Confederate States Navy
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Image:CS Navy Department Seal.png
The Confederate States Navy was the branch of the Confederate States armed forces responsible for naval operations during the American Civil War. Among the major tasks of the Navy was breaking the Union blockade of the Confederacy and protecting southern harbors and coastlines from attack. It did not operate blockade runners until late in the war.
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History and technology
Image:Confederate Battle Flag.svg The Confederate Navy attempted to achieve parity of forces with the Union Navy by technology innovations, and by acquiring ships from European powers. Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory believed his technological surprises—steam-powered and propeller-driven armored ships and the widespread adoption of rifled guns and torpedoes (mines)—would permit the Confederacy to seize the operational advantage. However, the weak industrial capacity of the Confederacy was incapable of supporting the innovations that were made.<ref>Luraghi</ref>
Ships
Image:Css virginia.png 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. Image:Css hunley on pier.jpg 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. Image:CSSAlabama.jpg 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.
See also
References
- Luraghi, Raymond. A History of the Confederate Navy, Naval Institute Press, 1996, ISBN 1557505276.
Notes
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