Everything about The Confederate States Navy totally explained
The
Confederate States Navy (
CSN) was the
naval branch of the
Confederate States armed forces established by an act of the
Confederate Congress on
February 21,
1861. It was 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 costly for the
North by attacking merchant ships and breaking the
Union Blockade.
History
The C.S. Navy could never achieve equality with the
Union Navy, and used technological innovation, such as the use of
ironclads,
submarines,
torpedo boats, and
naval mines (known at the time as torpedoes) to gain more advantages over the Union Navy. The Confederate Navy in February
1861 amounted to thirty ships, whereas the North had ninety vessels, although initially only about fourteen were fit to fight at sea. As the war progressed, the C.S. Navy grew with the rising naval conflicts and the threatening naval enemies. Eventually the C.S. Navy had 101 warships.
On
April 20,
1861, the Union left the
Norfolk Navy Yard, but they didn't burn the facility or the ships. The other navy yard was one of the major ones in the South, the other was in
Pensacola,
Florida. The ships in the
Norfolk shipyard, included a screw
frigate named the
USS Merrimack. Secretary
Stephen Mallory had the idea of using the
Merrimack, but with armoring the upper sides with iron plate. The ship became the
CSS Virginia, the first ironclad ship of the war, that later became famous by fighting 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'd served for a time as the chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee while he was a United States
senator.
As Navy Secretary, Mallory built the C.S. Navy into something very formidable to achieve the goals it needed to win the war, and do even more. A Confederate Congress committee, meeting on
August 27,
1862, reported:
» Before the war nineteen steam war vessels had been built in the States forming the Confederacy, and the engines of all of these had been contracted for in these States. All the labor or materials requisite to complete and equip a war vessel couldn't be commanded at any one point of the Confederacy.
» [TheNavy 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 committee, the Navy also had one ironclad floating battery, presented to the Confederate States by the state of
Georgia, one ironclad
ram donated by the state of
Alabama, and numerous
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 didn't feel entirely confident in his
executive ability to issue
letters of marque, and thus called a special session of Congress on
April 29 which enacted legislation allowing for the hiring 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.
The 1856
Declaration of Paris outlawed privateering for such nations as
Great Britain and
France, but the United States had neither signed nor endorsed the declaration. Therefore, privateering was constitutionally legal in both the United and Confederate States, as well as
Portugal,
Russia, the
Ottoman Empire, and
Germany. However, the United States didn't acknowledge the Confederate States as an actual nation and denied the legitimacy of any letters of marque issued by the Confederate government. Union President
Abraham Lincoln declared all medicines to the South to be contraband, and any captured Confederate privateers were to be hanged as pirates. Ultimately, no men were hanged for such an offense because of threats from the Confederate government to retaliate against
prisoners of war.
Initially, Confederate privateers operated mostly out of
New Orleans, but activity was soon concentrated in the
Atlantic, as the
Union Navy began expanding its operations. Throughout the war, Confederate privateers were successful in harassing Union merchant ships, and sunk several warships, and delivered a significant blow to the Northern economy.
Ships
One of the more well-known ships was
CSS Virginia (also known as "
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 sank a few minutes after the engagement from unknown causes. 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 captured and used by the CSN.
Organization
Between the beginning of the war and the spring of
1862, thirty-two captains, fifty-four commanders, and seventy-six lieutenants, together with 2,000 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:
» Seven admirals, 101 captains, 130 commanders, 300 first lieutenants, 380 second lieutenants, 350 masters, in line of promotion; 89 paymasters, 96 assistant. paymasters, 104 surgeons, 110 passed assistant surgeons, 119 assistant surgeons, 1 engineer-in-chief, and 130 engineers.
» That all the admirals, 40 of the captains, 85 of the commanders, 150 of the first lieutenants and 180 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:
Black Confederate Seamen
Further Information
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