Why'd you delete the first submission? I was worried I wrote this up for nothing!

While it is certainly true that Russia was one of the staunchest supporters of the Union during that time of rebellion, the visit was hardly indicative of any intent or desire to put arms behind those words, even if Americans wanted to believe so, and Russia maintained a dignified silence on the matter, allowing everyone to believe what they wished. In New York, the officers of the fleet were feted and celebrated, wined and dined.

This belief that Russia had sent her fleet to scare Britain and France out of intervention took hold of the American imagination, and for a half century after the war, remained widely believed in the United States. The reality is that there was no such intent, even if the Russians were happy to cultivate the good relations the false belief endeared. It wasn't until 50 years later that the truth came to light, when Russian documents concerning the mission became declassified.

The reality of the matter was that, rather than being concerned with the conflict in America, Russia's eyes were pointed much closer to home, in her possession of Poland. Not even a decade had passed since the Crimean War, and relations had barely improved between Russia and her erstwhile foes the UK and France, and in light of that, Russia was not at all happy with the support shown to the Poles in the unrest going on there, and decried what she saw as interfering in what should be internal business. The possibility of war meant that portions of the fleet were sent to America to winter, and if war broke out, start conducing raids on British/French shipping. As to the fight between North and South, their orders were clear: Remain strictly neutral in the conflict. When the commander of the ships docked in San Francisco suggested, in the name of humanitarian concern, bending the rules and promised to defend the city if a Confederate raider appeared, his superiors chastised him and reminded him that he remain aloof of the fight, and only intervene if civilian lives were in danger. The danger never materialized, but Russian sailors did earn the gratitude of the city as firefighters on one occasion.

So, while the visit certainly was appreciated by US and indicative of the strong relationship between the United States and Russia, the enduring myth that Russia was prepared to enter the war on the side of the Union, under any circumstances, is a patently false one.

If you want to read a bit more, I would very much recommend F.A. Golder's The Russian Fleet and the Civil War. It is 100 years old at this point, but when published in 1915 it was the piece that demonstrated what was really going on. It is short, interesting, more also in the public domain, so can do much more justice to this than my brief summary does. "The Russian Fleet Myth Re-Examined" by Thomas Bailey is also worth checking out, and can be found on JSTOR, but might not be accessible.