1. Sea Power and Maritime Affairs
                                             
Lesson 5: The Civil War, : Two Navies

2. Learning Objectives
Comprehend the role of the Union Navy in the strategy for the defeat of the Confederacy.
Comprehend the role of the Confederate Navy in the strategy for the defeat of the Union.
Know the reasons for vital importance of acquisition of European allies in the South’s Naval Strategy.
Know the innovations in naval weapons and technology that emerged during the Civil War.

3. Remember our Themes! The Navy as an Instrument of Foreign Policy
Interaction between Congress and the Navy
Interservice Relations
Technology
Leadership
Strategy and Tactics
Evolution of Naval Doctrine
You’ll see the beginning of all of these

4. Background of the War

5. War between the States
Dispute between slave and free states over status of western territories.
Missouri Compromise
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Dred Scott Decision
Southern states secede after Lincoln elected in 1860.
Confederate States of America established - Feb 1861.
Status of federal territory in the Confederacy in question.
Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina:
Attacked by Confederate forces on April 12, 1861.
Missouri Compromise, Henry Clay, Connecticut: admits Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state and dividing the rest of the Louisiana Purchase into a slave area in the South and a free area in the North.
Kansas-Nebraska Act, May 30, 1854: provided that settlers in the newly created territories of Kansas and Nebraska should decid whether to have slavery or not. It nullified the Missouri Compromise and greatly increased tensions which led to the Civil War.
Dred Scott Decision, 1857: Supreme Court Decision that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery; ultimately nullified by the 13th and 14th amendments.

6. Fort Sumter

7. Naval Comparison

8. A Navy Divided Franklin Buchanan Matthew Fontaine Maury Raphael Semmes
David Glasgow Farragut
David Dixon Porter
John Ericcson
John Dahlgren
Charles Wilkes
Samuel F. DuPont
Franklin Buchanan
Matthew Fontaine Maury
Raphael Semmes
Division of Naval talent; US got the lion’s share

9. Balance of Naval Power North South Naval Yards 4 Ship Builders 4
Industrial Base 4
Number of Ships 4
Leadership 4
North had higher population, more and diversified exports, more shipyards, more heavy industry, more transportation (railroads)
South was more agricultural - tobacco and cotton - slavery made them profitable because so labor-intensive
North had the advantage:
Yards
Builders
Ind Base
Ships
Leaders - very salty leaders in the Navy at this time
- at first, lots of questions as to whose side they would take
- although several able commanders joined Conf. Navy, the majority stayed loyal to the Union
South had a strong military tradition; sent a lot of people to West Point in the great state of New York. North had the bulk of Naval experience

10. Common Operational Heritage Union and Confederate Navies
War of 1812 — Coastal defense and commerce raiding:
Fighting from an inferior position against an enemy that has “command of the sea”.
— Global deployments:
Protection of American maritime commerce overseas.
— Mexican-American War
U.S. Navy controls the seas throughout the war.
Ports established on the Pacific Coast.
*** War of lessons learned from coastal defense against British
*** Importance of protecting merchant shipping during war - ability to raid enemy commerce -
*** Offensive power projection - amphibious assault of Vera Cruz
Pacific Ports - increased trade with Orient - opening of Japan
*** After Crimean War France and esp. Britain realize the need for armor to counter shells and steam power needed for mobility - Am Navy falls behind, but still many experience mariners due to thriving merchant marine

11. Naval Comparison The Confederate Navy The Union Navy
Inferior naval strength.
U.S. Navy traditions prior to the Mexican-American War - Defensive.
Coastal defense.
Commerce raiding (Guerre de course).
The Union Navy
Superior naval strength built up throughout the war.
Royal Navy traditions and U.S. Navy traditions in the Mexican-American War - Offensive.
Establish control of sea lines of communication.
Blockade of enemy coast.
Power projection through amphibious assault.
Defend Conf territory
Decrease Union commerce - although Union very sufficient compared to the Conf
War of Attrition - hold out long enough and Union will leave them alone
Union blockade of Atlantic and Gulf ports
Power Projection:
1. Blockade Bases
2. Mississipi River campaign
part of overall Union strategy to “strangle” the South to cut off Texas, Ark, and Louisiana from the rest of the states and allow free movements of Union armies deep into Southern terr.

