Naval Battles

Blockade of Southern Ports

The practical work of the navy in the Civil war began with the first steps taken by the administration to bring about an effective blockade of the ports of the seceded states. The intentions of the government were set forth in two proclamations, April 19 and April 27, respectively. The proclamation of April 19, only five days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, covered all the southern ports from South Carolina to Texas, while that of April 27 extended the blockade to include Virginia and North Carolina. As no more important measure from a naval point of view had been inaugurated by the United States since the War of 1812, the words of President Lincoln's proclamation will be found of interest: "Now therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States * * * 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 a view to violate such blockade, a vessel shall approach or shall attempt to leave any 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." When this proclamation was issued the government realized that with the few vessels then at its command, some time must elapse before an actual and effective blockade could be instituted along the vast expanse of coast line embraced in the announcement. It is probable that no more was at first intended than the despatching of a few vessels to blockade the Page 37 principal commercial ports, whose work would be supplemented by that of other vessels cruising up and down the coast between the ports. As thus conceived a comparatively small number of vessels would suffice to do the work; only four or five ports on the Atlantic would need to be guarded, and as many more on the Gulf. Generally speaking there are two ways of beginning a blockade; "by a public announcement coupled with the presence of a force before the blockaded port; or by stationing the force without the announcement. The first is a blockade by notification; the second is a blockade in fact." In either case it is absolutely necessary, in order to render the blockade legal, that a sufficient force be present at the blockaded port to prevent the entrance or departure of vessels having actual or constructive notice of the blockade. In other words, "blockades to be binding, must be effective—that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy." This was the rule of international law laid down by the Declaration of Paris.

In the establishment of the blockade the government had set for itself no inconsiderable task. The southern coast embraced within the proclamation stretched away from Alexandria, Virginia, to the international boundary line on the Rio Grande, 3,549 miles. Nor was this all. The shore line, including bays and inlets, was 6,789 miles long, and if the shore lines of all the islands be included there must be brought under guard a total stretch of 11,953 miles. The difficult nature of much of the coast added vastly to the work of the navy. Below the Chesapeake, and as far south as Wilmington, stretches the peculiar double coast formation. On the outside is a long, narrow belt of sand, broken by the headlands of Capes Hatteras, Lookout and Fear, with numerous shallow inlets. Within this sand-belt lie the great sheets of water known as Albermarle and Pamlico sounds, with their numerous tributary rivers. Below Wilmington, as far south as Georgetown, the coast describes a great inward curve and then takes Page 38 on the well-known insular character so well denned below Charleston. Jedediah Morse, speaking of the South Carolina islands, says they "are surrounded by navigable creeks, between which and the mainland is a large extent of salt marsh fronting the whole state, not less on an average than 4 or 5 miles in breadth, intersected with creeks in various directions, admitting through the whole an inland navigation between the islands and mainland from the northeast to the southeast corner of the state. The east sides of these islands are for the most part clean, hard, sandy beaches, exposed to the wash of the ocean. Between these islands are the entrances of the rivers from the interior country, winding through the low salt marshes and delivering their waters into the sounds, which form capacious harbors of from 3 to 8 miles over, and which communicate with each other by parallel salt creeks." The foregoing description will apply as well to the coast as far as Fernandina, Florida. The coast of Florida, and also that of the whole Gulf, is marked by innumerable bays and inlets, dangerous and difficult of access, but capable of affording ready means for clandestine trade by means of small vessels. Inside the many long, low islands which line these coasts a brisk inland commerce was long maintained, particularly in Mississippi sound, between New Orleans and Mobile. Altogether, the southern coast line afforded 185 harbor and river openings which could be used for purposes of commerce—openings that barred the great ocean-going merchantmen and men-of-war alike, but which were admirably adapted to the secret trade that flourished more or less throughout the war despite the blockade. To accomplish the tremendous task before it the government had 42 ships in commission and 25 more lying at the navy yards in ordinary but fit for service. Within the space of a few months it could bring together some 70 or 80 steam and sailing vessels. In point of fact the navy that was to make the blockade effective must be created, and before the war ended over 600 vessels were Page 39 thus employed. Even then a few blockade-runners slipped through from time to time.

More or less irregularity marked the inception of the blockade. The proclamation itself was in effect a recognition of the belligerent rights of the Confederacy, though the United States long sought to enforce on foreign nations the insurrectionary view of the war, and to give to the blockade the character of a domestic embargo. Moved by the imperious necessities of the hour, the government deliberately sought to enforce a "paper blockade;" i. e., it sought to interdict all trade with ports where there was no blockade de facto—not even a vessel of any kind to keep up the pretense of establishing a blockade. This was in direct contravention of the great principle for which the government had fought the War of 1812—the right to freely trade in any port of a belligerent not actually closed by the presence of a warship.

