156-657: The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading. The blockade was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in April 1861, and required the monitoring of 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of Atlantic and Gulf coastline, including 12 major ports, notably New Orleans and Mobile . Those blockade runners fast enough to evade
312-522: A Baltimore newspaper editor, Frank Key Howard , after he criticized Lincoln in an editorial for ignoring Taney's ruling. In Missouri, an elected convention on secession voted to remain in the Union. When pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson called out the state militia, it was attacked by federal forces under General Nathaniel Lyon , who chased the governor and rest of the State Guard to
468-525: A blockade of the Confederacy to suffocate the South into surrender. Lincoln adopted parts of the plan but opted for a more active war strategy. In April 1861, Lincoln announced a blockade of all Southern ports; commercial ships could not get insurance, ending regular traffic. The South blundered by embargoing cotton exports before the blockade was fully effective; by the time they reversed this decision, it
624-497: A course of ultimate extinction. Decades of controversy over slavery were brought to a head when Abraham Lincoln , who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election . Seven Southern slave states responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederacy. The Confederacy seized U.S. forts and other federal assets within their borders. The war began on April 12, 1861, when
780-653: A draft law in April 1862 for men aged 18–35, with exemptions for overseers, government officials, and clergymen. The U.S. Congress followed in July, authorizing a militia draft within states that could not meet their quota with volunteers. European immigrants joined the Union Army in large numbers, including 177,000 born in Germany and 144,000 in Ireland. About 50,000 Canadians served, around 2,500 of whom were black. When
936-483: A firm hand by Lincoln tamed Seward, who was a staunch Lincoln ally. Lincoln decided holding the fort, which would require reinforcing it, was the only workable option. On April 6, Lincoln informed the Governor of South Carolina that a ship with food but no ammunition would attempt to supply the fort. Historian McPherson describes this win-win approach as "the first sign of the mastery that would mark Lincoln's presidency";
1092-409: A hand-powered submarine launched from Charleston, South Carolina , against Union blockade ships. On the night of 17 February 1864, Hunley attacked Housatonic . Housatonic sank with the loss of five crew; Hunley also sank, taking her crew of eight to the bottom. The first victory for the U.S. Navy during the early phases of the blockade occurred on 24 April 1861, when the sloop Cumberland and
1248-598: A large toll on the British economy but they weighed their consequences. Great Britain had a good amount of cotton stored up in warehouses in several locations that would provide for their textile needs for some time. But eventually Great Britain began to see the effects of the blockade, "the blockade had a negative impact on the economies of other countries. Textile manufacturing areas in Britain and France that depended on Southern cotton entered periods of high unemployment..." in
1404-479: A man until she died in 1915 at the age of 71. The small U.S. Navy of 1861 rapidly expanded to 6,000 officers and 45,000 sailors by 1865, with 671 vessels totaling 510,396 tons. Its mission was to blockade Confederate ports, control the river system, defend against Confederate raiders on the high seas, and be ready for a possible war with the British Royal Navy . The main riverine war was fought in
1560-439: A market. He could not get through the Union lines South with his property, that being his market." A significant secondary impact of the naval blockade was a resulting scarcity of salt throughout the South. In Antebellum times, returning cotton-shipping ships were often ballasted with salt, which was bountifully produced at a prehistoric dry lake near Syracuse, New York , but which had never been produced in significant quantity in
1716-443: A massive shipbuilding program was launched, civilian merchant and passenger ships were purchased for naval service, and captured blockade runners were commissioned into the navy. In 1861, nearly 80 steamers and 60 sailing ships were added to the fleet, and the number of blockading vessels rose to 160. Some 52 more warships were under construction by the end of the year. By November 1862, there were 282 steamers and 102 sailing ships. By
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#17327647981601872-465: A month would generate perhaps $ 250,000 in revenue (and $ 80,000 in wages and expenses). Blockade runners preferred to run past the Union Navy at night, either on moonless nights, before the moon rose, or after it set. As they approached the coastline, the ships showed no lights, and sailors were prohibited from smoking. Likewise, Union warships covered all their lights, except perhaps a faint light on
2028-451: A patriotic fire under the North. On April 15, Lincoln called on the states to field 75,000 volunteer troops for 90 days; impassioned Union states met the quotas quickly. On May 3, 1861, Lincoln called for an additional 42,000 volunteers for three years. Shortly after this, Virginia , Tennessee , Arkansas , and North Carolina seceded and joined the Confederacy. To reward Virginia,
2184-490: A possible war with the Union, the Union Navy decided to apply the principles of international law in the conflict; captured British sailors were released, while Confederates went to prison camps . The ships were unarmed (the weight of the cannon would slow them down), so they posed no danger to the Navy warships. Therefore, blockade running was reasonably safe for both sides. One example of the lucrative (and short-lived) nature of
2340-438: A reasonable chance of evading the blockade were blockade runners specifically designed for speed. Overall, the Union Navy wrecked or captured an estimated 1500 ships that attempted to run the blockade. During the four years of the blockade, Southern ports saw approximately 8000 trips. By contrast, over 20,000 took place during the four years preceding the war. The blockade almost totally choked off Southern cotton exports, which
2496-421: A republic, but a third challenge faced the nation: maintaining a republic based on the people's vote, in the face of an attempt to destroy it. Lincoln's election provoked South Carolina 's legislature to call a state convention to consider secession. South Carolina had done more than any other state to advance the notion that a state had the right to nullify federal laws and even secede. On December 20, 1860,
2652-400: A ship captured during war may be kept as a prize . If there is no formal war, capturing ships and impounding them is piracy . Plaintiffs contended that the blockade was not legal because a war had not been declared, thus making it perfectly legal to run the blockade and sell war materiel in the blockaded Southern ports. The government's case was argued by U.S. Attorney Richard Henry Dana Jr. ,
2808-604: A small flotilla of support ships began seizing Confederate ships and privateers in the vicinity of Fort Monroe off the Virginia coastline. Within the next two weeks, Flag Officer Garrett J. Pendergrast had captured 16 enemy vessels, serving early notice to the Confederate War Department that the blockade would be effective if extended. Early battles in support of the blockade included the Blockade of
2964-599: A view to violate such blockade, a vessel shall approach, or shall attempt to leave either of the said ports, she will be duly warned by the Commander of one of the blockading vessels, who will endorse on her register the fact and date of such warning, and if the same vessel shall again attempt to enter or leave the blockaded port, she will be captured and sent to the nearest convenient port, for such proceedings against her and her cargo as prize, as may be deemed advisable. And I hereby proclaim and declare that if any person, under
3120-490: The 1860 presidential election . Southern leaders feared Lincoln would stop slavery's expansion and put it on a course toward extinction. His victory triggered declarations of secession by seven slave states of the Deep South , all of whose riverfront or coastal economies were based on cotton that was cultivated by slave labor. Lincoln was not inaugurated until March 4, 1861, giving the South time to prepare for war during
