In all the naval operations of the Civil War hitherto described in this history, the object had in view by the government was to strangle and starve the Confederates. The blockade and the occupation of points on the Confederate coasts had but one object, and even the capture of the Confederate agents on the _Trent_ was intended as a part of the same work. The battle between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_ was fought on one side to raise and on the other to maintain the blockade at Hampton Roads. The _Merrimac_ was not seaworthy and could not have been made so. The Confederates had no thought of using her beyond the waters of the Chesapeake. But while the naval forces were carrying on this alongshore work with practically uninterrupted success, an aggressive movement that was to have far-reaching consequences was planned and in time carried out by the naval power. This was the opening of the Mississippi. In the early days of the war the Confederates having erected a number of forts along the principal streams of the lower Mississippi watershed, the government army officers were of the opinion that no armed vessels would be of any use there. They thought, curiously enough, that the forts must effectually close navigation on the streams. However, this hopeless view vanished as the importance of the navigation of those streams grew upon the minds of all interested in the conflict in that region. One has now but to glance at the map of the Mississippi Valley to understand the situation as it was then. For the Mississippi itself, below Cairo, wound its way through a course more than 1,000 miles of what was practically Confederate territory. And, then, there were the Cumberland and the Tennessee Rivers, that were navigable almost into the heart of the Confederate States, while other streams like the Red, further south, were to be considered. In these streams were found the cheapest and most comfortable highways for the conveyance of armed forces; but more important still was the fact that if the government controlled the Mississippi, it cut the Confederacy into two parts and shut off the supplies grown in the western part from the hungry East. An inland navy was an imperative necessity, and the War Department undertook the task of providing one.