April 27, 1861: Proclamation of Blockade

At the outset of the war, on April 19, 1861 President Lincoln proclaimed a blockage of the Confederate coast.  On April 27 the states of North Carolina and Virginia were added to the list of states subject to a Union blockade.  Widely derided at the time as a “paper blockade” by the end of the War the blockade would become a decisive weapon of the Union, denying the Confederates much needed munitions and supplies.  The text of the blockade proclamations: