The definition of privateers as pirates was grounded in the theory that the Confederacy was not a nation but an association of insurrectionists-“rebels” in the common terminology. Lincoln’s proclamation contained an internal inconsistency.

In a proclamation issued two days later announcing a blockade of Confederate ports, Lincoln declared that captured privateers would be tried for piracy. Now the Confederacy proposed to pursue the same strategy against the United States. As the weaker naval power in two wars against Britain, the United States had commissioned swarms of privateers to prey on British ships and force the Royal Navy to divert its warships to commerce protection. On April 17 Davis offered letters of marque to private ships authorizing them to capture American-flagged merchant vessels. Within a week of the attack on Fort Sumter, Presidents Davis and Lincoln issued proclamations that shaped significant elements of their respective naval strategies. The episode will air again on December 9th and December 25th (get details or watch the video at the link). War on the Waters was also on Book TV last night. In this excerpt from pages 20-22, McPherson discusses the blockade on the Confederacy and how it affected the definition of the Confederacy as insurrectionist or a legitimate nation. McPherson has crafted an enlightening, at times harrowing, and ultimately thrilling account of the war’s naval campaigns and their military leaders.

In War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865, James M. Although previously undervalued for their strategic impact because the represented only a small percentage of total forces, the Union and Confederate navies were crucial to the outcome of the Civil War.

War on the Waters by James M. McPherson