Union Navy
Union Navy.The Civil War caught the U.S. Navy unprepared. President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of Southern ports the week after Fort Sumter fell; but the U.S. Navy had no more than ninety ships, about half that number in service. Commanding general of the army Winfield Scott proposed an “Anaconda plan” to constrict the Confederacy between the army on land and a blockade by sea; however, eight ships comprised the Home Squadron, only four of them screw steamers. Other squadrons routinely assigned to protect American commerce around the globe could not be recalled for months. Thus, as states seceded, the Union could not halt the seizure of ports, ships, and naval facilities from Norfolk to New Orleans.
Union unpreparedness did not prevent a “paper blockade” of Southern ports. Official proclamations were published in Southern papers, and ships...
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