12. Diplomacy

13. Diplomacy for the North
Keep Great Britain truly neutral
Reconcile the blockade of Southern ports with British freedom of trade.
Problem: Strong pro-Confederacy sentiment in important segments of British policy-making elites.
*** Keep Britain from recognizing Confederacy as sovereign state
- need a real blockade, not a paper blockade so that Britain obey
*** Maybe can get Brit support if cotton shipments cut off
Problems with King Cotton - large inventory in Eur, Egypt and India production increased
Needed victories to show the Brits they would win militarily, but even with many victories, outcome of war still uncertain due to Union strength
*** Only time Br almost entered war
Brit ship Trent captured by CAPT Charles Wilkesin San Jacinto - knew about two Conf diplomats aboard - violated neutral rights of Br ship - same type of beef US had w/ Br during War of 1812
- all apologies made by Lincoln who said it was not govt sanctioned

14. Diplomacy for the South
Win British recognition and naval aid.
Problems:
War is viewed as a rebellion - not a conflict between sovereign states.
Outcome of the war is uncertain.
Diplomatic inexperience and a weak State Department.
Fallacy of the "King Cotton" thesis.
Slavery
1861- The “Trent Affair”
Union Navy violates neutral rights of British ship.
The slavery issue
Trent Affair
Closest the Confederates ever came to winning outright British support
US warship “San Jacinto” detained Trent and seized two Confederate commissioners onboard.
Great Britain, outraged by this violation of its neutrality, deliberated a declaration of war against the union.
US disavowed the act and released the Confederate prisoners

15. Outcome of Diplomacy Ultimately a Failure
Naval Agent James Bulloch gets that aid
- Commerce raiders (Alabama, Florida, Shenandoah)
- Blockade Runners
- Laird rams (clearly warships; blockade breakers)
Battle of Antietam (September 1862), Emancipation Proclamation, and Charles F. Adams’ protests end aid.
Battle of Antietam gave Lincoln the victory he needed to announce Emancipation Proclamation
Initially, Europe worried proclamation would affect cotton supply
Ended British support due to massive public opinion swing in America’s favor

16. Strategy
19 June 1864

17. Union Naval Strategy
Part of General Winfield Scott’s master “Anaconda Plan” for victory.
Blockade the entire Confederate coast.
Capture Southern ports for coal, water, food: bombardment and amphibious assaults.
Control of Mississippi River.
Vital line of communication for Confederacy.
Cut off Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.
Riverine operations in western areas.
Combined Army-Navy operations against Confederate forces.
Union Army -- Capture Confederate capital at Richmond.
Anaconda Plan: cordoning off the Confederacy with a tight naval blockade while advancing with an army of perhaps 85,000 down the Mississippi River from southern Illinois
Plan had some merit, but it rested on the remarkable assumption that the Confederate army in Virginia (> 100,000 men) would remain idle while the Union forces were advancing in the West

18. Confederate Naval Strategy
Part of overall strategy of “Attrition Warfare”.
Army will defend territory and threaten Washington.
Coastal defense:
Army forts and new naval weapons systems.
Blockade-running:
Attempt to continue commercial trade with Europe.
Operations hurt by Southerners’ desires for luxury goods.
Union blockade’s increasing effectiveness increases profits.
Commerce raiding:
Successful cruises divert Union ships from blockade duty.
Privateers (1861):
Declaration of Paris
Unable to secure prize courts (sovereignty problems).
*** armaments from Norfolk dispersed to Conf ports
*** lusury goods cut into war necessitities
The blockade were entrepreneurs, they’d run whatever brought in the most cash
*** Privateers - only a player early in the war
Dec of Paris makes privateering illegal in eyes of Br and Fr -
nowhere to take prizes because of blockade
more money in blockade running
Commerce raiding different- though not ultimately effective

19. Naval Administration in the North
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles
Rapid and massive ship-building program.
Only 42 ships at the beginning of the war.
264 commissioned by December, 1861
Convened Ironclad Board, August 1861, to combat Virginia
*** Lincoln appoints Welles as Sec Nav - good dude
chaos at first as states seceded
8 Bureaus now instead of 5 - made it more efficient
7 March 1861, Gideon Welles assumed the secretaryship of the Navy
264 vessels in commission by December 1861
need to make the blockade legal
New ships - massive building program in order to man the blockade of the South - use of new technologies - Dahlgren guns, steam, screws props, armor
Ironclad board: we’ll get to the ironclads later

20. Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles

21. Naval Administration in the South
Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory
Confederacy issues letters of marque to privateers.
Attempts to use new technology to gain advantage.
Conversion of older ships to armored “ironclads”.
Re-emergence of the ram as a naval weapon.
South immediately began to issue letters of Marque to privateers
Union regarded these as pirates
Paris Declaration of 1854, which we had refused to sign, said privateering was illegal
Mallory had been chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee in the US Senate; new about new technologies; thought he could get an edge
Ram- became very popular even after the war; torpedoes made them obsolete

22. Naval Administration in the South (cont’d)
James Bulloch attempts to gain British aid.
Coordinates construction of warships in Great Britain.
Questions of legality for a neutral power (Great Britain)
Antietam (September 1862), Emancipation Proclamation, and Union protests end aid.
James Bulloch- naval agent to London
Diplomatically savvy
Gets far with Britain until Antietam

23. Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory

24. Naval Operations and Important Battles

25. Early Naval Operations
Norfolk Navy Yard
Largest naval base and arsenal in the United States.
Captured by Confederate forces on 21 April.
USS Merrimack scuttled by retreating Union forces.
Large number of guns captured by Confederates.
Union blockade of the Confederacy:
“Paper Blockade” needs to become real as soon as possible.
Forward bases required for an effective blockade.
Amphibious operations launched to seize bases in the South.
*** Conf states declare independence and claim right of eminent domain over federal bases on their turf -
S Carolina leader of secessionist states - series of forts protecting Charleston harbor -
- Union forces retreat into Fort Sumter and surrender - april 1861
- Lincoln mobilizes the militia therefore causing Virginia and several other states to secede and join the Confederacy
*** Norfolk now in jeopardy
- largest Union naval base
- captured by Rebs after failed attempt to destroy munitions - capture the USS Merrimac as well as huge arsenal used to defend ports - more to come

26. Battle of Port Royal
Attempt to establish first Union base on Confederate territory at Port Royal Sound -- 7 November 1861.
Commodore Stephen F. DuPont
Superior naval gunfire:
Directed against Confederate forts defending the Sound.
Confederates abandon forts.
Union soldiers and Marines land unopposed.
Other Union amphibious operations will resemble Port Royal operation.
77 ships
- 11 deep draft warships, assortment of small, hastily built gunboats, more than thirty transports loaded with 16,000 army soldiers
neutralized the Sound’s two earthen forts with gunfire from 46 gun steam frigate Wabash
Confederates fled, Union soldiers landed without oppositoin

27. USS Port Royal
Based in Hawaii
Ensign Ford going to this boat

28. Battle of Hampton Roads
First engagement between two ironclad ships
“The Monitor and the Merrimack”

29. CSS Virginia USS Merrimack raised at Norfolk.
Iron armor and ram added by Confederate Navy.
Renamed Virginia and commanded by Franklin Buchanan.
Defeats conventional Union ships on 8 March 1862.
Union soldiers scuttle Merrimack on retreat from Norfolk Shipyards
USS Merrimack - raised and rebuilt as ironclad
1 fore and 1 aft gun with several along the side
Heads out into the Chesapeake and starts punching holes in the wooden blockade ships

30. Franklin Buchanan Confederate States Navy Commanding Officer of CSS Virginia at the Battle of Hampton Roads.

31. USS Monitor Welles’ Ironclad Board John Ericcson’s Monitor
Highly armored with low freeboard.
Single turret mounting two Dahlgren guns.
Moved to Norfolk area to engage Virginia.
Pounded each other for four hours
Tactical draw but a strategic Union victory - Confederate Navy unable to break the blockade of Norfolk.
Union hears about this and picks John Ericcson’s Monitor design (Princeton) - first screw propelled ironclad
- low freeboard
- turret with two Dahlgren guns
-armored
- screw powered
- LT John Worden
- neither any good in open ocean, especially Monitor
-but Monitor has a smaller draft to Virginia’s
- Union controls north, Conf south
- sinks Union ships at anchor in Hampton Roads
- next day Monitor arrives under tow from NY - Minn grounded - protection
- six hour duel ends as Monitor gets the advantage due to maneuverability in shoal water, but a lucky shot hits inside the turret
- both ships withdraw
- Norfolk eventually forced to be abandoned by Conf forces - Monitor blown up, and Monitor sinks in heavy weather off the capes later in the year - more Monitors though - two turrets, etc.

