Confederate States Navy
The Confederate States Navy was the branch of the Confederate States armed forces established by an act of the Confederate Congress on February 21, 1861 responsible for Confederate naval operations during the American Civil War. The two major tasks of the Confederate Navy during the whole of its existence were the protection of Southern harbors and coastlines from outside invasion and making the war extremely costly for the North by attacking merchant ships and breaking the Union Blockade.
History
The initial goal of the Confederate Navy was to establish superiority to, or at least achieve equality with, the Union Navy. In early 1861, both the Confederate and Union navies were equally unimpressive, but, fortunately for the Confederate Navy, they were equal. The Confederate Navy in February, 1861 amounted to a mere ten ships carrying fifteen guns, whereas the North was gifted with ninety vessels, although only about fourteen were fit to fight at sea at the time. As the war progressed, the Confederate Navy would grow with the rising naval conflicts and the threatening naval enemies.
On April 20, 1861, the Union burned its ships that were at the Norfolk Navy Yard, one of only two navy yards located in the South at the time, in order to prevent their capture by the Confederates. The other navy yard was located in Pensacola, Florida, but was mainly intended for repairs, not construction. Some ships survived the burning at Norfolk, including a screw frigate named Merrimack. Secretary Mallory had the idea of raising the Merrimack and armori ng the upper sides with iron plate. The ship became the CSS Virginia, one of the first ironclad ships of the war, that later went on to fight opposite the USS Monitor in the Battle of Hampton Roads.
Creation
The act of the Confederate Congress that created the Confederate Navy on February 21, 1861 also appointed Stephen Mallory as Secretary of the Department of the Navy. Mallory was experienced as an admiralty lawyer in his home state of Florida, and he served for a time as the chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee while he was a United States senator.
Mallory began his career as Navy Secretary by building the Confederate Navy into something formidable enough to achieve the goals it needed to win the war. A Confederate Congress committee, meeting on August 27, 1862, reported:
Before the war but seven steam war vessels had been built in the States forming the Confederacy, and the engines of only two of these had been contracted for in these States. All the labor or materials requisite to complete and equip a war vessel could not be commanded at any one point of the Confederacy.
[The Navy Department] had erected a powder-mill which supplies all the powder required by our navy; two engine, boiler and machine shops, and five ordnance workshops. It has established eighteen yards for building war vessels, and a rope-walk, making all cordage from a rope-yarn to a 9-inch cable, and capable of turning out 8,000 yards per month .... Of vessels not ironclad and converted to war vessels, there were 44. The department has built and completed as war vessels, 12; partially constructed and destroyed to save from the enemy, 10; now under construction, 9; ironclad vessels now in commission, 12; completed and destroyed or lost by capture, 4; in progress of construction and in various stages of forwardness, 23.
In addition to the ships included in the report of the committe, the Navy also had one ironclad floating battery, presented to the Confederate States by the ladies of Georgia, one ironclad ram donated by the State of Alabama, and a numerous amount of privateers making war on Union merchant ships.
Privateers
On April 17, 1861, Confederate President Jefferson Davis invited applications for letters of marque and reprisal to be granted under the seal of the Confederate States, against ships and property of the United States and their citizens:
Now, therefore. I, Jefferson Davis. President of the Confederate States of America, do issue this, my proclamation. inviting all those who may desire, by service in private armed vessels on the high seas, to aid this government in resisting so wanton and wicked an aggression, to make application for commissions or letters of marque and reprisal, to be issued under the seal of these Confederate States...
The President did not feel entirely confident in his executive ability to issue letters of marque, and thus called a special session of Congress on April 29, which would organize legislation allowing for the hire of privateers in the name of the Confederate States. On May 6, the Confederate Congress passed "An act recognizing the existence of war between the United States and the Confederate States, and concerning letters of marque, prizes, and prize goods." And on May 14, 1861 "An act regulating the sale of prizes and the distribution thereof," was also passed. Both acts granted the President the power to issue letters of marque and detailed regulations as to the conditions on which letters of marque should be granted to private vessels, the conduct and behavior of the officers and crews of such vessels, and the disposal of such prizes made by privateer crews. The manner in which Confederate privateers operated was generally similar to those of privateers of the United States or of European nations.
