Member Review Breaking the Blockade: The Bahamas During the Civil War

Joshism

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Apr 30, 2012
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Jupiter, FL
Breaking the Blockade: The Bahamas During the Civil War
by Charles D. Ross
University Press of Mississippi (2020)

Breaking the Blockade is the story of Nassau in the 1860s. The capitol, largest city, and largest port in the British-owned Bahamas was a critical point of shipment for blockade runners during the American Civil War. Most of the cargo was to or from Charleston, South Carolina or Wilmington, North Carolina. A number of British citizens got quite rich from blockade running - more as shipping companies handling the goods than the ship captains themselves. The Oreto (later the notable commerce raider CSS Florida) even passed through Nassau. The US consul in Nassau attempted to stop the blockade running, with little success. British government officials seemed to mostly be corrupt or indifferent to the practice, although the governor was replaced mid-war for turning too blind of an eye to the practice. The British Bahamians seem to have been motivated primarily by greed; blockade running was simply good for business. Bahamian sympathy for the Confederate cause seems to have mostly been upper class Englishmen who considered Southern plantation aristocrats to be their distinguished peers.

For those interested in the Trent Affair, Charles Wilkes makes an appearance and plays loose with maritime law yet again, if less dramatically.

It is pretty focused on the the events in Nassau. There is a large cast of characters that will be unfamiliar to almost all readers, except perhaps those already familiar with blockade running. I think the author handles this unavoidable difficult as well as he can, even providing a reference list of notable individuals. This is not a military history; more politics and commercial activity.

There was frequent blockade running between Nassau and the Florida East Coast which gets barely a mention in this book. However, those were small-scale operations. The big cargo (both quantity and value) was running through the major ports of Charleston and Wilmington. I understand the decision to skip what was essentially a sideshow that probably didn't involve the major companies.

This is well-researched and well-cited university press book. The writing is solid. It's on the shorter side (under 200 pages main text), but feels like the right length for the material covered.

This shouldn't be the first or second book you read about the blockade, but if you're interested in the blockade you definitely should read it.
 
Good review, @Joshism. At least Ross left other authors a chance to fill in that important sideshow you mention with the smaller enterprises seeking the Florida coast. It may be there wasn't enough solid material reference to be found at this time. Either way, those with an interest in the shipping industry should be delighted with what is, and what may come.
Lubliner.
 
At least Ross left other authors a chance to fill in that important sideshow you mention with the smaller enterprises seeking the Florida coast. It may be there wasn't enough solid material reference to be found at this time.

If it didn't involve the area of local history I work with I probably wouldn't have heard of it either.

Many captured blockade runners in/out of Charleston and Wilmington were repurposed as Union Navy. Many captured blockade runners in/out of the Florida East Coast ports were burned because their size and condition didn't merit a prize crew sailing them to Key West.

Ross does mention probably the single most important Nassau to Florida blockade run: Kate bringing a load of rifles into New Smyrna early in the war.
 
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