The Outrage on the Trent: Lord Lyons communicating Early Russells despatch to Mr. Secretary Seward [US Secretary of State], 1862. The Trent Affair was a diplomatic incident in 1861 during the American Civil War that threatened a war between the United States and Great Britain. The US Navy captured two Confederate envoys from a British Royal Mail steamer; the British government protested vigorously. The Lincoln administration ended the incident by releasing the envoys. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.