3276-541: The Battle of Appomattox Court House , setting in motion the end of the war . Lincoln led the nation through that victory but was shot by an assassin on April 14. By the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild
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#17327647981603432-647: The Chesapeake Bay , from May to June 1861, and the Blockade of the Carolina Coast, August–December 1861. Both enabled the Union Navy to gradually extend its blockade southward along the Atlantic seaboard. In early March 1862, the blockade of the James River in Virginia was gravely threatened by the first ironclad, CSS Virginia in the dramatic Battle of Hampton Roads . Only the timely entry of
3588-645: The Commander-in-Chief in time of war—a de facto war existing since April 12, 1861. The dissenting opinion by the Court noted that the President is not given authority by the Constitution to declare war; the power to declare war lies with Congress. The Civil War did not exist until it was declared so by Congress. Lincoln ordered the blockade before Congress had declared a war. As such, Nelson and
3744-437: The Confederacy as a nation. Instead, Lincoln instituted a naval blockade , which had important legal ramifications because nations do not blockade their own ports; rather, they close them. By ordering a blockade, Lincoln essentially declared the Confederacy to be belligerents instead of insurrectionists . The Confederate States were mostly agrarian , and almost all of their machined and manufactured goods were imported. At
3900-689: The Dred Scott decision was proof the Southern states had no reason to secede and that the Union "was intended to be perpetual". He added, however, that "The power by force of arms to compel a State to remain in the Union" was not among the "enumerated powers granted to Congress". A quarter of the US army—the Texas garrison—was surrendered in February to state forces by its general, David E. Twiggs , who joined
4056-618: The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect in January 1863, ex-slaves were energetically recruited to meet state quotas. States and local communities offered higher cash bonuses for white volunteers. Congress tightened the draft law in March 1863. Men selected in the draft could provide substitutes or, until mid-1864, pay commutation money. Many eligibles pooled their money to cover the cost of anyone drafted. Families used
4212-599: The Memphis brought in $ 510,000 ($ 9,935,234 today) (about what 40 civilian workers could earn in a lifetime of work). In four years, $ 25 million in prize money ($ 487,021,277 today) was awarded. One sailor, Benjamin Jackson , earned $ 900 ($ 17,533 today) after one year with the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. While a large proportion of blockade runners did manage to evade the Union ships, as
4368-551: The Union Navy could carry only a small fraction of the supplies needed. They were operated largely by British citizens, making use of neutral ports such as Havana , Nassau and Bermuda . The Union commissioned around 500 ships, which destroyed or captured about 1,500 blockade runners over the course of the war. The blockade was largely successful in reducing 95% of cotton export in the South from pre-war levels, devaluing its currency and severely damaging its economy. However, it
4524-592: The Virginia to prevent its capture, while the Union built many copies of the Monitor . The Confederacy's efforts to obtain warships from Great Britain failed, as Britain had no interest in selling warships to a nation at war with a stronger enemy and feared souring relations with the U.S. By early 1861, General Winfield Scott had devised the Anaconda Plan to win the war with minimal bloodshed, calling for
4680-522: The Western theater , the Union made permanent gains—though in the Eastern theater the conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation , which declared all slaves in rebel states to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. To the west, the Union first destroyed
4836-526: The electrical telegraph , steamships, the ironclad warship , and mass-produced weapons were widely used. The war left an estimated 698,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian casualties, making the Civil War the deadliest military conflict in American history. The technology and brutality of the Civil War foreshadowed the coming World Wars . The origins of the war were rooted in
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4992-406: The 168,649 men procured for the Union through the draft, 117,986 were substitutes, leaving only 50,663 who were conscripted. In the North and South, draft laws were highly unpopular. In the North, some 120,000 men evaded conscription, many fleeing to Canada, and another 280,000 soldiers deserted during the war. At least 100,000 Southerners deserted, about 10 percent of the total. Southern desertion
5148-490: The Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Insurance rates soared, and the American flag virtually disappeared from international waters, though reflagging ships with European flags allowed them to continue operating unmolested. After the war, the U.S. government demanded Britain compensate it for the damage caused by blockade runners and raiders outfitted in British ports. Britain paid the U.S. $ 15 million in 1871, but only for commerce raiding. Dinçaslan argues that another outcome of
5304-456: The Bahamas in exchange for high-priced cotton. Many were lightweight and designed for speed, only carrying small amounts of cotton back to England. When the Union Navy seized a blockade runner, the ship and cargo were condemned as a prize of war and sold, with proceeds given to the Navy sailors; the captured crewmen, mostly British, were released. The Southern economy nearly collapsed during
5460-400: The British response to the U.S. was toned down, helping avert war. In 1862, the British government considered mediating between the Union and Confederacy, though such an offer would have risked war with the U.S. British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston reportedly read Uncle Tom's Cabin three times when deciding what his decision would be. The Union victory at the Battle of Antietam caused
5616-621: The British to delay this decision. The Emancipation Proclamation increased the political liability of supporting the Confederacy. Realizing that Washington could not intervene in Mexico as long as the Confederacy controlled Texas, France invaded Mexico in 1861 and installed the Habsburg Austrian archduke Maximilian I as emperor. Washington repeatedly protested France's violation of the Monroe Doctrine . Despite sympathy for
5772-575: The Commonwealth, which at its greatest extent was over half the state, and it went into exile after October 1862. After Virginia's secession, a Unionist government in Wheeling asked 48 counties to vote on an ordinance to create a new state in October 1861. A voter turnout of 34% approved the statehood bill (96% approving). Twenty-four secessionist counties were included in the new state, and
5928-486: The Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina . A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over the North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president, Jefferson Davis , the Confederacy asserted control over a third of the U.S. population in eleven states. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued. During 1861–1862 in
6084-507: The Confederacy depended on for hard currency. Cotton exports fell 95%, from 10 million bales in the three years prior to the war to just 500,000 bales during the blockade period. The blockade also largely reduced imports of food, medicine, war materials, manufactured goods, and luxury items, resulting in severe shortages and inflation . Shortages of bread led to occasional bread riots in Richmond and other cities, showing that patriotism
6240-400: The Confederacy refused to exchange black prisoners. After that, about 56,000 of the 409,000 POWs died in prisons, accounting for 10 percent of the conflict's fatalities. Historian Elizabeth D. Leonard writes that between 500 and 1,000 women enlisted as soldiers on both sides, disguised as men. Women also served as spies, resistance activists, nurses, and hospital personnel. Women served on
6396-539: The Confederacy's river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans . The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River , while Confederate General Robert E. Lee 's incursion north failed at the Battle of Gettysburg . Western successes led to General Ulysses S. Grant 's command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening naval blockade of Confederate ports,
