I used to get very confused about Blockade Runners and Confederate Cruisers during the American Civil War. Were they the same or not?

Since we’re launching into our discussion of the Union blockade and Southern blockade runners, I thought it might be good to clarify the difference. Runners and Cruisers are the not the same, though there were a few similarities.

To make it easy (and colorful) I’ve designed a simplified infograph to show some of the similarities and differences. Enjoy!

The most important takeaway? Blockade Runners = unarmed merchant ships. Cruisers = commissioned Confederate warships. 

Your Historian,

Miss Sarah

P.S. Back to full blog posts next week…but I’d love to know: did you like the infograph? Would you like to see more infographs in Gazette665’s future?

(Today’s an experiment and you can help determine the results by leaving a comment with your preference.)