanuel II into conquering Rome.

The affair became an embarrassment to the United States. The British and French press reproduced a rumor that Garibaldi had been offered supreme command and rejected it, deriding the situation as an American "confession of failure" and "military incompetence". The claim that Garibaldi had been offered supreme command was denied by Sanford in London and William Dayton in Paris.

{{main|Pope Pius IX and the United States}}

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Although historically cordial, relations between the Union and the Papal States became paralyzed at the beginning of the Civil War with the coincidental resignation of the American minister John P. Stockton. His designated successor Rufus King resigned to join the army after three months. The next holder, Alexander Randall, delayed his departure to Rome until May 21, 1862, only to resign one month later, citing lack of language and communication skills. He was succeeded by Richard Blatchford, who arrived on November 15.Alvarez, D. J. (1983). The Papacy in the Diplomacy of the American Civil War. The Catholic Historical Review, 69(2), 227-248.

Seward was alone among American politicians in his appreciation of the world-reaching soft power of the Pope as leader of the Catholic Church and the value of the city of Rome as source of intelligence on European countries. In November 1861, he sent archbishop John Hughes of New York to London and Paris to cultivate sympathy for the Union among politicians, journalists, and ecclesiastics. Arriving in Rome on February 1862, Hughes continued his propaganda mission among the clergymen from around the world who had come to the city for the canonization of the 26 Martyrs of Japan. While presenting himself as a neutral envoy of the whole United States, Hughes justified the North's policies, warned of Confederate expansionism in Latin America, and told the Cardinal Secretary of State Giacomo Antonelli that the Union could assist the Papacy by refraining from endorsing republicanism in Europe, as some U. S. citizens had done in the past. This helped move papal opinion toward Union victory being both likely and desirable, due to the Papacy's preference for established government over rebellion, and its view of the United States as a rival to anti-papal Great Britain that could hopefully move France away from Britain and into opposing the Roman Question. The Papacy increased its representation in the States with a new consulate in San Francisco and expressed desire to open a permanent embassy in Washington, but the Union failed to reciprocate the interest.

The Confederate victories in the summer of 1862 made the Papacy believe that the North could not win militarily and that Britain and France would mediate a settlement conducting to Southern independence, which would diminish U. S. power to that of a South American republic. To prevent this, the Papacy volunteered itself as a mediator that would work for peace with preservation of the Union. In October 18, pope Pius IX asked archbishops Hughes and Jean-Marie Odin of New Orleans "to use every effort to bring about a peaceful solution of the difficulties between the states",Mitchell, A. H. (Ed.). (2017). Fighting Irish in the American Civil War and the Invasion of Mexico: Essays. McFarland, 272 pages. but the Union declined to respond until April 3, 1863 when it publicly rejected any foreign mediation as "unreasonable and inadmissible".

The papal reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation was negative. Influenced by bishop Martin John Spalding of Louisville, L'Osservatore Romano condemned it as "a desperate and hypocritical war measure which freed no slaves but encouraged a bloody servile rebellion in the South", and the war as "a hopeless and unjust struggle by the North to punish the South". The New York City draft riots and the recruitment of Catholic immigrants as perceived cannon fodder were also concerns. However, the Union failed to notice the changed attitude and minister Blatchford left for an extended vacation, during which the Confederacy attempted to establish relations with Rome.

In September 1863, Father Bannon persuaded Davis to seek recognition from the Papal States as a way to regain the international moral high ground after the Proclamation. It was hoped that papal recognition might entice some minor European Catholic nation to follow, and that this would cascade into recognition by France and later Britain.Christensen, L. O., Foley, W. E., & Kremer, G., eds. (1999). Dictionary of Missouri Biography. University of Missouri Press, 848 pages. Ambrose Dudley Mann met the Pope in December and received a letter addressed to the "Illustrious and Honorable President of the Confederate States of America," which Mann claimed equivalent to diplomatic recognition. However, Judah Benjamin told Mann that it was "a mere inferential recognition, unconnected with political action or the regular establishment of diplomatic relations". Benjamin did appreciate the value of the letter in propaganda, and it was publicized by Confederate agents in Europe, Ireland, and the Caribbean, as well as among Southern Catholics, as proof of the Pope's support for the rebellion.

In response to rumors of papal mediation or recognition, Seward named Rufus King new minister in February 1864, and reassured Antonelli that Washington was both irrevocably committed to the suppression of rebellion and the abolition of slavery. He warned the Vatican to not intervene by claiming that the American people would reject any system of government based on slavery without regard for papal stance; as the Papacy could not expect to accommodate both sides, it would have to choose between the Union's cause of legitimacy and liberty, and the Confederacy's insurrection and slavery, and the latter would be detrimental to the Vatican's own image. He did allow a diplomatic way out by claiming confidence that the Pope's correspondence with Davis was devoid of political intent, which was confirmed by Antonelli. Still alert, Seward denied King's request for a summer absence, and made preparations to break diplomatically with the Papal States at the first indication that they were inclined to recognize the Confederacy.

Seward's caution proved right, because the Confederacy sent the bishop of Charleston Patrick Neeson Lynch in early 1864 with a formal proposition to establish diplomatic relations. Lynch and Bannon met clerical and government figures in Ireland and Paris, including the papal nuncio Flavio Chigi. In July 1864 Antonelli and Pius IX received Lynch and Bannon in Rome, though not as foreign emissaries but as members of the clergy. The Pope said that it was "clear" that North and South were "different nations", but declined to recognize the Confederate government, and said he would not speak in support of slavery if he was called to mediate in the war. He thought that the North's single act emancipation was too drastic, but recommended the South to improve the conditions of slaves and work towards gradual emancipation. While in Rome, Lynch wrote the pamphlet Letter on domestic slavery in the Confederate States of America, intended to justify Southern slavery to a European secular audience with scientific arguments, not biblical or theological. First published in Italian, the pamphlet was translated to German and French, but not English. At the end of the year, Lynch declared that he had done everything he could for the Southern cause and returned to America.