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6552-518: The Confederacy, France's seizure of Mexico ultimately deterred it from war with the Union. Confederate offers late in the war to end slavery in return for diplomatic recognition were not seriously considered by London or Paris. After 1863, the Polish revolt against Russia further distracted the European powers and ensured they remained neutral. Russia supported the Union, largely because it believed
6708-602: The Confederacy, a blockade runner had to make many trips; eventually, most were captured or sunk. Nonetheless, five out of six attempts to evade the Union blockade were successful. During the war, some 1,500 blockade runners were captured or destroyed. Ordinary freighters were too slow and visible to escape the Navy. The blockade runners therefore relied mainly on new steamships built in Britain with low profiles, shallow draft, and high speed. Their paddle-wheels, driven by steam engines that burned smokeless anthracite coal , could make 17 kn (31 km/h ; 20 mph ). Because
6864-706: The Confederacy. As Southerners resigned their Senate and House seats, Republicans could pass projects that had been blocked. These included the Morrill Tariff , land grant colleges, a Homestead Act , a transcontinental railroad, the National Bank Act , authorization of United States Notes by the Legal Tender Act of 1862 , and the end of slavery in the District of Columbia . The Revenue Act of 1861 introduced income tax to help finance
7020-755: The Confederate capital was moved to Richmond . Maryland , Delaware , Missouri , West Virginia and Kentucky were slave states whose people had divided loyalties to Northern and Southern businesses and family members. Some men enlisted in the Union Army and others in the Confederate Army. West Virginia separated from Virginia and was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, though half its counties were secessionist. Maryland's territory surrounded Washington, D.C. , and could cut it off from
7176-618: The Constitution which requires duties to be uniform throughout the United States: And whereas a combination of persons engaged in such insurrection, have threatened to grant pretended letters of marque to authorize the bearers thereof to commit assaults on the lives, vessels, and property of good citizens of the country lawfully engaged in commerce on the high seas, and in waters of the United States: And whereas an Executive Proclamation has been already issued, requiring
7332-490: The District of Columbia by seizing prominent figures, including arresting one-third of the members of the Maryland General Assembly on the day it reconvened. All were held without trial, with Lincoln ignoring a ruling on June 1, 1861, by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney , not speaking for the Court, that only Congress could suspend habeas corpus ( Ex parte Merryman ). Federal troops imprisoned
7488-735: The Navy a base from which to patrol the entrances to both the Mississippi River and Mobile Bay . The Navy gradually extended its reach throughout the Gulf of Mexico to the Texas coastline, including Galveston and Sabine Pass . With 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of Confederate coastline and 180 possible ports of entry to patrol, the blockade would be the largest such effort ever attempted. The United States Navy had 42 ships in active service, and another 48 laid up and listed as available as soon as crews could be assembled and trained. Half were sailing ships, some were technologically outdated, most were at
7644-420: The North, where anti-slavery sentiment had grown, and for the South, where the fear of slavery's abolition had grown. Another factor leading to secession and the formation of the Confederacy was the development of white Southern nationalism in the preceding decades. The primary reason for the North to reject secession was to preserve the Union, a cause based on American nationalism . Background factors in
7800-658: The North. It had anti-Lincoln officials who tolerated anti-army rioting in Baltimore and the burning of bridges, both aimed at hindering the passage of troops to the South. Maryland's legislature voted overwhelmingly to stay in the Union, but rejected hostilities with its southern neighbors, voting to close Maryland's rail lines to prevent their use for war. Lincoln responded by establishing martial law and unilaterally suspending habeas corpus in Maryland, along with sending in militia units. Lincoln took control of Maryland and
7956-468: The Ottoman title of pasha (the equivalent of a title of nobility). The fellaheen (peasantry) became the subject of a ruthless system of exploitation as the landowners pressed the fellaheen to grow cotton instead of food, settling a bout of inflation caused by the shortage of food as more and more land was devoted to growing cotton. The wealth created by the cotton boom caused by the Union blockade led to
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#17327647981608112-415: The South as well as those attempting to smuggle exports from the South. The question before the court dealt with the seized ships, but it reached widely into the legality of wars against acts of belligerence, whether or not officially declared. It rose through the lower Federal courts through lawsuits by Northern merchants whose ships were seized by U.S. Navy warships enforcing the blockade. In admiralty ,
8268-487: The South lacked sufficient sailors, skippers and shipbuilding capability, the runners were mostly built, commanded and manned of officers and sailors of the British Merchant Marine. The profits from blockade running were high as a typical blockade runner could make a profit equal to about $ 1 million U.S. dollars in 1981 values from a single voyage. Private British investors spent perhaps £50 million on
8424-461: The South's post-war recovery. Cotton diplomacy proved a failure as Europe had a surplus of cotton, while the 1860–62 crop failures in Europe made the North's grain exports critically important. It also helped turn European opinion against the Confederacy. It was said that "King Corn was more powerful than King Cotton," as U.S. grain went from a quarter to almost half of British imports. Meanwhile,
8580-490: The South. The Confederacy turned to foreign sources, connecting with financiers and companies like S. Isaac, Campbell & Company and the London Armoury Company in Britain, becoming the Confederacy's main source of arms. To transport arms safely to the Confederacy, British investors built small, fast, steam-driven blockade runners that traded arms and supplies from Britain, through Bermuda, Cuba, and
8736-496: The Southern States. Salt was necessary for curing meat; its lack led to significant hardship in keeping the Confederate forces fed as well as severely impacting the populace. In addition to blocking salt from being imported into the Confederacy, Union forces actively destroyed attempts to build salt-producing facilities at Avery Island, Louisiana (destroyed in 1863 by Union forces under General Nathaniel P. Banks ), outside
8892-500: The U.S. and Britain over the Trent affair , which began when U.S. Navy personnel boarded the British ship Trent and seized two Confederate diplomats. However, London and Washington smoothed this over after Lincoln released the two men. Prince Albert left his deathbed to issue diplomatic instructions to Lord Lyons during the Trent affair. His request was honored, and, as a result,
9048-484: The U.S. announcement of its intention to establish an official blockade of Confederate ports, foreign governments began to recognize the Confederacy as a belligerent in the Civil War. Great Britain declared belligerent status on May 13, 1861, followed by Spain on June 17 and Brazil on August 1. This was the first glimpse of failure for the Confederate South. The decision to blockade Southern port cities took
9204-563: The U.S. served as a counterbalance to its geopolitical rival, the U.K. In 1863, the Imperial Russian Navy 's Baltic and Pacific fleets wintered in the American ports of New York and San Francisco, respectively. Prize Cases Prize Cases , 67 U.S. (2 Black) 635 (1863), was a case argued before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1862 during the American Civil War . The Supreme Court's decision declared
