The Civil War in the United States from 1861 to 1865 serves as a dark reminder of how disintegrated a nation can become on issues that persistently cause heated debate between party factions. Most students who have taken American history courses understand the disadvantage the Confederate States of America possessed as they fought the powerful Union Army over what they perceived as a necessary institution of slavery. Historians have debated the effectiveness of the blockade and whether it was important in creating the failures faced by the Confederate States of America. This debate has spawned the controversial question, “Was the Union blockade successful in the American Civil War?” The blockade, considered an absolute success or failure on the part of the Union, has great significance in the history of the United States. The increased development of the Union Naval Department is directly related to the need to possess ships that can withstand the threat of blockade. This dialectic will focus on two opposing theses on the question of the success of the Union bloc in ensuring Union victory. . Within “Reevaluating the Effectiveness of the Union Blockade in the Civil War,” M. Brem Bonner and Peter McCord argue for the success of the blockade by evaluating statistical data consisting of blockade runners' efforts to overcome the obstacle caused by the Union. . Authors often use the negative side of the effectiveness argument when discussing the legality of the blockade and the successes achieved by some blockade pirates in smuggling goods into and out of the Confederacy. On the other side, Daniel O'Flaherty condemns the blockade as ineffective... mid-paper... the historian taking stock of the event. The Confederates managed to maintain the blockade until the end of the war, while the Union strengthened its navy to compensate for the imbalance in ship maneuverability. If the blockade had proven completely effective, supplies possessed by Confederate soldiers during the war would not have been obtainable through the blockade. It would also distort Civil War history to name the blockade as the primary reason for the South's deterioration, when it only helped resolve existing problems that led to the war's conclusion after the South surrendered. Works Cited Bonner, Michael Brem, and Peter McCord. "Reevaluating the Effectiveness of the Union Blockade in the Civil War." The North Carolina Historical Review (2011): 375-395.O'Flaherty, Daniel. "The blockade failed." American heritage 6.5 (1955).