Campaign for the Confederate Coast

The Federal blockade of the Confederate coast during the American Civil War (1861-1865) did not cause the ultimate Federal victory, but it contributed to that victory to a significant degree.

In this highly informative book, readers will learn the story of blockade running from a nuanced, all-points-of-view perspective. Without recounting hundreds of encounters between pro-Confederate blockade runners and Federal blockading forces, it traces the ebb and flow of events as the U.S. Navy, blockade runners, and foreign governments (primarily the British) all pressed for advantage. At first unable to detect blockade runners, the Federals developed tactics that made them increasingly effective at making captures, although they did not eliminate blockade running altogether until they captured the principal Confederate ports. And although blockade running sustained the Confederates' ability to continue the battle for four years, the effect of this economic warfare substantially weakened the armies upon which the Confederate assertion of independence rested.

Advance Praise

This important new study of the Civil War demonstrates that while blockade running was indeed the "lifeline of the Confederacy," the Union blockade and the capture of Confederate ports choked that lifeline to a small fragment of the South's needed seaborne commerce and played a key role in eventual Northern victory. Of special value is Gil Hahn's analysis of the naval war in the context of international law.

-James M. McPherson, author of War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865

More than a century and a half after its close, the Civil War's naval story is still little known or appreciated, particularly those clandestine adventures of the blockade runners that dared everything to smuggle foreign goods and munitions into the Confederacy, and the constant efforts of Union fleets trying to close that trade and starve the South. In Campaign for the Confederate Coast, Gil Hahn presents a strong argument for the centrality of this blockade war in determining the fate of the Confederacy, and the nation.

-William C. Davis, author of The Greatest Fury: The Battle of New Orleans and the Rebirth of America

In his Campaign for the Confederate Coast, Gil Hahn tackles all the complicated legal, logistical, and strategic factors entailed in the blockade imposed by the U.S. Navy on the Confederate States of America. Hahn ably covers such varied topics as the evolution of steam technology and ironclads, tactical developments in blockade-running, questions of supply, the effectiveness of Confederate efforts to counter a growing number of Federal ships, and the intricacies of international law. Without getting bogged down in unnecessary detail, he skillfully summarizes the pertinent battles and campaigns, forgotten ships and international incidents, and the actions of naval and army officers and their civilian superiors. In his final pages, he reviews statistics and individual testimony to assess the blockade's role in the ultimate U.S. victory. This succinct yet comprehensive volume deserves a place on the bookshelf of every Civil War enthusiast.

-William W. Bergen, Independent Civil War scholar based in Charlottesville, Virginia

Gil Hahn's new survey of the Civil War on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts is more than just the conventional account of the U.S. Navy's blockade of the Confederacy. It embraces ship and weapons technology, coastal fortifications. charts and data on coastal sailing vessels, even sailors' rations. This is the single best survey of the conflict for the Confederacy's coastlines on offer, and its conclusions will surprise both the skeptics and the advocates of the blockade's effectiveness.