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 552 Seizure or capture of Southern ports. [isei-5 ports. It may also be noted in this connexion that, as the war proceeded, the American government was driven by the trend of events to maintain a virtual blockade of the British ports of Bermuda and Nassau, which were the chief centres of the blockade-running trade from 1862 to 1864, just as in 1808 England had been driven to blockade New York. It was not until July, 1861, that the chief Southern ports were watched by Northern cruisers ; and for a year longer fast neutral vessels found little difficulty in running the blockade. The acquisition by the North of bases on the Southern coast followed speedily upon the enforcement of the blockade. From the outset Key West had been in Northern hands ; in August, 1861, Hatteras Inlet, on the North Carolina coast, was seized ; and in the following November, Port Royal. In January. 1862, the entrance to Savannah was blocked with hulks laden with stone, but these in the course of a few weeks were washed away by the tides. In February, 1862, Roanoke Island, at the entrance to Albemarle Sound, was captured; in March, Fernandina and St Augustine, in Florida; in April, Beaufort, North Carolina, Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the Savannah river, and the great seaport of New Orleans; while in May the two United States dockyards, Norfolk and Pensacola, which had fallen into the hands of the Confederates, were recaptured. After this there came a lull in the operations on the coast; but in November, 1863, Brazos Island near the mouth of the Rio Grande, im- portant as intercepting the trade between the South and Mexico, was secured ; in August, 1864, Mobile was sealed ; and in December of the same year Savannah taken. At the opening of 1865 only two ports Wilmington and Charleston were left in the hands of the Confederates. Wilmington was of great strategic importance, as it was through this port that Lee's army before Richmond was supplied with food and ammunition, after the failure of the railroads and the loss of the west and centre of the Confederacy. Fort Fisher, commanding the seaward approach to it, was captured in January, 1865 ; and the town itself was occupied in February of that year. In the same month the Confederate flag was lowered in the last port of the Confederacy, Charleston. The establishment of a ring-fence round the Confederate States thus proceeded steadily from the opening of the war ; and, with each port that fell, the task of blockading the remaining ports became simpler, as larger and ever larger forces were set free to do the work. Yet these results were not accomplished without severe fighting ,and some repulses. One of the most important naval actions in the war was the attack on New Orleans, conducted by Flag-Officer Farragut in April, 1862. He had clearly grasped the fact that it was perfectly feasible for ships to run past forts, even when these were situated on each side of a comparatively narrow river ; and he argued that, when the forts were passed and the war-ships placed in their rear, they could be taken in reverse, or isolated and compelled to surrender. Upon this tactical idea his coast and river