DK - The American Civil War

this Union war measure, and little

reason to risk a war with Lincoln’s

government over this issue.

In order to enforce this blockade, the

Union rapidly expanded its navy. By

the end of the war, the Department of

the Navy under Gideon Welles’s

leadership had purchased some 418

additional ships and built another 208.

Most were in the service of tightening

the blockade. The Union navy also

increased in numbers from about 1,500

officers and men to 58,000. Although

the maritime force very much

remained the junior

service to the

At the start of the Civil War, while the

blockade did little to stop ships engaged

in blockade-running—an activity that

became a major industry during the

war—it did help to isolate the South

diplomatically. The British government

ultimately declared itself neutral, but it

also respected the Union’s right to

enforce a blockade in wartime. This

acknowledgment of the Union navy’s

right to inspect shipping entering

Blockading the South

The Union government considered the naval blockade of the Southern coastline to be an important part

of the strategy to defeat the Confederacy, and it became increasingly effective over the course of the

war. However, while it undoubtedly weakened the South, the blockade could not by itself end the war.

SECESSION TRIGGERS WAR 1861

T

he blockade played an important

part in Union general-in-chief

Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan.

Scott hoped to isolate and divide the

Confederacy by blockading its ports

and reestablishing Federal control

over the Mississippi River. He hoped

this strategy would bring the South

back into the Union, using gradual

pressure but avoiding great bloodshed.

Although this approach was superseded

by events, increasing the effectiveness

of the blockade remained an important

Union objective for the rest of the war.

Naval obstacles

A blockade was likely to harm the

Confederate war effort by restricting

the flow of imported military supplies.

But it also presented two huge

challenges: the sheer length of the

Southern coastline, on the one hand,

and the small size of the Union navy,

on the other. The new nation in the

South had 3,549 miles (5,712km) of

coastline, including 180 inlets, and

when President Lincoln ordered the

blockade to begin just after the fall of

Fort Sumter, the Union navy had only

14 ships available.

Confederate ports and seize

contraband property became

significant as the Union navy

increased in size, thus becoming more

and more able to enforce the blockade.

As the world’s preeminent naval

power, and one that wished to set

legal precedents for its own

imposition of blockades in

future wars as in

the past, the British

government had

good reason to

recognize the

legality of

The Union navy belittled

Two Union vessels—essentially washtubs—try to block a

Confederate steamer’s path in this cartoon, mocking the

government’s attempt to update the Union fleet.

Impact on exports

A Union man-of-war (far right) pursues a Confederate

blockade-runner (right). Built for speed, the

blockade-runners could outsail the larger

Union ships, but their small holds limited

their carrying capacity and Southern

cotton exports fell markedly.

The U.S. navy had greater experience in

trying to elude blockades than in

attempting to enforce them.

PREVIOUS BLOCKADES

During the War with Mexico, the United States had

enforced a blockade against Mexico, but the last

two wars with Britain—the American Revolution

and the Anglo-American War of 1812—had seen

the United States on the receiving end of actions

by a superior naval power trying to enforce

restrictions on commerce.

ANGLO-AMERICAN WAR OF 1812

Most diplomatic tensions between America and

Europe during the Napoleonic Wars involved the

question of how the United States could trade with

countries that were at war with one another. The

issues that led to the War of 1812 were caused, in

large part, by British attempts to enforce their

blockade of French-controlled Europe. In 1812,

despite various successes by individual U.S. navy

ships, Britain brought American trade to a

standstill and almost bankrupted the country.

BEFORE

The number of ships

that were captured by

the Union navy while attempting to

run the North’s blockade of the South.

1,149