The South's Response To Plan Anaconda During The Civil War

Introduction
Having wars fought not only on land but also on water separated the Civil War from any other war before 1861.

Plan Anaconda
Plan Anaconda was the initial plan for the Civil War strategy devised by General Winfield Scott. This plan took place not on land but on water. General Winfield Scott knew that the South was getting supplies from many countries such as Germany, France and Great Britain. These supplies included rifles and explosives. These imports gave the South a huge advantage. General Winfield Scott had an idea, they formed a massive blockade of the Southern ports so they could stop these imports.
Later, in 1861 this Anaconda plan expanded. Taking away the South's imports meant that the Union could take them over. The

The blockade border was surrounded by many wooden boats with iron plates, but not fully in iron though. The Northern ships on this blockade were the C.S.S Colonel and the U.S.S Union. These boats were only wood. However, the South had a smart idea. What if the South made a ship fully out of iron? There were a few reality checks along the way such as how will it float and how will it deflect cannonballs? These questions led to the creation of one of the first ironclads. An ironclad is a ship made fully out of solid iron.
This Ironclad ship dominated the Northern blockade ships that were stopping the mississippi river income. The South got the income and supplies they needed. They were sinking ships made of wood and gave the South a definite upper hand during the Civil

It was actually a wooden boat then the South turned it into a full on ironclad. This was a huge weakness because the ship could get hit by an underwater mine. Normally, if a wood boat gets hit by weaponry once it sinks. But, an ironclad could easily deflect any shot directed at it. The U.S.S Virginia also had a massive iron ram that was used to smash weak and old wood boats to shreds. Doing that to the Union ships got the Union very angry. It’s important to know that the CSS Virginia had over 20 cannons. This meant they could destroy blockade runners. However, this plan worked very well and it succeeded very much.

Important details about the C.S.S Monitor
The North in response to these attacks built an Ironclad, too. This specific ship was much like the U.S.S Virginia. It was very strong because it was also made out of iron. But this specific ship laid very low to the water. It was almost invisible when in murky waters. This meant the Southern ships could not easily see it. The Union ship C.S.S. Monitor only had two cannons. However, these were not your average cannons. Each cannon weighed over 60 pounds and shot cannonballs that were hollow and had gunpowder inside them, not to mention the fact that the balls weighed at almost
62 pounds. The cannons were on a rotating turret. This allowed them to switch where they were shooting and hit ships on more than one