The peculiar development of the South with its system of slave labor had rendered it essentially an agricultural region. It was dependent on the outside world for many of the important necessities of life, as its chief wealth lay in its slaves and its great agricultural staple, cotton. Two prime objects of the blockade were the exclusion of manufactured goods, including, of course, munitions of war, and the shutting off of the exportation of cotton, with which the Southern states then supplied the world. It will thus be realized how seriously crippled was the Confederacy when it was deprived of its chief source of income. It was hoped and believed in the South that the outside world, especially England and France, was so vitally interested in the continuance of their cotton supply, that it would not long tolerate any interference by the blockade. Without any doubt this self-interest largely influenced the sympathies of foreign states. In England, Lancashire, which was the chief center of the cotton manufacture, was compelled to shut down its great mills, thus throwing out of employment thousands of operatives, entailing enormous losses Page 40 and widespread distress. Fully $10,000,000 were disbursed by the English relief committees within two years after the war began, though Great Britain saw no reasonable pretext for interfering with the blockade, which continued to increase in vigor and efficiency.

Though the real blockade service was outside of and below the Chesapeake, the first point actually blockaded, and for several weeks the only region where a legal blockade was maintained, was at Hampton Roads. Here Commodore Pendergrast, in command of the Home squadron, had been able to assemble the Cumberland and a few other vessels, and on him devolved the important duty of inaugurating the blockade in accordance with the presidential proclamation of April 27. Pendergrast's proclamation of April 30 recited: "I hereby call attention to the proclamation of his Excellency Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, under date of April 27, 1861, for an efficient blockade of the ports of Virginia and North Carolina, and warn all persons interested that I have a sufficient naval force there for the purpose of carrying out the proclamation. All vessels passing the capes of Virginia, coming from a distance and ignorant of the proclamation, will be warned off, and those passing Fortress Monroe will be required to anchor under the guns of the fort and subject themselves. to an examination." It is manifest from the wording of this proclamation that Pendergrast here stated what was then not an existing fact. The few vessels then under his command could at best barely suffice to blockade the ports of the State of Virginia, and the important North Carolina harbor of Wilmington, the favorite resort of blockade-runners throughout the war, was not blockaded until several weeks later. The truth is that little more than a beginning was made for several months in providing an effective blockade along the whole Southern coast line. Nevertheless the government continued to act on the assumption of the existence of an efficient blockade, Page 41 and foreign vessels seeking to enter interdicted ports were sometimes warned off the entire Southern coast. It was really seeking to enforce a mere "paper blockade" for the first few months. The whole force on the Atlantic coast was originally placed under one command, and Commodore Stringham was appointed flag-officer of the Atlantic blockading squadron. He arrived in Hampton Roads with his flagship Minnesota, May 13, and at once entered on his command. General instructions with regard to the blockade had been issued to him May 1, followed by additional instructions on the 4th, 6th, 8th and 13th. In these he was charged with the duty of blockading all the ports east of Key West. They further recited: "You will duly notify neutrals of the declaration of blockade, and give to it all the publicity in your power. The blockade must be strict and absolute and only public armed vessels of foreign powers should be permitted to enter the ports which are placed in a state of blockade. To neutral or foreign vessels, that are already in the ports, you will allow a reasonable number of days to leave them. The country relies upon your command, with the squadron of the Gulf, to make this blockade effectual, so as to close all of the ports of the states above named, protect our commerce from the depredations of privateers, and contribute, by your activity and vigilance, to the speedy suppression of the insurrectionary movements and the adjustment of the present unhappy difficulties. It will not be improper to state to you that a lawful maritime blockade requires the actual presence of an adequate force stationed at the entrance of the port, sufficiently near to prevent communication. The only exception to this rule, which requires the actual presence of an adequate force to constitute a lawful blockade, arises out of the circumstance of the occasional temporary absence of the blockading squadron, produced by accident, as in the case of a storm, which does not suspend the legal operation of a blockade. The law considers an attempt to take advantage Page 42 of such an accidental removal a fraudulent attempt to break the blockade. You will permit no neutral or foreign vessel proceeding toward the entrance of a blockaded port to be captured or detained if she shall not have previously received from one of the blockading squadron a special notification of the existence of the blockade. This notification must be inserted in writing on the muster-roll of the neutral vessel, by the cruiser which meets her, and it should contain the announcement, together with statements of the day and the latitude in which it was made. The United States have at all times maintained these principles on the subject of blockade, and you will take care not to attempt the application of penalties for a breach of blockade except in cases where your right is justified by these rules." The supplemental instructions issued laid stress on the point that neutral vessels were to be allowed 15 days to leave port after the actual commencement of the blockade, whether such vessels were with or without cargoes. It was further declared that the law of blockade did not permit a vessel in a blockaded port to take on board a cargo after the commencement of the blockade. Flag-officer Stringham was also instructed to interpose his authority when necessary for the protection of those claiming shelter under the American flag; to correct whatever irregularities existed in regard to the vessels composing the blockading squadron by reason of the hasty manner in which the vessels and officers were collected and equipped; to make diligent effort to capture "every piratical vessel or privateer on our coast;" and he was to station the vessels of the blockading squadron on duty at the different ports himself, and make report from time to time to the department concerning each.

