The South experienced the Civil War in ways different than the North, and discovered early that it was not well prepared for the war it had initiated. Fundamentally, it was the South under attack, on the defensive against the offensive forces of the Union army. It was the South that was blockaded and could not import much needed supplies for both the home front and the warfront; this blockade also kept the South from exporting goods for money which they desperately needed. Not only did Confederate troops suffer from the blockade, but the families whom the soldiers left behind struggled with the same lack of food and supplies. Every aspect of Southern life was interrupted by the Northern blockade. Still, the South was resourceful and showed a distinct strength in character in the many creative ways it compensated for its various deficiencies and the manner in which it contended with distress both on and off the field despite market corruption, minimal resources, and continued altercation with the North.

General-in-chief Winfield Scott devised what was called the “Anaconda Plan,” in which the North would “squeeze” in the South with blockades to prevent them from having access to the ocean through their ports. This plan would obstruct all shipments in or out of Southern ports, namely those for the Southern cotton trade, and it would deprive the South of necessary supplies that could be sent in from foreign countries. The South was grievously underdeveloped in its industrial and manufacturing capabilities, and depended on foreign imports on everything from cocaine for medicine to soap.[1] Scott hoped to play the Southern dependence on such trade to the benefit of the North so that his plan would successfully crush the South, that the “rebels would suffocate,” and the war would end in victory for the North.[2] But, the South resisted defeat in this manner and devised ways to skirt the blockade using blockade runners. Blockade runners were made to slip unnoticed between Union blockade ships. They were sleek and thin, fast, and veritably smokeless, and had the advantage of being manned by captains who knew the Southern coastlines well.[3] The North lacked enough ships to adequately patrol the entire expansive Southern coast, so quite a few Southern blockade running ships got in between them.


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Works Cited

Grant, Susan-Mary and Brian Holden Reid, ed. The American Civil War: Explorations and Reconsiderations. Longman, 2000.

McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Memphis Daily Appeal. 13 December 1862.

Montgomery Weekly Advertiser. 01, 08, 22, 29 October; 24 December 1862.

Nashville Dispatch. 17 May, 14 September 1862.

Perman, Michael, ed. Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.

Roberts, Giselle. The Confederate Belle. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003.

Weekly Columbus [GA] Enquirer. 01 April, 02 September 1862; 24 February 1863,

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Endnotes

1 Giselle Roberts, The Confederate Belle (Colombia: University of Missouri Press, 2003), 58.

2 James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 333-334.

3 James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 379.

4 Weekly Columbus [GA] Enquirer (Columbus), 02 September 1862.

5 Nashville Dispatch (Nashville), 14 September 1862.

6 Weekly Columbus [GA] Enquirer (Columbus), 24 February 1863.

7 Nashville Dispatch (Nashville), 17 May 1862.

8 Giselle Roberts, The Confederate Belle (Colombia: University of Missouri Press, 2003), 59.

9 See the Montgomery Weekly Advertiser, 19 March 1862 for one soldiers letter speaking out against the high priced selling of guns by the Southern Express Company.

10 Montgomery Weekly Advertiser (Montgomery), 01 October 1862.

11 Memphis Daily Appeal (Jackson), 13 December 1862.

12 Montgomery Weekly Advertiser (Montgomery), 08 October 1862.

13 Montgomery Weekly Advertiser (Montgomery), 22 October 1862.

14 Evidence of this can be seen in various Confederate newspapers such as the Montgomery Weekly Advertiser, 01 October, 22 October, 29 October, and 05 November 1862.

15 Susan-Mary Grant and Brian Holden Reid, ed., The American Civil War: Explorations and Reconsiderations (Longman, 2000), 291.

16 Weekly Columbus [GA] Enquirer (Columbus), 01 April 1862.

17 Montgomery Weekly Advertiser (Montgomery), 24 December 1862.

18 A recipe for which can even be found in the Montgomery Weekly Advertiser Montgomery), 22 October 1862.

19 Montgomery Weekly Advertiser (Montgomery), 29 October 1862.