Or, perhaps it is interesting to listen to our Northern friends on these threads "bleat" (that is your word; I would be more polite) about something and get it wrong. Again.
Umm ... it wasn't actually a blockade, rockrr, though Northern papers called it a blockade (biased journalism, anyone?). It was an inspection of boats traversing the Mississippi River right after Mississippi seceded to make sure the boats didn't contain federal soldiers and munitions to be used against the newly seceded Mississippi.
Given Buchanan's attempt shortly before to smuggle into Fort Sumter 200 armed soldiers hiding below decks in the commercial ship, Star of the West, and concerns that the feds might similarly try to stop Mississippi, the governor set up a battery on the river and a place for boats to pull over to be inspected. Boats pulled over, and their cargos were inspected. Then the boats were allowed to proceed. No soldiers or munitions were found and the battery was removed after a few days.
One boat, the A. O. Tyler, did not stop and a warning shot was fired. Then it pulled over to a wharf-boat. Here is a link to the story the captain of the A. O. Tyler told in a Cleveland newspaper: [Link- scroll down to an article below the red mark].
If that is a blockade, then I have been stopped by a customs blockade every time I return to the states from overseas. They let me proceed after a brief stop and rarely even inspect my stuff.
From The Weekly Whig of Vicksburg on January 30, 1861:
Navigation of the Mississippi -- ... The navigation of the Mississippi is not and has never been obstructed by this State, and the State Convention has unanimously decided that it shall not be, except for purposes of absolute self defence.
“You say tomato, I say tomäto” eh rusty? I could recount a lost causer axiom about “the hit dog howls” but I would be more polite.
They had no business “inspecting”. That was the job of the US Navy or the Coast Guard. So, OK - if it was acceptable for insurrectionists to be “inspecting” on the Mississippi, then it should also be entirely acceptable for an established and legitimate organization such as the US Navy to be “inspecting” outside of the Charleston Harbor.