Consequently, Du Pont and his colleagues issued six primary and four supplemental reports detailing the Confederate coast and the significant rivers, harbors and inlets along it. They determined which areas could be blocked and which could be turned into bases for the fleet in order to enhance the Navy's ability to shut off access to ports. The panel described the water, the land, the population and the value of landing points along the Confederacy's coast. Their report formed the basis for future strategic naval actions and amphibious operations against the Confederates.

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The first Northern success resulting from the recommendations of the board was the assault and capture of Cape Hatteras, N.C., on April 27, 1861. Seven warships, under the command of Flag Officer Silas H. Stringham, shelled the two forts protecting Hatteras Inlet into submission. Major General Benjamin Butler's 900 soldiers then occupied the works. That action was followed two weeks later by the U.S. Navy's seizure of Ship Island off Biloxi, Miss.

The Union then began planning another attack on the Confederacy's South Atlantic coast. The exact point of attack was not specified during the planning stages, in keeping with the Blockade Board's view that 'the simple putting to sea of such a force, if it were only to return to its port, would cause general alarm, and the Gulf States could no longer permit their troops to swell the armies of Virginia. The force thus organized, after being, by frequent embarkations and disembarkations, used as a means of threat, and thus perfectly drilled to its intended service, might at last be permitted to strike its blow. Whether at New Orleans, or Mobile, or Pensacola, or Savannah, or Port Royal, or that focus of rebellion–the scene of the great indignity offered our flag–Charleston, might be decided at the last moment.'

In the late summer of 1861, Du Pont was given the title of flag officer and placed in command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. An impressive and aloof 45-year-old veteran of the Mexican War, Du Pont had previously participated in long, drawn-out blockade actions off the California coast during that conflict and knew from personal experience how difficult they were to manage, coordinate and maintain. He was also well versed in the rigors of independent command.

Du Pont set about organizing an expedition to seize a harbor to use as a base for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. The target of the expedition was to be either Bull's Bay, S.C., or Fernandina, Fla. Brigadier General Thomas W. Sherman was ordered to work with Du Pont and organize a 12,000-man infantry force that would take and hold the harbor's points of land once its protecting forts had been reduced by naval gunfire.

At the start of the Civil War, the U.S. Navy stood in the doorway between two maritime eras–that of wood and sail, and that of iron and steam. The threshold was symbolized by Du Pont's flagship, Wabash, whose combination of wooden sides, steam engine and 44-gun battery consisting of the most powerful rifled ordnance in history represented both the advantages and the weaknesses facing the Navy. Du Pont understood the need for new tactics. He was skeptical, however, regarding the concepts of ironclads and monitors. The upcoming operation would allow him to test modern naval tactics that took advantage of advanced weaponry and the increased maneuverability provided by steam power.

As indicated in an October letter to Henry Winter Davis, a longtime friend and mentor, Du Pont was concerned about the planning for the expedition. 'I shall have some twenty men-of-war, small and weak some of them, but others very suitable, and if we could have commenced a couple of weeks earlier, I would have had an efficient squadron,' he noted. 'We will make it answer however. To form simple lines of sailing and to establish the proper signals with such a number of transports unused to these things, to avoid separation and collision, to see to the transshipment over the bays, and the landing of such a number of men under fire, in all probability, are matters which occupy me a good deal as you may suppose–but it must go right.'

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