33. USS Monitor versus CSS Virginia
9 March 1862

34. John Ericcson
“Monitor” design is improved and used to produce large numbers of ships for the Union Navy necessary for the assault of Confederate coasts and ports.

37. Three Theaters Great Inland Rivers Atlantic and Gulf Coasts Blue Water
Mississippi River Basin
Vicksburg
Mobile Bay
Atlantic and Gulf Coasts
Fort Fisher
Blue Water
CSS Alabama
Remaining battles separated into three main theaters

38. Inland River Campaigns
Combined Union Army - Navy offensives
Goal: Control of the Mississippi River
Navy gunboats and transports used to support Army
Union forces advance down Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers to the Mississippi
Anaconda Plan - Winfield Scott
control Miss - Union commerce from NW and cut off
Ulysses Grant in command
David Glasgow Farragut in command in south - first Rear Admiral
- served under David Porter on Essex in War of 1812 as a MIDN
- proves his leadership capabilities in western campaign
Foote in North - eventually will link up
Vicksburg falls to Union siege - Navy lines of communication from north
New Orleans captured - Porter under Farragut
used mortar boats
Red River - unsuccessful Union campaign into Louisiana - poor coordination

39. Capture of New Orleans Flag Officer David G. Farragut commanding
Commander David Dixon Porter
Tried to mortar bomb Fort Jackson and St. Philip into submission
knocked a whole in the wall
Farragut charged through and took the city
Congress makes him an Admiral
Porter was to take out Fort Jackson and St. Philip with mortar boats.
Didn’t succeed,
but two gunboats commanded by Captain Henry H. Bell cut a narrow path through the massive log obstruction the Confederates had placed in the river
16 July, Congress created the rank of rear admiral to honor Farragut for capturing the South’s major entrepot and the gateway to the Mississippi

40. Mortar Boats

41. Siege of Vicksburg
Vicksburg the big obstacle to dominance of the Mississippi
Porter ferried Grant’s troops across to the east bank of the river, south of the fort
Grant takes the fort from the rear
Surrender on 4 July 1863
Naval support: gunfire, troop transport, and logistical reinforcement

42. Siege of Vicksburg

43. David Dixon Porter
Siege of Vicksburg

44. Battle of Mobile Bay Union fleet commanded by David Glasgow Farragut.
Confederate fleet commanded by Franklin Buchanan.
Entrance to Mobile Bay heavily defended.
Torpedo buoys placed in entrance to the Bay.
Guns of Fort Morgan defend only open channel.
Union fleet outnumbers and outguns the Confederate fleet waiting in Mobile Bay.
Farragut positions “monitors” between the rest of his fleet and Fort Morgan.
Brooklyn’s captain stops and blocks the channel.
“Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”
M. F Maury
Proponent of the use of “torpedoes” to defend Confederate ports.
Torpedoes - floating containers of explosives anchored to the bottom
Tecumseh, a monitor, hits torpedo and goes down; eighty out of the hundred crew die.
The sloop, Brooklyn, goes dead in the water. Farragut’s famous line.
Buchanan on the Tennessee, a Virginia class, goes after Farragut on the Hartford, when he could have gone after some of the smaller ships.
Hartford and monitors beat the crap out of the Tenessee.

45. Torpedo
Wooden keg filled with black powder with a contact fuse anchored in port channels.

46. David Glasgow Farragut
Battle of
Mobile Bay
“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

47. Battle of Mobile Bay
5 August 1864

48. Fort Fisher The seaward protector of Wilmington, NC
railhead to Richmond supplies Lee’s Army
Highly-defended by Confederate guns.

49. Fort Fisher Combined Union Army-Navy operation.
Union fleet commanded by David Dixon Porter.
First assault fails - Christmas 1864.
Second Assault
Sailors and Marines attack the fort with Army forces.
Only successful amphibious assault against a heavily defended fort.
Heavy, constant, targeted naval gunfire necessary for success.
David Dixon Porter is commander
- Farragut declines due to battle fatigue
Porter is to soften the fort with naval gunfire so the army can sweep in under General Benjamin F. Butler
Christmas assault fails when Butler says the navy has softened them up enough
He’s sacked, and Brigadier General Alfred H. Terry is brought in.
They try again two weeks later, and are sucessful.
Wilmington is in Union hands; lee is cut off