May 13, 1861, Flag-officer Pendergrast reported the following vessels under his command for blockading purposes: Cumberland, steamer Star (Monticello), Quaker City, steam tug Yankee, steam tug Young America, used as a tender to the Cumberland, Page 43 and the steamer Harriet Lane. The full energies of the department were now devoted to augmenting this meager force as speedily as possible, and orders were issued to the several commandants of the navy yards to use the utmost dispatch in getting ready for sea the dismantled vessels and those lying in ordinary. The Niagara, Captain McKean, which had reached Boston April 24, was hurried to New York for necessary repairs, whereupon she was ordered to Charleston May 2 to inaugurate the blockade at that port, arriving at her destination May n. The Brooklyn and Powhatan during May set on foot the blockading operations in the Gulf. Seven large steamers were chartered in Philadelphia and New York, of which one, the Keystone State, chartered by Lieutenant Woodhull, was at her station in Hampton Roads within 48 hours after her commander had received his instructions at Washington to charter a steamer. The screw-steamer South Carolina, of 1,165 tons was bought in Boston May 3, and reached her station off Pensacola June 4. The Massachusetts, a similar vessel, purchased at the same time, hurried to her station off Key West with equal celerity. The government also purchased numerous sailing ships to transport coal and other supplies to the steamers on blockading duty at the various ports. On July 4, 1861, Sec. Welles was able to report that "the naval force in commission has been increased 82 vessels, carrying upwards of 1,100 guns, and with a complement of about 13,000 men, exclusive of officers and marines. There are also several steamboats and other small craft which are temporarily in the service of the department. * * * The squadron on the Atlantic coast, under the command of Flag-officer S. H. Stringham, consists of 22 vessels, 296 guns, and 3,300 men. The squadron in the Gulf, under the command of Flag-officer William Mervine, consists of 21 vessels, 282 guns. Additions have been made to each of the squadrons, of 2 or 3 small vessels that have been captured and taken into the service. The steamers Pawnee and Page 44 Pocahontas, and the flotilla under the late Commander Ward, with several steamboats in charge of naval officers, have been employed on the Potomac river, to prevent communication with that part of Virginia which is in insurrection. Great service has been rendered by this armed force, which has been vigilant in intercepting supplies and in protecting transports and supply vessels in their passage up and down the Potomac. * * * The squadron in the Pacific, under the command of Flag-officer John B. Montgomery, consists of 6 vessels, 82 guns, and 1,000 men. The West India squadron is under the command of Flag-officer G. J. Pendergrast, who has been temporarily on duty with his flag-ship, the Cumberland, at Norfolk and Hampton Roads, since the 23d of March. He will, at an early day, transfer his flag to the steam frigate Roanoke and proceed southward, having in charge our interests on the Mexican and Central American coasts, and in the West Indian islands. The East India, Mediterranean, Brazil and African squadrons, excepting one vessel of each of the two latter, have been recalled. The return of these vessels will add to the force for service in the Gulf and on the Atlantic coast about 200 guns and 2,500 men."

