TESTING THE TYPOLOGY: AN ANALYSIS OF CONFEDERATE BLOCKADE RUNNERS (1831-1865)

Abstract

Historians have examined American Civil War blockade runners from many perspectives. This includes seeing the watercraft as phenomenal works of industrial engineering, ships that made daring escapes, and vessels that either single-handedly saved the Confederate economy – or doomed it. So much research on blockade running has occurred that prior researchers sought to create archetypes to describe these ships' changing dimensions and technologies. A limited array of historical sources has influenced prior work, with a primary focus on the activities of Confederate agent James Bulloch. Bulloch's writing emphasized important anatomical features, and researchers have tended to organize typologies around these traits. Such historical sources take for granted the ships’ complexity and wide range of locations where they were built. This thesis challenges assumptions by employing new approaches, specifically a critical examination of traditional blockade runner typologies.