The Confederate Blockade of Washington, D.C., 1861-1862

Confederate land batteries along the Potomac River cut off Washington, D.C., President Lincoln's seat of government, from communication by sea during the Civil War's first year. Those grey artillerymen forced his administration to rely on just one single-track branch line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for all its needs.Despite the presence of a Federal naval flotilla patrolling the Potomac River, and the army's forty plus forts built for defense of the capital, the port of Washington was closed. And so Washington's population experienced severe shortages during the winter of 1861-1862. Lincoln, anxious to lift the blockade, personally took the initiative and ordered the army and navy to work together to reopen the Potomac.