| Even before President Lincoln issued his blockade proclamation, leaders of the Confederacy realized that they would have to obtain the majority of their military supplies from abroad. Their new nation did not contain the needed industrial base to support a country at war; nor did the South have a large enough merchant fleet to bring in the needed goods. For both vessels and supplies, the South looked to Great Britain, and once the British realized the immense profits that could be made by running cargoes through the blockade, a large and enthusiastic trade soon opened between Bermuda, Nassau, Havana and the Confederacy.;The trade also grew into a sophisticated business, carried on by both the Confederacy and private companies. Its importance to the South was tremendous. Without blockade running the Confederacy could not have armed, clothed or fed its soldiers. As long as the steamers had ports to run to the Confederacy survived, but once the seaports were captured, the nation was destined to die.;This study looks carefully at blockade running, and for the first time attempts to analyze the impact of the trade on the war effort. It also examines how cargoes were brought in, where they were landed and how they were distributed to the Southern armies. The work also describes in detail the major companies and the important individuals who developed blockade running into the lifeline of the Confederacy.;Blockade running not only brought to the South the supplies needed to sustain the nation, but also caused a revolution in ship building. By the second year of the war the goods coming into the Confederacy were carried on fast, light-drafted, steel and iron-hulled steamers. These vessels, capable of carrying an immense amount of cargo, were designed to slip past the Union warships at night, delivering their valuable supplies to the South. |
