  Naval affairs were among the most critical problems facing each side in 1861. The Federal navy was woefully small and widely scattered. Moreover, the Confederate seacoast extended 3,500 miles from the Chesapeake Bay to the Mexican border. It contained hundreds of inlets, bays, and river openings. Not even a drastically enlarged Federal navy could patrol so vast a region. Lincoln and his Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, soon devised an effective plan. The North would weaken the Confederacy by blockading its chief ports—Norfolk, New Bern, Wilmington, Beaufort, Charleston, Savannah, Pensacola, Mobile, New Orleans, and Galveston. A former Hartford, Conn., newspaper editor, Sec. of the Navy Gideon Welles was one of the more industrious and loyal members of Lincoln’s cabinet. His Confederate counterpart, Stephen R. Mallory of Florida, was one of only two men who remained in Davis’s cabinet throughout the war. Lincoln accordingly proclaimed a blockade shortly after war began. Several months passed before Federal Squadrons could begin to enforce this blockade. Yet the Federal ring of ships became increasingly stronger as the war progressed. As a result, Federal forces were able to peck away at Southern coastal defenses. In 1861 Union amphibious forces captured Fort Hatteras, N. C., and Port Royal, S. C. During the next year Roanoke Island, N. C., New Bern, N. C., Fort Pulaski, Ga., Fort Macon, N. C., New Orleans, La., and Pensacola, Fla., fell into Federal hands in that order. The Confederates rallied in 1863 and managed to hold their remaining coastal works, particularly Charleston, S. C. Northern fleets continued to apply pressure all along the Southern coast. Two engagements marked the effectiveness of coastal attacks. On August 5, 1864, Admiral David Farragut—the greatest naval figure produced by the war—led his Federal squadron into mine-infested Mobile Bay with the battle cry: “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” Farragut so neutralized this last Confederate port on the Gulf of Mexico that its surrender was an anticlimax. Then, five months later, on January 15, 1865, Federal forces stormed and captured Fort Fisher, N. C., the last great Southern defense on the Atlantic coast. David G. Farragut’s exploits in the Civil War made him the first man in American naval history elevated to the rank of full admiral. Federal navies also saw much service on the Mississippi River. A wide assortment of Federal vessels campaigned against such Confederate strongholds as Memphis, Tenn., and Vicksburg, Miss. Some were little more than steamboats converted into warships by means of steel plating and deck guns. Others were sailing craft, with high decks and tall masts. One new type of gunboat made its appearance on the Mississippi: the steel ram. Designed by a civilian engineer, Charles Ellet, Jr., this little ship had great speed and maneuverability. Its principal weapon was a heavy prow, which was used to sink a ship by striking it broadside. Ellet’s steam rams had no guns and little beauty, but by their speed they opened the Mississippi past Memphis for Federal movements. The Confederacy was born without a navy. Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory was never able to develop a fleet that could contest the ever-increasing Federal navy. Lack of funds, lack of shipbuilding facilities, and effective Northern diplomacy overseas restricted Confederate efforts to privateers, to blockade-running, and for the most part, to undertakings by individual ships. Most of the twenty Confederate raiders achieved a measure of fame and success before they were destroyed. For example, the C.S.S. Florida, under Capt. John Newland Maffitt, captured thirty-four ships before In their famous battle, the Alabama (right) and Kearsage circled and fired for an hour at a range of 900 yards. The Alabama sank after many direct hits. The most famous Civil War contest between ships occurred March 9, 1862, in Hampton Roads, Va. The Confederates had raised from the bottom of Norfolk harbor the Federal warship, Merrimac. John Mercer Brooke and John L. Porter had then converted the craft into an ironclad vessel which the Confederates rechristened the Virginia. Sloping iron plates four inches thick protected her decks. The ironclad carried a battering ram weighing 1,500 pounds, plus ten guns. On March 8 the Virginia steamed into Hampton Roads. She easily destroyed two wooden Federal warships and ran a third aground. The Monitor (left) was the creation of Swedish-born John Ericsson, who had difficulty in selling his strange vessel to the Federal navy. The re-christened Merrimac (right) carried more guns, but so difficult was the ship to maneuver that it required 30 minutes to turn it around. On the following day, however, the North came forward with a revolutionary weapon of its own. This was the Monitor, so weird-looking Two months later, trapped in Hampton Roads, the Virginia was run aground and destroyed. In December, 1862, the Monitor went down in an Atlantic storm near the North Carolina coast. The Confederates made several notable innovations in the field of naval warfare. One was an ironclad ram that had the appearance and characteristics of a monster. This was the Arkansas, which the Confederates somehow put together in the summer of 1862 to combat Federal ships on the Mississippi. Constructed of wood, railroad rails, wire, and bits and pieces of iron collected from all over the South, the Arkansas scattered several Federal gunboats, created panic on the Mississippi, and managed to survive a heavy Federal bombardment near Vicksburg. At Baton Rouge, however, the ironclad’s engines failed. The ram’s commander, Lieutenant H. K. Stevens, ordered the helpless ship destroyed. The Arkansas enjoyed only one month of action; yet Federal Admiral David Farragut called the end of the Arkansas “one of the happiest moments of my life.” The Confederacy also had the first submarine of modern design. Built in 1863 at Mobile, the H. L. Hunley was named for its inventor. In the process of its trial runs, the thirty-five-foot vessel sank four times and drowned as many crews. Nevertheless, the Hunley was borne overland to Charleston, S. C., to campaign against a fleet of Federal blockaders. On the night of February 17, 1864, the little submarine torpedoed and sank the Federal warship, Housatonic. But the Hunley and its fifth crew of seven men perished in the explosion. This Official U. S. Navy photograph shows the Confederate torpedo boat David aground in Charleston harbor. Semi-submersible, the David is often called a submarine. In addition to the submarine, Confederates also developed the water mine and the torpedo boat. The latter was a small vessel, propelled by a steam engine. It drifted along the surface of the water and attacked enemy ships with a torpedo suspended from a long spar. The first of these torpedo boats, the David, appeared in But such innovations could not overcome the constant and painful pressure of large Federal fleets all along the Southern coast. So vital were the navies to the Northern war effort, James G. Randall wrote, “that Union victory without the naval contribution seems inconceivable.” SUGGESTED READINGS
Young boys known as “Powder Monkeys” served on almost every warship in the Civil War. This little sailor stands on the deck of the U.S.S. New Hampshire. |
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