It was less successful at preventing the smuggling of cotton, weapons, and other materiel from Confederate ports to transfer points in Mexico, the Bahamas, and Cuba, as this trade remained profitable for foreign merchants in those regions and elsewhere. Gideon Welles , the Secretary of the Navy, argued for a de facto but undeclared blockade, which would prevent foreign governments from granting the Confederacy belligerent status.
President Abraham Lincoln sided with Seward and proclaimed the blockade on April Lincoln extended the blockade to include North Carolina and Virginia on April By July of , the Union Navy had established blockades of all the major southern ports.
South Recognized as a Belligerent. Following the U. Other foreign governments issued statements of neutrality. As the Union Navy took steps to enforce the blockade, controversies arose with foreign governments over the legality of Union seizures of neutral shipping, as well as other related practices. During the summer of vessels were stationed at different points, one after another, by which the blockade at those points was separately established.
Notices, of a more or less informal character, were given in some cases by the commanding officer of the blockading force; but no general practice was observed.
When Captain Poor, in the Brooklyn , took his station off the Mississippi, he merely informed the officer commanding the forts that New Orleans was blockaded. Pendergrast, the commanding officer at Hampton Roads, issued a formal document on April 30, calling attention to the President's proclamation in relation to Virginia and North Carolina, and giving notice that he had a sufficient force there for the purpose of carrying out the proclamation. He added that vessels coming from a distance, and ignorant of the proclamation, would be warned off.
But Pendergrast's announcement, though intended as a notification, was marked by the same defects as the proclamation. The actual blockade and the notice of it must always be commensurate. At this time, there were several vessels in Hampton Roads, but absolutely no force on the coast of North Carolina; and the declaration was open to the charge of stating what was not an existing fact.
The importance of these early formalities arises from the fact that the liability of neutral vessels depends on the actual existence of the blockade, and upon their knowledge of it. Until the establishment of the blockade is known, actually or constructively, all vessels have a right to be warned off: When the fact has become notorious, the privilege of warning ceases.
In the statement about warning, therefore, the President's proclamation said either too much or too little. If it was intended, as the language might seem to imply, that during the continuance of the blockade--which, as it turned out, was the same thing as during the continuance of the war--all neutral vessels might approach the coast and receive individual warning, and that only after such warning would they be liable to capture, it conceded far more than usage required.
If it meant simply that the warning would be given at each point for such time after the force was posted as would enable neutrals generally to become aware of the fact, it conveyed its meaning imperfectly. In practice, the second interpretation was adopted, in spite of the remonstrance's of neutrals; and the warnings given in the early days of the blockade were gradually discontinued, the concessions of the proclamation to the contrary notwithstanding.
The time when warning should cease does not appear to have been fixed; and in one instance at least, on the coast of Texas, it was given as late as July, The fact of warning was commonly endorsed on the neutral's register. In some cases the warnings had the same fault as Pendergrast's proclamation, in being a little too comprehensive, and including ports where an adequate force had not yet been stationed.
The boarding officers of the Niagara , when off Charleston, in May, warned vessels off the whole Southern coast, as being in a state of blockade, though no ship-of-war had as yet appeared off Savannah; and the Government paid a round sum to their owners in damages for the loss of a market, which was caused by the official warning. The concession of warning to neutrals at the port, if it had continued through the war, would have rendered the blockade to a great extent inoperative.
Vessels would have been able to approach the coast without risk of capture, and to have lain about the neighborhood until a good opportunity offered for running past the squadron. In other words, the first risk of the blockade-runner would have been a risk of warning, instead of a risk of capture; and the chances in his favor would have been materially increased.
The courts, as well as the cruisers, disregarded the proclamation as soon as the blockade was fairly established, and held, in accordance with English and American precedents, that warning was unnecessary where actual knowledge could be proved. It is probable that when the blockade was proclaimed it was thought that the measure could be adequately carried out by stationing a small squadron at the principal commercial ports, supplemented by a force of vessels cruising up and down the coast.
The number of points to be covered would thus be reduced to four or five on the Atlantic and as many more on the Gulf. Had this expectation been realized, the blockade would have been by no means the stupendous undertaking that it seemed to observers abroad. Acting upon such a belief, the Government entered upon its task with confidence and proceeded with dispatch.
The Niagara , which had returned from Japan on April 24, was sent to cruise off Charleston. The Brooklyn and Powhatan moved westward along the Gulf. Before the 1st of May, seven steamers of considerable size had been chartered in New York and Philadelphia.
One of these, the Keystone State , chartered by Lieutenant Woodhull, and intended especially for use at Norfolk, was at her station in Hampton Roads in forty-eight hours after Woodhull had received his orders in Washington to secure a vessel. The screw-steamer South Carolina , of eleven hundred and sixty-five tons, purchased in Boston on May 3, arrived off Pensacola on June 4; and the Massachusetts , a similar vessel in all respects, and bought at the same time, was equally prompt in reaching Key West.
Notwithstanding these efforts, the blockade can hardly be said to have been in existence until six weeks after it was declared, and then only at the principal points. When the Niagara arrived off Charleston on the 11th of May, she remained only four days; and except for the fact that the Harriet Lane was off the bar on the 19th, there was no blockade whatever at that point for a fortnight afterward. The British Government called attention to this fact, and suggested that a new blockade required a new notification, with the usual allowance of time for the departure of vessels; but the State Department did not regard the blockade as having been interrupted.