9360-471: The Union Army or pro-Union guerrilla groups. Although they came from all classes, most Southern Unionists differed socially, culturally, and economically from their region’s dominant prewar, slave-owning planter class. At the war's start, a parole system operated, under which captives agreed not to fight until exchanged. They were held in camps run by their army, paid, but not allowed to perform any military duties. The system of exchanges collapsed in 1863 when
9516-456: The Union blockade. The Confederacy purchased warships from commercial shipbuilders in Britain, with the most famous being the CSS ; Alabama , which caused considerable damage and led to serious postwar disputes . However, public opinion against slavery in Britain created a political liability for politicians, where the anti-slavery movement was powerful. War loomed in late 1861 between
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#17327647981609672-464: The Union hospital ship Red Rover and nursed Union and Confederate troops at field hospitals. Mary Edwards Walker , the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor , served in the Union Army and was given the medal for treating the wounded during the war. One woman, Jennie Hodgers, fought for the Union under the name Albert D. J. Cashier. After she returned to civilian life, she continued to live as
9828-484: The Union marshaled resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions. This led to the fall of Atlanta in 1864 to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman , followed by his March to the Sea . The last significant battles raged around the ten-month Siege of Petersburg , gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond . The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following
9984-492: The Union would win if it could resupply and hold the fort, and the South would be the aggressor if it opened fire on an unarmed ship supplying starving men. An April 9 Confederate cabinet meeting resulted in Davis ordering General P. G. T. Beauregard to take the fort before supplies reached it. At 4:30 am on April 12, Confederate forces fired the first of 4,000 shells at the fort; it fell the next day. The loss of Fort Sumter lit
10140-433: The Union, this was never likely, so they sought to bring them in as mediators. The Union worked to block this and threatened war if any country recognized the Confederacy. In 1861, Southerners voluntarily embargoed cotton shipments, hoping to start an economic depression in Europe that would force Britain to enter the war, but this failed. Worse, Europe turned to Egypt and India for cotton, which they found superior, hindering
10296-483: The Union-held Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter is located in the harbor of Charleston , South Carolina. Its status had been contentious for months. Outgoing President Buchanan had dithered in reinforcing its garrison, commanded by Major Robert Anderson . Anderson took matters into his own hands and on December 26, 1860, under the cover of darkness, sailed the garrison from the poorly placed Fort Moultrie to
10452-646: The Union. A February peace conference met in Washington, proposing a solution similar the Compromise; it was rejected by Congress. The Republicans proposed the Corwin Amendment , an alternative, not to interfere with slavery where it existed, but the South regarded it as insufficient. The remaining eight slave states rejected pleas to join the Confederacy, following a no-vote in Virginia's First Secessionist Convention on April 4. On March 4, Lincoln
10608-414: The Union. The Southern Cotton industry was so confident in the power of cotton diplomacy , that without warning, they refused to export cotton for one day. Imagining an overwhelming response of pleas for their cotton, the Southern cotton industry experienced quite the opposite. With the decisions of Lincoln and the lack of intervention on Great Britain's part, the South was officially blockaded. Following
10764-563: The United States. The blockade led to Egypt replacing the South as Britain's principal source of cotton. Likewise, Egyptian cotton replaced American cotton as the principal source of cotton for the textile mills of France and the Austrian empire not only for the civil war, but for the rest of the 19th century. In 1861, only 600,000 cantars (one cantar being the equivalent of 100 pounds) of cotton were exported from Egypt; by 1863 Egypt had exported 1.3 million cantars of cotton. Nearly 93% of
10920-426: The West, where major rivers gave access to the Confederate heartland. The U.S. Navy eventually controlled the Red, Tennessee, Cumberland, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers. In the East, the Navy shelled Confederate forts and supported coastal army operations. The Civil War occurred during the early stages of the industrial revolution, leading to naval innovations, notably the ironclad warship . The Confederacy, recognizing
11076-421: The Western territories destined to become states. Initially Congress had admitted new states into the Union in pairs, one slave and one free . This had kept a sectional balance in the Senate but not in the House of Representatives , as free states outstripped slave states in numbers of eligible voters. Thus, at mid-19th century, the free-versus-slave status of the new territories was a critical issue, both for
11232-714: The author of Two Years Before the Mast . On March 10, 1863, the Court ruled that the states of the Southern Confederacy were in insurrection and at war against the United States by acts of belligerency on April 12 and April 17, 1861, to wit: the firing upon Fort Sumter and the Privateering Act proclaimed by Confederate President Jefferson Davis . Lincoln's Proclamation of Blockade was made on April 19, 1861, [Navy Official Records, Series 1, Volume 5, page 620] two days after Davis's call for privateers and it
11388-459: The autobiography of H. C. Bruce recalled the collapse of the business of Negro-Trader White , who had spent the better part of 30 years profiting from chattel arbitrage : "From 1862 to the close of the war, slave property in the state of Missouri was almost a dead weight to the owner; he could not sell because there were no buyers. The business of the Negro trader was at an end, due to the want of
11544-461: The bay at Port St. Joe, Florida (destroyed in 1862 by the Union ship Kingfisher ), at Darien, Georgia , at Saltville, Virginia (captured by Union forces in December 1864), and various sites hidden in marshes and bayous. The southern cotton industry began to heavily influence the British economy. Cotton was a highly profitable cash crop, known in the 19th century as "white gold". On the eve of
11700-493: The beginning of the war there was only one significant steel mill and manufactory in the South, the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia . Moreover, the Southern economy depended on the export of cotton, tobacco, and other crops. The blockade of the South resulted in the capture of dozens of American and foreign ships, both those attempting to run the highly efficient blockade and smuggle goods and munitions to
11856-529: The blockade along the Atlantic coastline, including the Stone Fleet of old ships deliberately sunk to block approaches to Charleston, South Carolina . Apalachicola, Florida , received Confederate goods traveling down the Chattahoochee River from Columbus, Georgia , and was an early target of Union blockade efforts on Florida's Gulf Coast. Another early prize was Ship Island , which gave
12012-446: The blockade matured, the type of ship most likely to find success in evading the naval cordon was a small, light ship with a short draft—qualities that facilitated blockade running but were poorly suited to carrying large amounts of heavy weaponry, metals, and other supplies badly needed by the South. They were also useless for exporting the large quantities of cotton that the South needed to sustain its economy. To be successful in helping
12168-498: The blockade of the Southern ports ordered by President Abraham Lincoln constitutional. The opinion in the case was written by Supreme Court Justice Robert Cooper Grier . Facing the secession of several states from the Union and the possibility of open hostilities, Abraham Lincoln did not ask Congress to declare war on the Confederate States of America , as he believed that doing so would be tantamount to recognizing
12324-457: The blockade running trade was the ship Banshee , which operated out of Nassau and Bermuda. She was captured on her seventh run into Wilmington, North Carolina, and confiscated by the U.S. Navy for use as a blockading ship. However, at the time of her capture, she had turned a 700% profit for her English owners, who quickly commissioned and built Banshee No. 2 , which soon joined the firm's fleet of blockade runners. In May 1865, CSS Lark became
