Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1.

[673] tending to promote, the efficiency and activity of the blockade of the Southern shores. We have not entered upon the exclusive consideration of the great military expeditions alone; we have treated mixed expeditions compounded of military and naval operations, and requiring combined naval and military action.

In the above extracts we can note the inception of the Port Royal expedition, so ably executed and so important in its results, as well as the creation of a systematic plan of blockade, practically extending from Cape Hatteras to the Rio Grande. It seems just to the memory of the late Rear-Admiral Du Pont and his associates in the conference, all of whom have passed away, to present these important facts in a substantial and reliable form.

The early attempts at blockading the coast from Hatteras to Florida revealed the necessity of the occupation of as many Southern ports as possible. A blockade from within a harbor may be made effective by one or more ships without the fatigue and uncertainty attendant upon an exterior blockade, which must be maintained beyond the range of the guns of an enemy in possession of the adjacent coasts. Even thirty vessels blockading the two entrances to the Cape Fear River were unable to prevent the frequent arrival and departure of blockade-runners. The only possible policy for the Navy Department was to secure the cooperation of the army. And after a well-outlined preliminary agreement, General Thomas W. Sherman, on the 2d of August, 1861, was directed “to proceed immediately to New York and organize, in connection with Captain Du Pont, of the navy, an expedition of twelve thousand men. Its destination,” said his orders, “you and the naval commander will determine after you have sailed.”

A dozen or more small gun-boats were then under construction in the Northern States on contract, and vessels of every size, from a canal steamboat to the