The Secretary of
the Navy was essentially given to funds to create a new Navy out of necessity.
He purchased
264 ships with 2,557 guns, and he hires an additional 22,000 sailors
throughout the war. Since production of warships is not a quick process, he was
forced to employ any vessel that could carry a gun (ships, barks, schooners,
sloops, tugs, passenger boats, etc.). He then began to delegate powers within
his Navy. He created a
Blockading Fleet that consisted of two parts. The
Atlantic Blockading Squadron had 22 ships with 296 guns that were run by 3,300
men. The Gulf Blockading Squadron had 21 ships with 282 guns run by 3,500 men.
As more vessels became available, the fleets increased in size. Even the total
Navy was not sufficient to
blockade every port, so the Navy Department became
creative and sunk ships full of stone to block off Savannah and Charleston, the
two major ports of the South. A total of 25 ships were sunk for this purpose
during the Civil War, but the idea was apparently abandoned in favor of strict
blockading tactics<1>. This new
Navy was expensive, yet appeared to fulfill its purpose and end the war.
Blockade
running was the only opposition to the blockade, since the Confederate States
of America did not have a fleet large enough to challenge that of the Union.
Ships would sneak through the blockade late at night by having no lights
what-so-ever on deck and by hanging drapes over the oars to reduce splashing
noises. Although dangerous, the practice was highly profitable as well as
helpful to the Southern war efforts. It is said that a steamer carrying 1,000
bales of cotton could sometimes achieve a profit of $250,000. In fact, during
the war, cotton cost 3 cents per pound in the South and could be sold for at
least 45 cents if not $1 per pound in foreign markets, such as England. One
estimate claims that, counting the cost of the ships, the blockade running
trade was worth about $150 million. Since the risk was high and the profit was
great, many ship captains wished to keep all of the profits for themselves. In
order to use the smuggling to the advantage f the state, Jefferson Davis was
forced to make a proclamation giving half of either the cargo or the cargo
space of a ship to the government<2>.
This extra revenue was crucial since the southern economy was fading fast.
Captain John Wilkinson, one of the most successful commanders of the blockade
running fleet, explained that a pound of tea could cost upwards of $500 and
that a quarter of a lamb would cost $100. Indeed, at the beginning of the war,
Confederate money was equal with that of the Union. By the end, Union specie
was 2,000 times as valuable due to inflation<3>.
In this respect, one can how the blockade had forced the South to resort to
self-endangering tactics to stay fed.
<1> Sprunt, Cape
Fear 239-41.
<2> Douglas B. Ball,
Financial Failure and Confederate Defeat (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1991) 97-98.
<3> Sprunt, Cape
Fear 373-85.