The squadron commander, Rear Admiral Stepan Lessovsky, in a conversation with Thurlow Weed, said that the Russian government had provided him with sealed envelopes, which were to be opened only if the Union entered into an armed conflict with foreign powers. The mission of two Russian naval squadrons was so secret that the warships near the American shore came as a surprise even to Eduard de Stoeckl, the Russian Empire's ambassador to the Union.
It is impossible to show your face ashore in military dress… They will come up (even the ladies) to express their respect for the Russians and their pleasure at being in New York," wrote home Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, a famous composer in the future, and in 1863, a crew member on the Russian clipper Almaz, which was anchored in New York. "Our squadron was received here in a friendly manner, even to the extreme.
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