It was, in fact, the only wartime board that resembled a general staff. The insights of the board laid out an important framework for the early strategy of the navy. The board also prepared a general guide for all blockading operations, which the Navy Department followed closely throughout the war. The board also accumulated the information necessary to establish logistical bases and recommended points to be seized as coaling stations and naval bases. Its members developed strategies and devised methods to render the blockade more effective. 3 The Blockade Strategy Board met at the Smithsonian Institution from July to September of 1861 and prepared ten reports.

In an attempt to devise an initial strategy and to anticipate future service needs, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles created a Commission of Conference, also called the Blockade Strategy Board. Furthermore, the Union leadership failed to develop any continuing strategy for the war, squandering the advantage the superior Union navy had over the Confederate naval forces-an advantage that, if properly used, might have shortened the war.Īfter several months of implementing the blockade, however, it was clearly understood that the job at hand was larger than anyone perceived, and the navy needed some direction. The blockade of more than 3,500 miles of Southern coastline consumed most of the navy's assets, and army-navy rivalries prevented joint operations that might have brought crucial victories. 2 During the conflict the navy demonstrated that it could do much more than maintain a blockade-its most important task-but this vast sea power advantage was underutilized. Lincoln's call for a blockade of Southern ports, which created the need for a large navy, may have been one of his wisest wartime decisions. wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been, and made their tracks.' 1

Not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but.

At all the watery margins they have been present. In August 1863, two years into the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln wrote to his friend James Conkling, 'Nor must Uncle Sam's web feet be forgotten. The Monitor and the Virginia battle at Hampton Roads, Virginia, March 9, 1862.

U. s.t. on 1861 civil war navy dog tag