12480-462: The blockade was the rise of oil as a prominent commodity. The declining whale oil industry took a blow as many old whaling ships were used in blockade efforts, such as the Stone Fleet , and Confederate raiders harassed Union whalers. Oil products, especially kerosene, began replacing whale oil in lamps, increasing oil's importance long before it became fuel for combustion engines. Although the Confederacy hoped Britain and France would join them against
12636-461: The channels could be sealed by the U.S. Navy. From 16 to 22 April, the major forts below the city, Forts Jackson and St. Philip were bombarded by David Dixon Porter 's mortar schooners. On 22 April, Flag Officer David Farragut 's fleet cleared a passage through the obstructions. The fleet successfully ran past the forts on the morning of 24 April. This forced the surrender of the forts and New Orleans. The Battle of Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864 closed
12792-525: The city of Wilmington, North Carolina, early in 1865 closed the last major port for blockade runners, and in quick succession Richmond was evacuated, the Army of Northern Virginia disintegrated, and General Lee surrendered. Thus, most economists give the Union blockade a prominent role in the outcome of the war. (Elekund, 2004) The Union naval ships enforcing the blockade were divided into squadrons based on their area of operation. The Atlantic Blockading Squadron
12948-614: The commander's ship. If a Union warship discovered a blockade runner, it fired signal rockets in the direction of its course to alert other ships. The runners adapted to such tactics by firing their own rockets in different directions to confuse Union warships. In November 1864, a wholesaler in Wilmington asked his agent in the Bahamas to stop sending so much chloroform and instead send "essence of cognac" because that perfume would sell "quite high". Confederate supporters held rich blockade runners in contempt for profiteering on luxuries while
13104-508: The convention unanimously voted to secede and adopted a secession declaration . It argued for states' rights for slave owners but complained about states' rights in the North in the form of resistance to the federal Fugitive Slave Act, claiming that Northern states were not fulfilling their obligations to assist in the return of fugitive slaves. The "cotton states" of Mississippi , Florida , Alabama , Georgia , Louisiana , and Texas followed suit, seceding in January and February 1861. Among
13260-489: The country, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and grant civil rights to freed slaves. The war is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in U.S. history . It remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate . Of continuing interest is the fading myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy . The war was among the first to use industrial warfare . Railroads,
13416-477: The crisis was Secretary of State William H. Seward , who had been Lincoln's rival for the Republican nomination . Embittered by his defeat, Seward agreed to support Lincoln's candidacy only after he was guaranteed the executive office then considered the second most powerful. In the early stages of Lincoln's presidency Seward held little regard for him, due to his perceived inexperience. Seward viewed himself as
13572-657: The de facto head of government, the " prime minister " behind the throne. Seward attempted to engage in unauthorized and indirect negotiations that failed. Lincoln was determined to hold all remaining Union-occupied forts in the Confederacy: Fort Monroe in Virginia, Fort Pickens , Fort Jefferson , and Fort Taylor in Florida, and Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces opened fire on
13728-529: The desire of the Southern states to preserve the institution of slavery . Historians in the 21st century overwhelmingly agree on the centrality of slavery in the conflict. They disagree on which aspects (ideological, economic, political, or social) were most important, and on the North 's reasons for refusing to allow the Southern states to secede. The pseudo-historical Lost Cause ideology denies that slavery
13884-580: The duration of the conflict by up to two years. On April 19, 1861, President Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Blockade Against Southern Ports : Whereas an insurrection against the Government of the United States has broken out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the laws of the United States for the collection of the revenue cannot be effectually executed therein comformably to that provision of
14040-474: The end of the war, the Union Navy had grown to a size of 671 ships, making it the largest navy in the world. By the end of 1861, the Navy had grown to 24,000 officers and enlisted men, over 15,000 more than in antebellum service. Four squadrons of ships were deployed, two in the Atlantic and two in the Gulf of Mexico. Blockade service was attractive to Federal seamen and landsmen alike. Blockade station service
14196-801: The end of the war, the squadron was merged into the Atlantic Squadron on 25 July 1865. The Gulf Blockading Squadron was a squadron of the United States Navy in the early part of the War, patrolling from Key West to the Mexican border. The squadron was the largest in operation. It was split into the East and West Gulf Blockading Squadrons in early 1862 for more efficiency. American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names )
14352-540: The end of the war, the squadron was merged into the Atlantic Squadron on 25 July 1865. The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron was tasked primarily with preventing Confederate ships from supplying troops and with supporting Union troops operating between Cape Henry in Virginia down to Key West in Florida. It was created when the Atlantic Blockading Squadron was split between the North and South Atlantic Blockading Squadrons on 29 October 1861. After
14508-493: The ensuing guerrilla war engaged about 40,000 federal troops for much of the war. Congress admitted West Virginia to the Union on June 20, 1863. West Virginians provided about 20,000 soldiers to each side in the war. A Unionist secession attempt occurred in East Tennessee , but was suppressed by the Confederacy, which arrested over 3,000 men suspected of loyalty to the Union; they were held without trial. The Civil War
14664-430: The essential role of cotton in the European economy. The European aristocracy was "absolutely gleeful in pronouncing the American debacle as proof that the entire experiment in popular government had failed. European government leaders welcomed the fragmentation of the ascendant American Republic." However, a European public with liberal sensibilities remained, which the U.S. sought to appeal to by building connections with
14820-439: The homefront economy could no longer supply. Surdam contends that the blockade was a powerful weapon that eventually ruined the Southern economy, costing few lives in combat. The Confederate cotton crop became nearly useless, cutting off the Confederacy's primary income source. Critical imports were scarce, and coastal trade largely ended as well. The blockade's success was not measured by the few ships that slipped through but by
14976-494: The hull of the blockading ship, then backing off and detonating the explosive. The torpedo boats were not very effective and were easily countered by simple measures such as hanging chains over the sides of ships to foul the screws of the torpedo boats, or encircling the ships with wooden booms to trap the torpedoes at a distance. One historically notable naval action was the attack of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley ,
15132-554: The international press. By 1861, Union diplomats like Carl Schurz realized emphasizing the war against slavery was the Union's most effective moral asset in swaying European public opinion. Seward was concerned an overly radical case for reunification would distress European merchants with cotton interests; even so, he supported a widespread campaign of public diplomacy. U.S. minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams proved adept and convinced Britain not to challenge
15288-454: The last Confederate ship to slip out of a Southern port and successfully evade the Union blockade when she left Galveston, Texas , for Havana . Throughout the conflict, at least 600,000 arms (mostly British Pattern 1853 Enfield rifles) were smuggled by blockade runners to the Confederacy, 330,000 of them into the Gulf ports. Such shipments were enough to prolong the war by two years and kill 400,000 additional Americans. The Union blockade
