By: Warren Lasch
When you think about it, the Confederate States of America waged a much more effective series of campaigns against the forces of the Union than one might have predicted when war was declared in 1861. After all, most of the manufacturing might of the United States centered around the northern states on the Eastern seaboard and the Midwest. In addition, while there were forts and arsenals in the South, the government held most of the weapons as well as the facilities for building replacement parts, cannonballs, bullets, and supply requirements for operations in the North. Moreover, most of the population of the United States lived in northern states and the Union was inviting them in by the thousands, giving the Yankees a seemingly unending source of manpower.
While the soldiers and sailors of the Confederacy had great heart and courage, and believed in their cause, they started their war trying to figure out how to overcome the might of the Union Army and the Union Navy. Especially regarding naval power, the leaders of the Confederacy faced a tremendous uphill battle. The Confederate States Navy never possessed the mighty warships of the Union Navy. In fact, while the Union sent 90 ships to fight in the early battles of the Civil War, the South relied upon a fleet that included just 30 ships. Only 14 of those vessels were sea-worthy. As such, the sailors of the Confederacy for the most part focused on defense rather than staging elaborate attacks.
During most of the war, the Union Navy maintained a presence around the major ports of the South, carrying out a blockade to stop the flow of goods into the South and prevent the South from exporting any of its own products. The blockade made it extremely difficult for the South to raise money, and crops such as sugar cane and cotton worth millions of dollars languished unsold in warehouses. In many instances later in the war, crops would wither in the fields because of a lack of manpower to harvest it, and Union soldiers plundered the crops or set fire to them as a way of undermining the South’s determination to continue its fight.
