A Hurricane delays the Blockade (Article 129)

In June, 1861, shortly after the start of the Civil War, Union military leaders, in coordination with President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of State William Seward, Secretary of War Simon Cameron (who would soon be replaced) and Secretary of Navy Giddeon Welles, decided on a plan to blockade the primary ports of the Confederate States to impede commerce by sea. The blockade was planned to affect the flow of weapons and consumer goods into Southern states and to limit the export of cotton and tobacco out of the South to other nations. The plan looked great on paper, but there was one major problem.

The Union Navy, for all practical purposes, did not exist!

The Union Navy only had about 40 ships in service with another 50 in various stages of repair. Even if those 50 had been sea-worthy, there were no trained crews to sail them. Of these 90 ships, most were older sailing vessels and the newer and better ships were on patrol across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and nowhere near the Southern states’ coastline. With over 3,500 miles of Confederate coast and more than 180 possible ports of entry to patrol, the blockade would be the largest such effort ever attempted. As it was, President Lincoln learned that only three battle ready ships were in the vicinity and available to start the blockade; while the plan required nearly 200 ships to have any chance to be effective.

The blockade plan would have to be deferred!

Navy Secretary Welles quickly added to the logistics staff to repair ships as needed. Warships patrolling abroad were recalled, a massive shipbuilding program was launched, and civilian merchant and passenger ships were purchased for naval service. Recruiting the needed ten thousand sailors and officers quickly reached a fever pitch and intensive training began. Remarkably, after only three months, by September, 1861, nearly 80 steam driven or steam assisted, and 60 sailing ships, were added to the fleet, and the total number of battle ready ships available, with trained crews, rose to 160. Plus, another 52 warships were under construction.

Secretary Giddeon now had his Navy!

Although a bit short of the number needed under the complete blockade plan, it was time to start. In the first phase, by late October 1861, more than 80 ships carrying US sailors and soldiers had assembled at the massive Hampton Roads port in Northern Virginia, which had been captured by the Union, and set sail for the South Carolina coast. That state had been the first to secede and was home to the first shots fired of the Civil War in Charleston Harbor earlier in April 1861. Its several large ports were handling much of cargo in and out of the Atlantic seaboard of the Confederate states and would be one of the primary targets of the new blockade fleet.

The plan was finally being implemented.

The ships formed three long columns, sailing in parallel and for the first few days, the seas were calm and the winds favorable. But in 1861, weather forecasting was not as sophisticated as today and communication at sea about weather changes was by line-of-sight flags only, with little advance warning. (Obviously, there were no radios back then.) Unknown to the officers in command of the fleet, they were sailing directly into the path of a hurricane.

As it would turn out, the sailors and soldiers on board those ships would have to fight for their lives, not against Confederate forces as planned, but against a raging sea!

On November 1, the winds gained speed, and over the next few hours turned dangerous. The orderly columns of ships, each in a struggle for its own survival in the gale, began to separate, and the fleet scattered. The stress on the (mostly) wooden ships was beginning to show as the ships rolled and pitched in the storm. The passenger soldiers, not trained in seamanship, were called upon to help keep the ships afloat. Although the waves were large enough for seawater to flood the upper decks as they washed over the ships, many of the ships also had breeches in their hulls, allowing water to pour in below decks. Masts broke, steam stacks toppled, paddle wheels came apart, and supplies lashed to the decks were washed overboard.

With superb seamanship by officers and crews, (and unbelievable luck) only one of the 80 ships was lost, but there were over 700 men aboard that ship. Two other nearby vessels undertook a dangerous rendezvous in high seas, and rescued almost all of the men before the ship sank. But unfortunately, seven perished and became the first casualties of the Union blockade; five were soldiers, not sailors, and may have been doomed due their lack of experience at sea.

On November 4, the damaged fleet began to assemble off the South Carolina coast and, after necessary repairs, the formations were ordered to begin the blockade. The first major confrontation with Confederate ships and land forces occurred at Port Royal Sound, near Hilton Head, SC.  By November 7th, the fleet had driven off the Confederate ships in the Sound, and soldiers from the fleet had captured the forts which were protecting the harbor. From there, the Union fleet dispersed to blockade other major Confederate Ports and harbors.

Over the next three years, elements of the blockade fleet patrolled the seas off the Confederate coast, interdicting traffic in and out of the hundreds of ports.

But was the blockade successful? By most measures, yes. It slowed the out-flow of cotton, the south’s main source of foreign revenue, which helped devalue the Confederate currency, and caused irreparable harm to the southern economy. However, it was not as successful in preventing incoming weapons and military supplies, which helped enable the Confederate army keep fighting into 1865. How did Southern forces partially evade the blockade by the Union Navy? By using “Blockade Runners!” Although 1,500 of these smaller and faster ships, which could dock in the many small inlets along the coast, were intercepted, hundreds more avoided capture, many achieving multiple voyages. They delivered critical supplies into the Confederacy and were a nemesis for Union ship Captains charged with the blockade.

To most historians, the decision to blockade Southern ports was instrumental in the outcome of the Civil War. But it also affected the United States even after the war, because the blockade plan forced the government to build and form a modern Navy, which became the largest Naval force in the world.

And that legacy continues today.