Global InformationBlockade runners of the American Civil War information
Civil War blockade-runner
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 3,500 miles (5,600 km) along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastlines and the lower Mississippi River. The Confederacy had little industrial capability and could not indigenously produce the quantity of arms and other supplies needed to fight against the Union. To meet this need, numerous blockade runners were constructed in the British Isles and were used to import the guns, ordnance and other supplies that the Confederacy desperately needed, 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."[1] Between 2,500 and 2,800 attempts were made to run the blockade, with at least an 80% success rate. Historians have estimated that supplies brought to the Confederacy via blockade runners lengthened the duration of the conflict by up to two years.[2][3][4][5][6] 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.[7][8]
- ^ John Elwood Clark (2001). Railroads in the Civil War: The Impact of Management on Victory and Defeat. LSU Press. p. 215. ISBN 9-7808-0715-2652.
- ^ "Alabama Claims, 1862-1872". GlobalSecurity.org.
- ^ David Keys (June 24, 2014). "Historians reveal secrets of UK gun-running which lengthened the American civil war by two years". The Independent.
- ^ Paul Hendren (April 1933). "The Confederate Blockade Runners". United States Naval Institute.
- ^ Peter G. Tsouras (March 11, 2011). "American Civil War viewpoints: It was British arms that sustained the Confederacy". Military History Matters.
- ^ Beau Cleland. Between King Cotton and Queen Victoria: Confederate Informal Diplomacy and Privatized Violence in British America During the American Civil War (Thesis). University of Calgary. p. 2.
British resources were, in fact, essential to the rebellion's survival. In the face of a blockade that after 1861 made direct imports nearly impossible, the overwhelming majority of the arms and supplies that the Confederacy received from abroad passed through British colonies en route from Europe, usually on British-flagged ships, consigned to British merchants, and paid for with cotton that followed the same path out of Southern ports. Without the advantage provided by British (and to a far lesser extent, Spanish) colonies, the Confederacy had no prayer of military victory. The colonies were unsinkable, unassailable refuges in an enemy-controlled sea.
- ^ Tans, 1995 p. 24
- ^ Homser, 1913 pp.163–165