page_title: Union blockade
section_title: Confederate response
hierarchical_section_title: Union blockade / Impact on the Confederacy / Confederate response
caption_attribution_description: English: CSS David attack on USS New Ironsides: The torpedo boat approached undetected. Her spar torpedo detonated under the starboard quarter of the ironclad, throwing a high column of water which rained back upon the Confederate vessel and put out her boiler fires. With her engine dead, David hung under the starboard quarter of the New Ironsides while small arms fire from the Federal ship spattered the water around the torpedo boat. Believing that their vessel was sinking, Glassell and two others abandoned her; the pilot, Walker Cannon, who could not swim, remained on board. A short time later, Assistant Engineer J. H. Tomb swam back to the craft and climbed on board. Reigniting the fires, Tomb succeeded in getting David’s engine working again, and the torpedo boat steamed up the channel to safety. New Ironsides, though not sunk, was seriously damaged by the explosion." Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization.
context_page_description: The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading.
  The blockade was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in April 1861, and required the monitoring of 3,500 miles of Atlantic and Gulf coastline, including 12 major ports, notably New Orleans and Mobile. Those blockade runners fast enough to evade the Union Navy could only carry a small fraction of the supplies needed. They were operated largely by foreign citizens, making use of neutral ports such as Havana, Nassau and Bermuda. The Union commissioned around 500 ships, which destroyed or captured about 1,500 blockade runners over the course of the war.
context_section_description: The Confederacy constructed torpedo boats, tending to be small, fast steam launches equipped with spar torpedoes, to attack the blockading fleet. Some torpedo boats were refitted steam launches; others, such as the CSS David class, were purpose-built. The torpedo boats tried to attack under cover of night by ramming the spar torpedo into the hull of the blockading ship, then backing off and detonating the explosive. The torpedo boats were not very effective and were easily countered by simple measures such as hanging chains over the sides of ships to foul the screws of the torpedo boats, or encircling the ships with wooden booms to trap the torpedoes at a distance.
  One historically notable naval action was the attack of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, a hand-powered submarine launched from Charleston, South Carolina, against Union blockade ships. On the night of 17 February 1864, Hunley attacked Housatonic. Housatonic sank with the loss of five crew; Hunley also sank, taking her crew of eight to the bottom.
caption: CSS David engaging New Ironsides on 5 October 1863, during the blockade of Charleston
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