在美国内战中没有建立正式的海军情报制度。虽然存在北方同情者的一些例子，但像朴次茅斯的玛丽罗维斯那样自由的黑人，向各种联盟指挥官发出关于同盟铁的施工努力的消息。这些链接是非官方的，通常在一个工业官员和个人之间。自北部和南部报纸以来，联盟和联邦需要依赖此类秘密方法，通常以充足的信息提供充足的信息。每个敌手只需要获得副本纽约时报要么Mobile Register要收集所有他们需要了解Ironclad开发。
Union intelligence was able to receive valuable knowledge about theconstruction and impending attack of CSS弗吉尼亚州。这些信息似乎在汉普顿道路上来回流动。1861年10月6日，大会John Ellis羊毛驻奥罗德堡驻弗吉尼亚州联盟部的指挥官，写信给Winfield Scott中尉：
新奥尔良是联邦最大的城市，拥有超过120,000名居民。这个世界各地社区是一家领先的运输，造船和工业中心。这座城市控制了整个密西西比州谷及其支流的商业，如俄亥俄州，密苏里州和红河。虽然这对联邦来保持了维持这个城市的控制，但在田纳西州的其他地方，尤其是在田纳西州的赛事，导致奥尔良的防御和海军支援等待。这座城市的损失会产生重大影响。
Much to the dismay of Major General Mansfield Lovell and Flag Officer George Hollins, New Orleans had been stripped of most of its soldiers, cannons, and warships. Many believed that the Federals would try to take New Orleans by way of Union forces coming down the Mississippi. Hollins argued, to a level of insubordination, that every effort possible be made to block the Union fleet access into the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico. He advocated that as the Union ships were lightened to cross the bar into the Southwest passage, the Federals were very vulnerable to attack, and Hollins wished to do so. He created such an uproar that he was reassigned to Richmond, Virginia.
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles had long recognized Wilmington, North Carolina, as the key blockade runners’ haven in the war. He had tried to create an expedition to capture Wilmington’s prime defender, Fort Fisher. Welles, in conjunction with Rear Admiral Samuel P. Lee, conceived an attack where monitors would pass through Cape Fear’s Old Inlet and bombard Fort Fisher from the rear. A great idea: however, this mode of assault was impractical as the newPassaic-class monitors had too drafts too deep to enter the river. The Federals; nevertheless, did not forget about Cape Fear.
联邦人知道威尔明顿需要关闭;然而，他们还认识到斗篷恐惧防御的程度和程度。Fort Fisher是Genert Robert E. Lee对彼得堡和里士满国防的关键。李军队依赖的食品，武器，弹药，服装和药物来自北卡罗来纳州威尔明顿。如果要捕获这个港口城市，李将不得不放弃彼德堡以外的战壕。
GoSport的危机于1861年4月20日早上达到了Zenith。旗下斯图尔特麦考议院似乎已经放弃了拯救或捍卫GoSport海军院子的所有希望。早上早些时候，他了解到民兵军队已查获诺福克堡，非常有用的杂志充满了25万磅的火药。因此，McCauley认为他别无选择，只能摧毁造船厂，以便它不会陷入弗吉尼亚人的手中。
Escape Plan
In spring 1862, Union general George Brinton McClellan had assembled a very powerful army around Washington, D.C. The Union had already recently achieved several major victories along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, as well as they had captured the North Carolina Sounds. McClellan’s army was poised and ready to strike at the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. General McClellan, often called ‘Young Napoleon’ or ‘Little Mac,’ wanted nothing to do with a march overland toward Richmond.
这条道路被Joseph E.'Joh'Johnston的45,000强军队卫冕Manassas封锁了。麦克莱纳队以侧翼和孤立约翰斯顿的军队远离里士满，麦克莱纳设立了Urbanna计划将他的军队搬到弗吉尼亚弗吉尼亚州urbanna，然后直接罢工。在联盟将军可以实施他的竞选之前，Joe Johnston于1862年3月6日开始抛弃他的Manassas防御，并倒回弗雷德里克斯堡。麦克莱伦迅速提供了一项二级两栖手术，以通过弗吉尼亚半岛的方式在里士满。
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