Savannah was blockaded on the 28th of May. At the principal points, therefore, there was no blockade at all during the first month, and after that time the chain of investment was far from being complete. Indeed it could hardly be called a chain at all, when so many links were wanting.
Even Wilmington, which later became the most important point on the coast in the operations of the blockade-runners, was still open, and the intermediate points were not under any effective observation. As liability for breach of blockade begins with the mere act of sailing for the blockaded port, the distance of this port from the point of departure becomes an important consideration to the blockade-runner. The longer the distance to be traversed the greater the risk; and some method of breaking the voyage must be devised, so that as much of it as possible may be technically innocent.
The principal trade of the South during the war was with England; and it became an object to evade liability during the long transatlantic passage. For this purpose, all the available neutral ports in the neighborhood of the coast were made entrepots for covering the illegal traffic. There were four principal points which served as intermediaries for the neutral trade with the South; Bermuda, Nassau, Havana, and Matamoras.
Of these Nassau was the most prominent. Situated on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, it is only about one hundred and eighty miles in a straight line from the coast of Florida. Florida, however, was not the objective point of the leading blockade-runners. It had neither suitable harbors nor connections with the interior. The chief seats of commerce on the Eastern coast were Savannah, Charleston, and Wilmington. The run to these points from Nassau was from five hundred to six hundred miles, or three days, allowing for the usual delays of the passage.
For such trips, small quantities of coal were needed, which gave great room for stowage of cargo. There was no great depth of water at Nassau, which was an advantage to the blockade-runners; and the cruisers generally took their station off Abaco Light, fifty miles away.
New Providence was surrounded by numbers of small islands, over whose waters, within a league of the shore, the sovereignty of a great power threw a protection as complete and as effective as that of guns and fortifications. A vessel bound to Nassau from one of the blockaded ports must have been hard-pressed indeed if she could not find a refuge. The navigation among the islands was dangerous and difficult, the channels were intricate, and reefs and shoals abounded; but skilful pilots were always at the command of the blockade-runners.
Nassau was a place of no special importance before the war. Its inhabitants lived chiefly by fishing and wrecking. But with the demands of the moment, it suddenly became a commercial emporium.
Its harbor was crowded with shipping. Its wharves were covered with cotton-bales awaiting transportation to Europe, and with merchandise ready to be shipped for the blockaded country. Confederate agents were established here, and took charge of the interests of their Government in connection with the contraband trade.
Money quickly earned was freely spent, and the war, at least while it lasted, enriched the community. Bermuda shared, though in a less degree, the profits of the blockade-running traffic.
Its connection was closest with Wilmington, which was six hundred and seventy-four miles distant, and which was the favorite port of the block-sale-runners, especially in the last year of the war. In the Gulf, Havana had a similar importance. The run to the coast of Florida was only a little over one hundred miles. But Key West was inconveniently near, the Gulf blockade was strict, and after New Orleans was captured, the trade offered no such inducements as that on the Atlantic coast.
Nevertheless it is stated by Admiral Bailey, on the authority of intercepted correspondence of the enemy, that between April 1 and July 6, , fifty vessels left Havana to run the blockade.
The situation of Matamoras was somewhat peculiar. It was the only town of any importance on the single foreign frontier of the Confederacy. Situated opposite the Texan town of Brownsville, on the Rio Grande, about forty miles from its mouth, and in neutral territory, it offered peculiar advantages for contraband trade.
The Rio Grande could not be blockaded. Cargoes shipped for Matamoras were transferred to lighters at the mouth of the river. On their arrival at Matamoras they were readily transported to the insurgent territory.
An ironclad was a naval vessel that had the parts above water covered and protected by large plates of iron that were thick and strong to resist heavy shot. In addition to the Ironclad Warships the Confederacy also constructed torpedo boats and Submarines to attack the Union fleet. Union Blockade The info about the Union Blockade provides interesting facts and important information about this important military strategy that occured during the presidency of the 16th President of the United States of America.
Many Blockade Runners were treated as heroes in the South. A Blockade Runner who brought much needed goods and supplies into were feted by the Southerners. Their exploits were detailed in the newspapers, providing valuable propaganda for the South. However, goods and provisions supplied by the Blockade Runners could only be paid for in specie gold and silver. Many of the Blockade Runners became wealthy men. So were the Blockade runners really heroes or villains? At this point mention just has to be made of the novel 'Gone with the Wind' by Margaret Mitchell, which was famously made into a movie starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.
This book and old movie provides excellent information for those studying the American Civil War. The Union Blockade prevented the South from sending raw materials such as cotton and tobacco to Europe, which blocked their cash flow.
Before long was no more gold and silver in the Confederacy, and paper money took its place. They sent a diplomatic mission to Britain which resulted in the Trent Affair. The southerners believed that "Cotton is king" and that unless there were a regular supply of cotton from the Southern states of America that the mills of England and of France would grind to a halt. They believed that thousands of French and British mill workers would soon be starving.
The South therefore believed that the British and French governments would raise the Union blockade and possibly force the United States to acknowledge the independence of the Confederate States of America. There was a great deal of truth in these beliefs as the British and French governments were both becoming increasingly concerned over the growing power of the American republic and would gladly have seen the Union of the United States of America smashed into pieces.
However all of these calculations and hopes came to nothing. Before the supply of American cotton in Great Britain and France was used up, new supplies began to come in from India and from Egypt.
The Union armies then stated to occupy portions of the cotton belt early in , and American cotton was again exported to both the countries. In addition the British mill operatives, despite their hardships, would not ask their government to interfere with the Union Blockade as they believed that the North was fighting for the rights of free labor.
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