This was in large part the result of the increased numbers of ships that the Union brought into service and placed on blockade duty. ![]() However, by the last two years of the conflict, the overall success rate for running the blockade had dropped to less than 25 percent. The harbor was guarded by two forts, Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island, and Fort Morgan on the Eastern side of the entrance to the bay. Mobile was in an ideal position to launch and receive blockade runners. ![]() The main objective of the blockade was not only to prevent much-needed supplies from entering the southern states, but also to prevent the major southern export, cotton, from leaving the South’s principal ports: New Orleans, Louisiana Charleston, South Carolina and Mobile, Alabama.ĭuring the first two years of the war, the blockade had limited effectiveness, with as many as two-thirds of the ships successfully entering and leaving ports in the South. Blockade running, and the use of small swift ships known as blockade runners, was the Confederacy’s response to the Union blockade ordered by President Abraham Lincoln on April 19, 1861, one week after Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter.
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