Blockade Running and the Bahamas during the Civil War
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Posted : May 6, 2022
FORT SUMTER CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE
May 9, 2022
Program: Blockade Running and the Bahamas during the Civil War
On April 16, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued a blockade of the Confederate coastline. The largely agrarian South did not have the industrial base to succeed in a protracted conflict, but what it did have was cotton and tobacco. As the blockade expanded, the blockade runners became quite ingenious in finding ways around the barriers. Nassau, Bahamas became a focal point for the blockade running action. Boats worked their way back and forth from the Confederacy to Nassau and England, and everyone in the Bahamas wanted a piece of the action. Poor men became rich in a single transaction, and dances and drinking—from the posh Royal Victoria hotel to the boarding houses lining the harbor—were the order of the day. For four years, British, U.S., and C.S. sailors intermingled in the streets, eyeing each other warily as boats snuck in and out of Nassau’s harbor.
Presenter: Prof. Chuck Ross
Chuck Ross is Professor of Physics and former Dean of the Cook-Cole College of Arts and Sciences at Longwood University in Farmville. His study of science and technology in the Civil War has led to appearances on The History Channel, PBS, the National Geographic Channel and National Public Radio and his work has been featured in US News and World Report, Science, Discover and many other media outlets. He has written three books on that subject: Trial by Fire: Science, Technology and the Civil War; Civil War Acoustic Shadows; and Breaking the Blockade: The Bahamas During the Civil War; and is co-author of Never for Want of Powder: The Confederate Powder Works.
BOND HALL Rm 165– The Citadel
Meeting: 6:00 pm Program: 6:30
Sponsored by The Citadel’s Department of History
(Citadel students may attend free of charge)
Meeting Schedule
June 13, 2022
Program: Taking of the USS Isaac Smith
Presenter: Gary Dyson Location: Bond Hall Rm 165-The Citadel
September 12, 2022
Program: TBA
Presenter: Prof. Steven E. Woodworth Location: Bond Hall Rm 165-The Citadel
October 10, 2022
Program: TBA
Presenter: TBA Location: Bond Hall Rm 165-The Citadel
November 14, 2022
Program: TBA
Presenter: TBA Location: Bond Hall Rm 165-The Citadel
December 12, 2022
Program: TBA Location: Bond Hall Rm 165-The Citadel
Presenter: Rich Condon, Ranger Reconstruction Era National Historical Park