15444-548: The last major Confederate port in the Gulf of Mexico. In December 1864, Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles sent a force against Fort Fisher , which protected the Confederacy's access to the Atlantic from Wilmington, North Carolina, the last open Confederate port on the Atlantic Coast. The first attack failed, but with a change in tactics (and Union generals), the fort fell in January 1865, closing
15600-504: The last major Confederate port. As the Union fleet grew in size, speed and sophistication, more ports came under Federal control. After 1862, only three ports east of the Mississippi— Wilmington, North Carolina ; Charleston, South Carolina ; and Mobile, Alabama —remained open for the 75–100 blockade runners in business. Charleston was shut down by Admiral John A. Dahlgren 's South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in 1863. Mobile Bay
15756-463: The manufacture of cotton in Great Britain, upon whom, at least five or six millions more depend for their daily subsistence. It is no exaggeration to say, that one-quarter of the inhabitants of England are directly dependent upon the supply of cotton for their living." Despite these consequences, Great Britain concluded that their decision was crucial in terms of reaching abolition of slavery in
15912-497: The mistake of reinvesting their profits in the trade; when the war ended they were stuck with useless ships and rapidly depreciating cotton. In the final accounting, perhaps half the investors took a profit, and half a loss. The Union victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in July 1863 opened up the Mississippi River and effectively cut off the western Confederacy as a source of troops and supplies. The fall of Fort Fisher and
16068-539: The movement to abolish slavery and its influence over the North. Southern states believed that the Fugitive Slave Clause made slaveholding a constitutional right. These states agreed to form a new federal government, the Confederate States of America , on February 4, 1861. They took control of federal forts and other properties within their boundaries, with little resistance from outgoing President James Buchanan , whose term ended on March 4. Buchanan said
16224-476: The need to counter the Union's naval superiority, built or converted over 130 vessels, including 26 ironclads. Despite these efforts, Confederate ships were largely unsuccessful against Union ironclads. The Union Navy used timberclads, tinclads, and armored gunboats. Shipyards in Cairo, Illinois, and St. Louis built or modified steamboats . The Confederacy experimented with the submarine CSS Hunley , which
16380-418: The new Confederacy sent delegates to Washington to negotiate a peace treaty. Lincoln rejected negotiations, because he claimed that the Confederacy was not a legitimate government and to make a treaty with it would recognize it as such. Lincoln instead attempted to negotiate directly with the governors of seceded states, whose administrations he continued to recognize. Complicating Lincoln's attempts to defuse
16536-490: The new Union ironclad Monitor forestalled the threat. Two months later, Virginia and other ships of the James River Squadron were scuttled in response to the Union Army and Navy advances. The port of Savannah, Georgia , was effectively sealed by the reduction and surrender of Fort Pulaski on 11 April. The largest Confederate port, New Orleans, Louisiana , was ill-suited to blockade running since
16692-417: The ordinances of secession, those of Texas, Alabama, and Virginia mentioned the plight of the "slaveholding states" at the hands of Northern abolitionists. The rest made no mention of slavery but were brief announcements by the legislatures of the dissolution of ties to the Union. However, at least four—South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas —provided detailed reasons for their secession, all blaming
16848-537: The persons engaged in these disorderly proceedings to desist therefrom, calling out a militia force for the purpose of repressing the same, and convening Congress in extraordinary session, to deliberate and determine thereon: Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, with a view to the same purposes before mentioned, and to the protection of the public peace, and the lives and property of quiet and orderly citizens pursuing their lawful occupations, until Congress shall have assembled and deliberated on
17004-494: The pretended authority of the said States, or under any other pretense, shall molest a vessel of the United States, or the persons or cargo on board of her, such person will be held amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this nineteenth day of April, in
17160-437: The proceeds split among the sailors. When Eolus seized the hapless blockade runner Hope off Wilmington, North Carolina , in late 1864, the captain won $ 13,000 ($ 253,251 today), the chief engineer $ 6,700, the seamen more than $ 1,000 each, and the cabin boy $ 533, compared to infantry pay of $ 13 ($ 253 today) per month. The amount garnered for a prize of war widely varied. While the little Alligator sold for only $ 50, bagging
17316-467: The redevelopment of much of Cairo and Alexandria as much of the medieval cores of both cities were razed to make way for modern buildings. The cotton boom attracted a significant number of foreign businessmen to Egypt, of which the largest number were Greeks. The wealth created by the cotton boom in Egypt was ended by the end of the blockade in 1865, which allowed the cotton from the South to ultimately reenter
17472-416: The rickety railroad system, which never overcame the devastating impact of the blockade. Throughout the war, the South produced enough food for civilians and soldiers, but it had growing difficulty in moving surpluses to areas of scarcity and famine. Lee's army, at the end of the supply line, nearly always was short of supplies as the war progressed into its final two years. When the blockade began in 1861, it
17628-427: The run up to the Civil War were partisan politics , abolitionism , nullification versus secession , Southern and Northern nationalism, expansionism , economics , and modernization in the antebellum period . As a panel of historians emphasized in 2011, "while slavery and its various and multifaceted discontents were the primary cause of disunion, it was disunion itself that sparked the war." Abraham Lincoln won
17784-617: The runners ($ 250 million in U.S. dollars, equivalent to about $ 2.5 billion in 2006 dollars). The pay was high: a Royal Navy officer on leave might earn several thousand dollars (in gold) in salary and bonus per round trip, with ordinary seamen earning several hundred dollars. The blockade runners were based in the British islands of Bermuda and the Bahamas , or Havana , in Spanish Cuba . The goods they carried were brought to these places by ordinary cargo ships, and loaded onto
17940-433: The runners. The runners then ran the gauntlet between their bases and Confederate ports, some 500–700 mi (800–1,130 km) apart. On each trip, a runner carried several hundred tons of compact, high-value cargo such as cotton, turpentine or tobacco outbound, and rifles, medicine, brandy, lingerie and coffee inbound. Often they also carried mail. They charged from $ 300 to $ 1,000 per ton of cargo brought in; two round trips
18096-402: The said unlawful proceedings, or until the same shall ceased, have further deemed it advisable to set on foot a blockade of the ports within the States aforesaid, in pursuance of the laws of the United States, and of the law of Nations, in such case provided. For this purpose a competent force will be posted so as to prevent entrance and exit of vessels from the ports aforesaid. If, therefore, with
18252-490: The so-called Lancashire Cotton Famine . Nearly 80% of the cotton used in the British textile mills came from the South, and the scarcity of cotton caused by the blockade caused the price of cotton to rapidly rise by 150% by the summer of 1861. The article written in the New York Times further proves that Great Britain was aware of the influence of cotton in their empire, "Nearly one million of operatives are employed in
