The friendly sea, the hostile shore: a strategic study

Abstract

The first combined expedition of the Civil War took place at Hatteras Inlet in August, 1861. The roots of that expedition, however, go back to three events in the late spring and summer of 1861: (1) Lincoln's Blockade Proclamation, (2) Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan, and (3) the meetings of the Naval Strategy Board. During the next four years, the term "combined" or "amphibious" operation came to take on its modern meaning. A whole set of specialized tactics and a group of highly colorful and individualistic men developed this new military operation. After Hatteras Inlet, the techniques were further refined at Port Royal (November, 1861) and Roanoke Island (February 1862). A year after the opening shots were fired at Ft. Sumter, the first large-scale attack against a major port took place; that port was New Orleans, largest and richest city of the Confederacy. After New Orleans, the development of combined operations lagged for nearly eighteen months. During that period, Union fortunes suffered three reverses in areas where combined operations had first carried the Union flag--the coast of Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; and the sounds of North Carolina. The last six months of the war saw the Confederacy's only remaining open ports closed by combined attack. This brought down the curtain on military events in the coastal amphibious campaign. But events "behind the scenes" were as important to the development of combined operations as the actual attacks. The personal relations between local Army and Navy commanders, politics in Washington, and the state of military technology in the middle of the nineteenth century all played an important part in combined operations. Finally, the unquestioned success of combined operations as a part of Northern strategy had an impact that went far beyond the Civil War itself. The fear of coastal attacks on the reunited American coastline dominated strategic policy in this country for the rest of the century.