Such was the inadequacy of the blockading force that even at the end of July only the principal ports were being guarded. Though the Niagara arrived off Charleston' May 11, she only remained 4 days, when she was ordered south on a mission to intercept a vessel reported to be bringing a large shipment of arms from Belgium and England to New Orleans. In consequence of this Stringham was ordered by the department to place a force before Charleston at the earliest possible moment to enforce the blockade. The Harriet Lane was off the bar for 24 hours on the 19th, but with this exception, Charleston was entirely uncovered until the 28th, when the Minnesota arrived to take the place of the Niagara. Savannah was blockaded May 28; Mobile and New Orleans received notice of the blockade Page 45 from the Powhatan and Brooklyn, and Galveston was blockaded on June 2 by the South Carolina. The steamer Daylight took up her station off the mouth of the Cape Fear river July 20 and thus began the famous blockade of Wilmington. During the summer of 1861 every effort was made by the Confederates to discredit the efficiency of the blockade in the eyes of the world. The Southern press habitually characterized it as the "paper blockade," and foreign states were moved to take steps to ascertain its regularity. An English cruiser under the command of Captain Hickley made two cruises of observation along the Atlantic coast in July in the interests of British commerce, and H. M. S. Jason, Captain Von Donop, inspected the Gulf ports, but neither was able to report a flaw of sufficient importance in the blockade to justify interference through diplomatic channels, and much less forcible interference. The rule established by the navy of the United States in 1812, giving to a neutral vessel the right to enter any port left open by the ships of the blockading government, returned to plague the nation during the early months of the blockade when the majority of the Southern harbors were uncovered a large part of the time. Strictly interpreted, the raising of the blockade of a port even for an hour renders it null and void. The blockade must be established thereupon de novo, and a neutral might enter such a port and remain 15 days under the regulations provided by the Washington authorities, while neutrals "approaching a re-blockaded port had the right to go away unmolested if they had not been notified, actually or constructively, that the new blockade existed." When Great Britain called the attention of the Washington government to the fact that the Niagara had left the harbor of Charleston open during the latter half of May, Mr. Seward took the following stand in his reply to the British Minister, Lord Lyons: "The blockade of the port of Charleston has been neither abandoned, relinquished, nor remitted, as the letter of Her Britannic Majesty's consul Page 46 would lead you to infer. We are informed that the Niagara was replaced by the steamer Harriet Lane, but that owing to some accident, the latter vessel failed to reach the station as ordered until a day or two after the Niagara had left. I hasten, however, to express the dissent of this government from the position which seems to be assumed by your note, that temporary absence impairs the blockade and renders necessary a new notice of its existence. This government holds that the blockade took effect at Charleston on the nth day of this month, and that it will continually be in effect until notice of its relinquishment shall be given by proclamation of the president of the United States."

The statement about warning in the presidential proclamation of April 19 made no mention of the period when this warning should cease. The general rule is that vessels have a right to be warned off until the establishment of a blockade has become notorious by actual or constructive notification. In practice at this time, warnings gradually ceased, though it would appear that no definite time for the withdrawal of the privilege of warning was ever fixed, and at least one warning was given on the coast of Texas as late as the month of July, 1862. Occasionally damages were demanded from the government and were paid, for loss of a market, because the warnings were far too comprehensive in their scope, and vessels were warned off from ports where no blockade had yet been established. The Niagara, when off Charleston in May, warned vessels off the whole Southern coast, though Savannah and some other harbors were not yet blockaded.

Before the end of the summer of 1861 the people of the North awoke to the magnitude of the war. The battle of Bull Run and other reverses on land only served to strengthen the determination of the people to preserve the Union at all hazards. The navy, for its part, now realized the enormous task before it in blockading the thousands of miles of coast line. The work had Page 47 already become well systematized and a fairly efficient blockade was being maintained—a blockade which became more perfect as the months rolled by and which was eventually to starve the South into submission. However, neither in 1861, nor during the long years of the war, was the blockade ever perfect, and mention will be made of the rich harvest reaped by the blockade runners. It is of record that 42 vessels entered and cleared at the single port of Wilmington during the months of June, July and August, 1861, and from June 1 to December 1, 1861, over 150 vessels entered the port of Charleston. The great increase in the number of vessels on blockading service led to a division of both the Atlantic and the Gulf squadrons. On September 23, 1861, Flag-officer L. M. Goldsborough assumed command of the North Atlantic blockading squadron, including the coast of Virginia and North Carolina. Below, the coast extending from the northern boundary of South Carolina to Cape Florida, was blockaded by the South Atlantic squadron under command of Flag-officer Samuel F. DuPont, who hoisted his flag on the Wabash October 29, 1861. At the end of a year Goldsborough was relieved by Acting Rear-Admiral S. P. Lee, who remained in command for two years, when he was succeeded by Rear-Admiral D. D. Porter October 12, 1864, at the time the joint land and naval expedition against Fort Fisher was planned.