50. Confederate Commerce Raiders
Highly successful in the disruption of Union maritime commerce.
Captain Raphael Semmes
CSS Sumter
CSS Alabama
Captures 68 Union vessels.
Sunk at Cherbourg, France in duel with USS Kearsarge.
*** best Conf Navy officer - wreaked havoc on Union commerce
*** Sumter - snuck out of New Orleans
*** Alabama - most famous raider from Bulloch in Britain
- Semmes takes command
- would capture crew, take the good stuff, then burn baby burn - no intl. recognition of confederacy, so no prize courts in foreign ports and southern ports blockaded
- all over N Atlantic and Caribbean captures 68 Union vessels
- finally caught in port in Cherbourg France (D-Day), Kearsarge sinks her off the coast - last duel between sailing ships
- also Florida and Shenandoah are very effective early in the war
- large dents made in Union commerce -
Popularized by the Navy because it was the only solitary naval action; Mahan preached against Alabama at War College

51. Captain Raphael Semmes
CSS Alabama

52. CSS Alabama - Commerce Raiding Route

53. CSS Alabama

54. Raphael Semmes

55. Tactical Trends in the Civil War
Introduction of “ironclads”:
Strengths: Heavily armored for coastal assault.
Weaknesses: Low mobility on the open ocean.
Question of a fleet's ability to suppress coastal fortifications unanswered.
Appreciation for combined (Army-Navy) operations.
Proper planning and coordination essential for success.
*** Iron Clads good in certain conditions - but technology not yet available to make them into blue-water fleet type ships
*** Needed combined ops in many cases to take Southern ports, no consensus on this matter - more later in WW II with Galipoli
*** Combined amphibious ops on rivers and coasts - important to coordinate efforts
Alabama the only stand-alone action

56. Overall Technological Advances

57. Technological Innovation
North — Monitor Class
Combination of steam, screw, armor, and a gun turret.
Large numbers built.
“Dahlgren Guns” effective at close range.
Gives Union Navy the advantage on coastal and inland waterways.
South
CSS Virginia -- Steam power and iron armor.
The “Davids”
CSS Hunley - submarine.
“Torpedoes”
“Laird” rams.
*** Most ships built were combo steam/sail with Dahlgren guns - some with armor, some without, nothing new here
Monitors - truly innovative, low freeboard, gun turret
BUT - no good in open ocean, only in coastal and inland waterways
Still with the Dahlgren gun.
***
- USS Virginia captured at Norfolk and rebuilt as CSS Virginia - other iron clads built, but outmatched by Monitors - improved this design - CSS Tennessee at Mobile - surrenders to Farragut at end of battle
- Submarines - never wholly submerged, spar with a mine at the end
Hunley a true sub, but unsuccessful after drowning a couple crews
What is a torpedo??? Civil War = mine
Laird - Brit company’s design of an underwater ram incorporated on Southern vessels - mainly used for coastal defense - not extremely expensive

58. CSS Hunley

59. Conclusions
Decline of U.S. Merchant Marine due in large to the obsolescent sailing vessels used.
Northern success in application of British-like offensive naval warfare
PLUS
Failure of Southern commerce raiding to win the war at sea = QUESTION:
Will American naval officers still regard commerce raiding as the proper strategy in time of war ???????
The “Alabama Claims” cause a lasting diplomatic debate with Great Britain.
*** - Inaccurate conclusions made ??? -- Mahan next week -- Will talk much more about commerce raiding in WW I and II when the submarine comes into play until 1890’s this is the general consensus
*** - Alabama claims - leftover from the war - some Brit ports had allowed prizes from the Alabama to use facilities - not settled until 1872
*** US argues against legal blockade during preludes to the two world wars -
Steam ship tactics

60. Conclusions
Union blockade sets a precedent that that Woodrow Wilson finds inconvenient in
Joint Navy-Army Operations reach an unprecedented level of high efficiency on the Mississippi River.
Joint Ops reach high point in the second amphib landing at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, closing down the confederacy’s last open port supporting R. E. Lee’s Army.
*** - Inaccurate conclusions made ??? -- Mahan next week -- Will talk much more about commerce raiding in WW I and II when the submarine comes into play until 1890’s this is the general consensus
*** - Alabama claims - leftover from the war - some Brit ports had allowed prizes from the Alabama to use facilities - not settled until 1872
*** US argues against legal blockade during preludes to the two world wars -

61. Next Time: Developments of Naval Technology and Strategy
Discussion
Next Time: Developments of Naval Technology and Strategy