It is worthy to note that the 1856 Declaration of Paris outlawed privateering for such nations as England and France, but the United States had neither signed nor endorsed the declaration. Therefore, the institution of privateering was constitutionally legal in both the United and Confederate States. However, the United States did not acknowledge the Confederate States as an actual nation and in turn denied the legitimacy of any letters of marque issued by the Confederate States government. For this reason, Union President Abraham Lincoln boldly delcared any captured Confederate privateers would be treated as mere pirates and hung.
Initially, Confederate privateers operated mostly out of New Orleans, but activity was soon concentrated in the Atlantic as the United States Navy began increasing its operations. Confederate privateers, throughout the war, were successful in harassing Union merchant ships and delivered a significant blow to the Northern economy.
Ships
One of the more well-known ships was CSS Virginia (a.k.a. "Merrimack"), a ship based on the hull of USS Merrimack, but re-built as an ironclad. In 1862 she fought USS Monitor in the Battle of Hampton Roads, an event that came to symbolize the end of the dominance of large wooden sailing warships.
Another notable vessel was the submarine Hunley, the first submarine to sink a ship in a wartime engagement. She herself sank during the engagement due to causes unknown. She was among the few submarines of the war, and of the few submarines to have existed since the Turtle of the American Revolutionary War.
Confederate raiders were also used to disrupt Union merchant shipping, the most famous of them being the CSS Alabama, a ship made in Britain.
The CSS Shenandoah fired the last shot of the American Civil War in late June 1865, and finally surrendered in early November 1865.
There was a Revolutionary War-era frigate known as USS Confederacy, unrelated to the CSN. There was however a CSS United States, the name of the USS United States in 1861–1862, when she was used by the CSN.
Organization
Between the beginning of the war and the spring of 1862, sixteen captains, thirty-four commanders, and seventy-six lieutenants, together with one hundred and eleven regular and acting midshipmen, had resigned from the United States Navy in order to serve the Confederacy. In order to expand the Navy Department to provide positions for all the new officers and recruits, the Confederate Congress passed the Amendatory Act of April 21, 1862 in which the Confederate Navy was made to account for [quoting the Amendatory Act itself]:
Four admirals, 10 captains, 81 commanders, 100 first lieutenants, second lieutenants, 20 masters, in line of promotion; 12 paymasters, 40 assistant. paymasters, 22 surgeons, 15 passed assistant surgeons, 30 assistant surgeons, 1 engineer-in-chief, and 12 engineers.
That all the admirals, 4 of the captains, 5 of the commanders, of the first lieutenants and 5 of the second lieutenants shall be appointed solely for gallant or meritorious conduct during the war. The appointments shall be made from the grade immediately below the one to be filled and without reference to the rank of the officer in such grade, and the service for which the appointment shall be conferred shall be specified in the commission. Provided, that all officers below the grade of second lieutenant may be promoted more than one grade for the same service.
Administration
By July 20, 1861, the Confederate government had organized the administrative positions of the Confederate Navy as follows:
- Stephen R. Mallory - Secretary of the Navy
- Commodore Samuel Barron - Chief of the Bureau of Orders and Detail
- Commander George Minor - Chief of Ordnance and Hydrography
- Paymaster John DeBree - Chief of Provisions and Clothing
- Surg. W. A. W. Spottswood - Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
- Edward M. Tidball - Chief Clerk
See also
References
- Luraghi, Raymond. A History of the Confederate Navy, Naval Institute Press, 1996, ISBN 1557505276.
- http://www.civilwarhome.com/navalwar.htm
Notes
External links
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