The Confederate Blockade Research Paper

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Three days after the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of all Southern ports. While that decree had an unintended political impact–the tacit recognition of the Confederacy as a belligerent–it was nevertheless an essential action on his part. The European nations had already determined that they would not recognize or honor a Union declaration that the Southern ports were closed to trade. In order to ensure the de facto closing of the ports, the Union had to assert control over the various waterways and coastlines of the Confederacy. The blockade proposed by Lincoln was part of an overall strategy championed by General-in-Chief Winfield Scott that was derisively given the nickname ‘Anaconda’ by