Blockade Runners Of The American Civil War

During the American Civil War, blockade runners were used to get supplies through the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America that extended some along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastlines and the lower Mississippi River. The Confederacy had little industrial capability and could not produce the quantity of arms and other supplies needed to fight against the Union. To meet this need, British investors financed numerous blockade runners that were constructed in the British Isles and were used to import the guns, ordnance and other supplies, in exchange for cotton that the British textile industry needed greatly. To penetrate the blockade, these relatively lightweight shallow draft ships, mostly built in British shipyards and specially designed for speed, but not suited for transporting large quantities of cotton, had to cruise undetected, usually at night, through the Union blockade. The typical blockade runners were privately owned vessels often operating with a letter of marque issued by the Confederate government. If spotted, the blockade runners would attempt to outmaneuver or simply outrun any Union Navy warships on blockade patrol, often successfully.

To avert wartime legalities and confiscation, these vessels would carry cargoes to and from neutral ports, mostly located in the Bahamas, Bermuda and Cuba. Neutral merchant ships in turn carried these cargoes, usually coming from or destined to Great Britain or other points abroad. Outbound ships chiefly exported cotton, tobacco and other goods for trade and revenue, while also carrying important mail and correspondence to suppliers and other interested parties in Europe, most often in England and France. Inbound ships usually brought badly needed supplies and mail to the Confederacy. Many of the guns and other ordnance used by the Confederate States Army were imported from Britain via blockade runners. Some blockade runners made many successful runs, while many others were either captured or destroyed by Union forces.

Historian John E. Clark referred to the blockade runners as "the aquatic equivalent of the Ho Chi Minh Trail." Between 2,500 and 2,800 attempts were made to run the blockade, with at least an 80% success rate. By the end of the Civil War, the Union Navy had captured more than 1,100 blockade runners and had destroyed or run aground another 355. The Union had also reduced the American South's exports of cotton by 95 percent from pre-war levels, devaluing the Confederate States dollar and severely damaging the Confederacy's economy.

Background

When the American Civil War broke out on April 12, 1861, the newly formed Confederate States of America had no ships to speak of in its navy. In the months leading up to the war, the Confederate government sought help from the United Kingdom to overcome this, as much of Britain's industry depended on cotton exports from the American South. Although Britain was neutral during the conflict, British merchants served as the primary shipbuilders and source of military and other supplies for the Confederate government for the duration of the American Civil War.

In 1861 the Confederate naval fleet consisted of only about 35 ships, of which 21 were steam-driven. The Confederacy was in dire need of many basic supplies. Without the industrial resources of the Union, it had to look elsewhere for its supplies. Coming to the aid of the Confederacy, Raphael Semmes, an experienced former United States Navy captain, devised a plan by which to thwart the naval supremacy of the Union. He proposed a militia of privateers that would both strike at the Union merchant fleet and provide supplies to the Confederacy by outrunning or evading the ships of the Union blockade. Confederate President Jefferson Davis approved of the plan.

On April 15 President Lincoln issued his first proclamation, calling for 75,000 troops in response to the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter. On April 17 Davis issued a proclamation, offering a letter of marque to anyone who would offer a ship in the service of the Confederacy. British investors were the most prolific in offering such aid.

The Union refused to recognize either the sovereignty of the Confederacy or its right to issue letters of marque and, two days later, on April 19, Lincoln issued a second proclamation, threatening the Confederacy with a blockade along its coastlines. This was part of General Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan, with the blockade to extend along the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico coastlines and up into the lower Mississippi River. Merli, 1970 p. 236 Lincoln's proclamation said that any actions against the Union by crews of ships acting under a Confederate letter of marque would be treated as piracy, subject to prosecution, which usually called for the death penalty. In response Davis countered with threats of retaliation. Britain said that it would not abide by the United States prohibitions in nearby Nassau and its territorial waters.

Lincoln's proposed blockade was met with mixed criticism among some of his contemporaries. Thaddeus Stevens angrily referred to it as "a great blunder and a absurdity", arguing that "we were blockading ourselves" and, in the process, would be recognizing the Confederacy as a belligerent of war.

Soon after Lincoln announced the blockade, the profitable business of running supplies through the blockade to the Confederacy began.
At first the Union was slow to establish its blockade, as the task of patrolling thousands of miles (6,000 km) of coastline was enormous. Many considered the blockade to be little more than a 'paper blockade'. Wilmington, North Carolina, was not blockaded until July 14, 1861, three months after Lincoln's proclamation. Frajola, 2012 p. 2

An enormous naval industry evolved which brought great profits for shipbuilders, shippers, and suppliers alike. Throughout the conflict mail was carried also by blockade runners to and from intermediary ports in the West Indies, Nassau, and Bermuda.

Soon Federal forces began to more effectively enforce the coastal blockade and established squadrons at the various Southern ports. They also set up roving patrols just outside British territorial waters in the Caribbean, most notably in the Bahamas, to intersect blockade runners there. As the risk of capture or destruction increased, amateur blockade runners began to cease operations. Most of the trade was handled by sea captains who were soon using specially made steamers to enable them to evade or outrun Union ships on blockade patrol.

Union blockade

General Winfield Scott was one of the few senior men in Washington who realized that this could be a long war. He developed an appropriate naval strategy that would be decisive to the war's outcome. What was called his '' Anaconda Plan'' established a naval blockade around the coastline of the Confederacy to limit its economy and supply lines. Because of the thousands of miles of coastline, with many rivers, bays and inlets in addition to developed ports, the blockade proved largely ineffectual during the first couple of years of the war. Blockade runners initially imported military supplies to the Confederacy with relative ease. Deliveries of armaments and military supplies to the South, and cotton exports to England were coordinated by military agents such as Major Walker, who played a key role in supplying the Confederacy. Frajola, 2012 p.12
Lincoln's proclamation raised issues with England and other powers relating to international law.

In the midst of the blockade, the Confederacy received a supply of arms and other goods from private firms and munitions factories in Britain and exchanged mail. But its exports of cotton fell by 95 percent from pre-war levels, due to the effectiveness of the blockade in preventing large-capacity ships from hauling cargo from Southern ports. This resulted in a dramatic devaluation of the Confederacy's currency and wrecked its economy.

During the course of the Civil War, most of the Confederacy's attempts to run the blockade in small ships succeeded. But the captains and crews on blockade patrol became more seasoned and grew wiser to the various tactics employed by blockade runners. During the last two years of the war, the only vessels that continued to get through the blockade were those ships specifically designed for speed.

During the first year of the Civil War, the southern ports in the Gulf of Mexico were sites of frequent blockade-running activity. In the first ten months, New Orleans, Louisiana, the largest cotton port in the world, gave port to more than 300 blockade runners. When New Orleans fell to Union forces on April 25, 1862, the center for blockade-running activity shifted to Mobile, Alabama. Once New Orleans and the Mississippi River were secured, the Union Navy increased its blockade of Mobile, Alabama and other ports along the Gulf coast, forcing blockade runners to shift to the port at Galveston, Texas, especially after the summer of 1864. Blockade runners used Havana