18408-581: The soldiers were in rags. On the other hand, their bravery and initiative were necessary for the rebellion's survival, and many women in the back country flaunted imported $ 10 gewgaws and $ 50 hats to demonstrate the Union had failed to isolate them from the outer world. The government in Richmond, Virginia , eventually regulated the traffic, requiring half the imports to be munitions; it even purchased and operated some runners on its own account and made sure they loaded vital war goods. By 1864, Lee's soldiers were eating imported meat. Not wanting to draw Britain into
18564-577: The southwestern corner of Missouri (see Missouri secession ). Early in the war the Confederacy controlled southern Missouri through the Confederate government of Missouri but was driven out after 1862. In the resulting vacuum, the convention on secession reconvened and took power as the Unionist provisional government of Missouri. Kentucky did not secede, it declared itself neutral. When Confederate forces entered in September 1861, neutrality ended and
18720-532: The stalwart island Fort Sumter. Anderson's actions catapulted him to hero status in the North. An attempt to resupply the fort on January 9, 1861, failed and nearly started the war then, but an informal truce held. On March 5, Lincoln was informed the fort was low on supplies. Fort Sumter proved a key challenge to Lincoln's administration. Back-channel dealing by Seward with the Confederates undermined Lincoln's decision-making; Seward wanted to pull out. But
18876-446: The state reaffirmed its Union status while maintaining slavery. During an invasion by Confederate forces in 1861, Confederate sympathizers and delegates from 68 Kentucky counties organized the secession Russellville Convention, formed the shadow Confederate Government of Kentucky , inaugurated a governor, and Kentucky was admitted into the Confederacy on December 10, 1861. Its jurisdiction extended only as far as Confederate battle lines in
19032-457: The substitute provision to select which man should go into the army and which should stay home. There was much evasion and resistance to the draft, especially in Catholic areas. The New York City draft riots in July 1863 involved Irish immigrants who had been signed up as citizens to swell the vote of the city's Democratic political machine , not realizing it made them liable for the draft. Of
19188-582: The tax revenue collected by the Egyptian state came from taxing cotton while every landowner in the Nile river valley had started to grow cotton. The vast majority of the land in the Nile river valley were owned by a clique of wealthy families of Turkish, Albanian and Circassian origin, known in Egypt as the Turco-Circassian elite and to foreigners as the pasha class as most of the landowners usually had
19344-451: The thousands that never tried. European merchant ships could not get insurance and were too slow to evade the blockade, so they stopped calling at Confederate ports. To fight an offensive war, the Confederacy purchased arms in Britain and converted British-built ships into commerce raiders . The smuggling of 600,000 arms enabled the Confederacy to fight on for two more years, and the commerce raiders targeted U.S. Merchant Marine ships in
19500-413: The time patrolling distant oceans, one served on Lake Erie and could not be moved into the ocean, and another had gone missing off Hawaii . At the time of the declaration of the blockade, the Union only had three ships suitable for blockade duty. The Navy Department , under the leadership of Navy Secretary Gideon Welles , quickly moved to expand the fleet. U.S. warships patrolling abroad were recalled,
19656-430: The war created jobs for arms makers, ironworkers, and ships to transport weapons. Lincoln's administration initially struggled to appeal to European public opinion. At first, diplomats explained that the U.S. was not committed to ending slavery and emphasized legal arguments about the unconstitutionality of secession. Confederate representatives, however, focused on their struggle for liberty, commitment to free trade, and
19812-478: The war due to multiple factors: severe food shortages, failing railroads, loss of control over key rivers, foraging by Northern armies, and the seizure of animals and crops by Confederate forces. Historians agree the blockade was a major factor in ruining the Confederate economy; however, Wise argues blockade runners provided enough of a lifeline to allow Lee to continue fighting for additional months, thanks to supplies like 400,000 rifles, lead, blankets, and boots that
19968-409: The war, 1,390,938,752 pounds weight of cotton were imported into Great Britain in 1860. Of this, the United States supplied 1,115,890,608 pounds, or about five-sixths of the whole. Not only was Great Britain aware of the impact of Southern cotton, but so was the South. They were confident that their industry held large power, so much, that they referred to their industry as " King Cotton ". This slogan
20124-547: The war, that was not the point. Grier further wrote, "The President was bound to meet it [the war] in the shape it presented itself, without waiting for Congress to baptize it with a name." By this decision, the Supreme Court upheld the President's executive powers to act in accordance with the Presidential oath of office, "to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" and to act expediently as
20280-603: The war. In December 1860, the Crittenden Compromise was proposed to re-establish the Missouri Compromise line, by constitutionally banning slavery in territories to the north of it, while permitting it to the south. The Compromise would likely have prevented secession, but Lincoln and the Republicans rejected it. Lincoln stated that any compromise that would extend slavery would bring down
20436-436: The winter of 1860–1861. Nationalists in the North and "Unionists" in the South refused to accept the declarations of secession. No foreign government ever recognized the Confederacy. The U.S. government, under President James Buchanan , refused to relinquish its forts that were in territory claimed by the Confederacy. According to Lincoln, the American people had shown they had been successful in establishing and administering
20592-470: The world market, helping to lead to Egypt's bankruptcy in 1876. The Confederacy constructed torpedo boats , tending to be small, fast steam launches equipped with spar torpedoes , to attack the blockading fleet. Some torpedo boats were refitted steam launches; others, such as the CSS David class, were purpose-built. The torpedo boats tried to attack under cover of night by ramming the spar torpedo into
20748-478: The world" within a few years. Some European observers at the time dismissed them as amateur and unprofessional, but historian John Keegan concluded that each outmatched the French, Prussian, and Russian armies, and without the Atlantic, could have threatened any of them with defeat. Unionism was strong in certain areas within the Confederacy. As many as 100,000 men living in states under Confederate control served in
20904-623: The year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-fifth. In 1863, in the Prize Cases , the U.S. Supreme Court found that the blockade was constitutional. The government's case was argued by U.S. Attorney Richard Henry Dana Jr. , the author of Two Years Before the Mast . A joint Union military-navy commission, known as the Blockade Strategy Board ,
21060-426: Was a civil war in the United States between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union. The central conflict leading to war was a dispute over whether slavery should be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states , or be prohibited from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on
21216-408: Was a powerful weapon that eventually ruined the Southern economy, at the cost of very few lives. The measure of the blockade's success was not the few ships that slipped through, but the thousands that never tried it. Ordinary freighters had no reasonable hope of evading the blockade and stopped calling at Southern ports. The interdiction of coastal traffic meant that long-distance travel now depended on
21372-822: Was a unit of the United States Navy created in the early days of the American Civil War to enforce a blockade of the ports of the Confederate States. It was originally formed in 1861 as the Coast Blockading Squadron before being renamed May 17, 1861. It was split the same year for the creation of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. The North Atlantic Blockading Squadron
21528-519: Was a war, whether declared or not. Justice Robert Grier wrote the 5–4 majority opinion, stating, "[I]t is not necessary to constitute war, that both parties should be acknowledged as independent nations or sovereign States." While the court acknowledged that the United States Congress had, in July 1861, adopted a law ratifying and approving the President's proclamation after the fact, as well as other actions taken since then to prosecute
