Navy, Confederate

Navy, Confederate, was established by act of the Confederate Congress on 21 February 1861. On the same day, President Jefferson Davis appointed S. R. Mallory secretary of the Confederate navy. By an act of 21 April 1862 the navy was to consist of four admirals, ten captains, thirty-one commanders, and a specified number of subaltern officers. The naval service consisted of three main classes, including ships that served inland waters and commissioned cruisers to harass Union commerce and privateers. Before the outbreak of hostilities, Raphael Semmes was sent North to purchase ships and materials. No ships were secured but some materials were. Two U.S. shipyards fell to the Confederacy—one when the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk, Virginia, was abandoned and the other when the yard at Pensacola, Florida, was seized. All shipping in the Norfolk yard had been destroyed, but the Confederates raised the hull of the Merrimac and converted it into an ironclad ram. The Pensacola yard was of little value. On 9 May 1861 Mallory commissioned James D. Bulloch to go to England to secure ships for the Confederacy. Bulloch had some success, contriving to secure several ships that did much damage, as Confederate cruisers, to U.S. commerce.

The Confederacy had ample naval personnel, as 321 officers had resigned from the U.S. Navy by 1 June 1861 and tendered their services. Lack of all necessary facilities, however, and the increasing effectiveness of the Union blockade presented grave obstacles to the building of a Confederate navy. The Confederacy is credited with introducing the ironclad vessel, which revolutionized naval warfare. Confederates also contributed to perfecting the torpedo.

Bibliography

Fowler, William M. Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War. New York: Norton, 1990.

Luraghi, Raimondo. A History of the Confederate Navy. Annapolis, Md.:Naval Institute Press, 1996.

Silverstone, Paul H. Civil War Navies, 1855–1883. Annapolis, Md.:Naval Institute Press, 2001.