By August 1861 the Board had focused its attention on the Gulf Coast and specifically on a small barrier island of sand and scrub pines located a dozen miles off the coast of Mississippi. It was just seven miles long and an eighth of a mile wide, but Ship Island was within easy striking distance of the mouth of the Mississippi River and Mobile Bay, and it offered a deep-water naval anchorage. It would make an ideal base for the blockade and, if possible, the seizure of New Orleans. New Orleans was both the South's largest commercial port and the gateway to the lower Mississippi Valley, which was critical to Winfield Scott's so-called "Anaconda Plan" to encircle and strangle the Confederacy.

As the war entered its second year the Lincoln Administration was on the horns of a great dilemma. On one hand, as it cautiously floated various schemes for the gradual emancipation of slaves, it sought to reassure Northern Democrats and Border States that its principal war objective remained the restoration of the Union. On the other hand, as the war dragged on, it was becoming increasingly clear, particularly in Congress, that anything that weakened slavery in the South would diminish the Confederacy's capacity to fight. Furthermore, as Union forces, carried out the Blockade Board's plans and began occupying parts of South Carolina and Louisiana, several senior military officers recognized the overwhelming logic of taking the next crucial step of bringing freed slaves into the ranks of the Federal army to help deliver a mortal blow to the Confederacy.

John Wolcott Phelps

On Ship Island, one of those officers, Brig. General John Wolcott Phelps, a West Pointer and the highest ranking Vermont born field commander, wasted no time in announcing publicly how he intended to conduct the war once his troops were ashore in Louisiana. Phelps and others were prepared to do all they could to undermine slavery. They were also preparing, without prior consultation or permission of the War Department, to organize former slaves into all-black military units under their command. 4

By the end of April, New Orleans was captured, and federal forces began moving up the Mississippi River. As word of the Union advance spread, thousands of slaves seized the moment to emancipate themselves. Under the cover of darkness, they made for Union lines. Vermonters under General Phelps's command would soon find themselves right in the middle of this exodus -- and right in the middle of an impending collision between, on the one hand, an administration in Washington that was not ready to make a decision on either emancipation or raising African-American troops, and, on the other hand, the reality that confronted the Union army on the ground a thousand miles from Washington.