President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring a blockade of ports in the seceded states, initiating what became the Union naval blockade—central to the wider Anaconda Plan strategy to restrict Confederate trade and war supplies.
Lincoln expanded the blockade to include additional ports in Virginia and North Carolina, widening the legal and operational scope of Union maritime interdiction along the Atlantic seaboard.
A joint Army–Navy operation seized Forts Hatteras and Clark at Hatteras Inlet, helping the Union control access to North Carolina’s inland sounds and supporting the broader coastal blockade effort.
Union naval and army forces captured Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, creating a key deepwater base for blockading squadrons and enabling sustained operations against the Confederate coast between Charleston and Savannah.
The Union Navy deliberately sank stone-laden ships near Charleston Harbor in an effort to obstruct channels used by blockade runners; the effort proved largely ineffective as a permanent closure but reflects early experimentation in blockade enforcement.
Union riverine forces, including the Western Gunboat Flotilla under Andrew H. Foote in coordination with Ulysses S. Grant’s army, captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River—an early demonstration of combined operations central to Union control of interior waterways.
After weeks of siege and naval maneuvering, Union forces compelled the surrender of Island No. 10, opening more of the Mississippi River corridor to Union movement and tightening pressure on Confederate river defenses.
David G. Farragut’s West Gulf Blockading Squadron fought past the key Confederate forts below New Orleans, a decisive breakthrough that enabled the Union to take the South’s largest city and strengthened the blockade’s Gulf Coast effectiveness.
Following Farragut’s passage upriver, Union forces completed the occupation of New Orleans, delivering a major economic and strategic blow to the Confederacy and improving Union control at the mouth of the Mississippi.
A Union flotilla defeated the Confederate River Defense Fleet near Memphis, leading to the city’s prompt surrender and further extending Union dominance on the Mississippi River down toward Vicksburg.
The Confederate surrender at Vicksburg restored Union control over a critical stretch of the Mississippi River, a pivotal outcome of sustained land operations supported by naval river forces and logistics along the waterway.
The fall of Port Hudson removed the last major Confederate stronghold on the lower Mississippi, complementing Vicksburg’s capture and enabling continuous Union river traffic from the Midwest to the Gulf.
The Union fleet forced entry into Mobile Bay, defeating Confederate naval resistance and tightening the blockade by closing one of the Confederacy’s last major Gulf outlets—though the city of Mobile itself remained in Confederate hands.
A joint Union Army–Navy assault captured Fort Fisher, whose defenses protected access to Wilmington, North Carolina—widely described as the Confederacy’s last major open seaport late in the war—significantly strengthening the blockade’s endgame.
Union Naval Blockade and Riverine Operations (1861–1865)
