sentences:  At the start of the war, Russia was the lone great power to offer full support to the Union, while the other European powers had varying degrees of sympathy for the Confederacy.Nonetheless, foreign nations were officially neutral throughout the Civil War, and none recognized the Confederacy, marking a major diplomatic achievement for Secretary Seward and the Lincoln Administration.Although they remained out of the war, the European powers, especially France and Britain, factored into the American Civil War in various ways.