21684-670: Was based at Hampton Roads, Virginia , and was tasked with coverage of Virginia and North Carolina . Its official range of operation was from the Potomac River to Cape Fear in North Carolina. It was tasked primarily with preventing Confederate ships from supplying troops and with supporting Union troops. It was created when the Atlantic Blockading Squadron was split between the North and South Atlantic Blockading Squadrons on 29 October 1861. After
21840-456: Was captured in August 1864 by Admiral David Farragut . Blockade runners faced an increasing risk of capture—in 1861 and 1862, one sortie in 9 ended in capture; in 1863 and 1864, one in three. By war's end, imports had been choked to a trickle as the number of captures came to 50% of the sorties. Some 1,100 blockade runners were captured (and another 300 destroyed). British investors frequently made
21996-490: Was considered the most boring job in the war but also the most attractive in terms of potential financial gain. The task was for the fleet to sail back and forth to intercept any blockade runners. More than 50,000 men volunteered for the boring duty, because food and living conditions on ship were much better than the infantry offered, the work was safer, and especially because of the real (albeit small) chance for big money. Captured ships and their cargoes were sold at auction and
22152-707: Was formed to make plans for seizing major Southern ports to utilize as Union bases of operations to expand the blockade. It first met in June 1861 in Washington, D.C., under the leadership of Captain Samuel F. Du Pont . In the initial phase of the blockade, Union forces concentrated on the Atlantic Coast. The November 1861 capture of Port Royal in South Carolina provided the Federals with an open ocean port and repair and maintenance facilities in good operating condition. It became an early base of operations for further expansion of
22308-406: Was founded upon acting against privateers , not an open policy of warfare as was later recommended by the ranking General of the Army, Winfield Scott . In making its decision, the Court looked to recent British interpretations of international law , and concluded that the Southern Confederacy was indeed a belligerent, but a belligerent did not have to be a nation and furthermore that the Civil War
22464-408: Was high because many soldiers were more concerned about the fate of their local area than the Southern cause. In the North, " bounty jumpers " enlisted to collect the generous bonus, deserted, then re-enlisted under a different name for a second bonus; 141 were caught and executed. From a tiny frontier force in 1860, the Union and Confederate armies grew into the "largest and most efficient armies in
22620-405: Was less successful in preventing war material from being smuggled into the South. Throughout the conflict, at least 600,000 arms (mostly British Pattern 1853 Enfield rifles) were smuggled by blockade runners to the Confederacy, 330,000 of them into the Gulf ports. Historians have estimated that supplies brought to the Confederacy via blockade runners that made it past the Union blockade lengthened
22776-405: Was made of bullion lost from mints. He stated that it would be US policy "to collect the duties and imposts"; "there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere" that would justify an armed revolution. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union, famously calling on "the mystic chords of memory" binding the two regions. The Davis government of
22932-566: Was marked by intense and frequent battles. Over four years, 237 named battles were fought, along with many smaller actions, often characterized by their bitter intensity and high casualties. Historian John Keegan described it as "one of the most ferocious wars ever fought," where, in many cases, the only target was the enemy's soldiers. As the Confederate states organized, the U.S. Army numbered 16,000, while Northern governors began mobilizing their militias. The Confederate Congress authorized up to 100,000 troops in February. By May, Jefferson Davis
23088-449: Was not successful, and with the ironclad CSS Virginia , rebuilt from the sunken Union ship Merrimack . On March 8, 1862, Virginia inflicted significant damage on the Union's wooden fleet, but the next day, the first Union ironclad, USS Monitor , arrived to challenge it in the Chesapeake Bay . The resulting three-hour Battle of Hampton Roads was a draw, proving ironclads were effective warships. The Confederacy scuttled
23244-442: Was not sufficient to satisfy the daily demands of the people. Land routes remained open for cattle drovers, but after the Union seized control of the Mississippi River in summer 1863, it became impossible to ship horses, cattle and swine from Texas and Arkansas to the eastern Confederacy. The blockade was a triumph of the Union Navy and a major factor in winning the war. Another consequence, perhaps not intended but highly significant,
23400-410: Was only partially effective. It has been estimated that only one in ten ships trying to evade the blockade were intercepted. However, the Union Navy gradually increased in size throughout the war, and was able to drastically reduce shipments into Confederate ports. By 1864, one in every three ships attempting to run the blockade were being intercepted. In the final two years of the war, the only ships with
23556-460: Was pushing for another 100,000 soldiers for one year or the duration, and the U.S. Congress responded in kind. In the first year of the war, both sides had more volunteers than they could effectively train and equip. After the initial enthusiasm faded, relying on young men who came of age each year was not enough. Both sides enacted draft laws (conscription) to encourage or force volunteering, though relatively few were drafted. The Confederacy passed
23712-708: Was sworn in as president. In his inaugural address , he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union , was a binding contract, and called secession "legally void". He did not intend to invade Southern states, nor to end slavery where it existed, but he said he would use force to maintain possession of federal property, including forts, arsenals, mints, and customhouses that had been seized. The government would not try to recover post offices, and if resisted, mail delivery would end at state lines. Where conditions did not allow peaceful enforcement of federal law, US marshals and judges would be withdrawn. No mention
23868-410: Was the crippling of the interstate slave trade ; any shipping route, navigable inland waterway, or railroad that had been used to transport cotton was also used to move "negroes" around the country. The blockade both prevented the South from efficiently deploying its foundational labor force and disrupted free flow of one of the key sources of cash and collateral in the Confederate economy. For example,
24024-439: Was the principal cause of the secession, a view disproven by historical evidence, notably some of the seceding states' own secession documents . After leaving the Union, Mississippi issued a declaration stating, "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world." The principal political battle leading to Southern secession was over whether slavery would expand into
24180-525: Was too late. " King Cotton " was dead, as the South could export less than 10% of its cotton. The blockade shut down the ten Confederate seaports with railheads that moved almost all the cotton. By June 1861, warships were stationed off the principal Southern ports, and a year later nearly 300 ships were in service. The Confederates began the war short on military supplies, which the agrarian South could not produce. Northern arms manufacturers were restricted by an embargo, ending existing and future contracts with
24336-563: Was used to declare its supremacy in America. On the floor of the U.S. Senate, Senator James Henry Hammond declaimed (March 4, 1858): "You dare not make war upon cotton! No power on earth dares make war upon it. Cotton is king." The South proclaimed that many domestic and even some international markets depended so heavily on their cotton, that no one would dare spark tensions with the South. They also viewed this slogan as their reasoning behind why they should achieve their efforts in seceding from
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