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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 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 extremely costly for the North by attacking merchant ships and breaking the Union Blockade.
History The C.S. Navy could not hope to achieve numerical equality with the Union Navy, but hoped to overcome its lack of ships through technological innovation, such as the use of ironclads, submarines, torpedo boats, and underwater mines (known at the time as torpedoes). The Confederate Navy in February, 1861 amounted to a mere ten ships carrying fifteen guns, whereas the North was gifted with ninety vessels, although initially only about fourteen were fit to fight at sea. As the war progressed, the C.S. Navy would grow with the rising naval conflicts and the threatening naval enemies. On April 20, 1861, the Union burned its ships that were at the Norfolk Navy Yard, one of only two navy yards located in the South at the time, in order to prevent their capture by the Confederates. The other navy yard was located in Pensacola, Florida, but was mainly intended for repairs, not construction. Some ships survived the burning at Norfolk, including a screw frigate named USS ''Merrimack''. Secretary Mallory had the idea of raising the Merrimack and armoring the upper sides with iron plate. The ship became the CSS ''Virginia'', one of the first ironclad ships of the war, that later went on to fight opposite 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 served for a time as the chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee while he was a United States senator. Mallory began his career as Navy Secretary by building the C.S. Navy into something formidable enough to achieve the goals it needed to win the war. A Confederate Congress committee, meeting on August 27, 1862, reported:
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 ladies of Georgia, one ironclad ram donated by the State of Alabama, and a numerous amount of 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:
The President did not feel entirely confident in his executive ability to issue letters of marque, and thus called a special session of Congress on April 29, which would organize legislation allowing for the hire 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. It is worthy to note that 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, the institution of privateering was constitutionally legal in both the United and Confederate States. However, the United States did not acknowledge the Confederate States as an actual nation and in turn denied the legitimacy of any letters of marque issued by the Confederate States government. Union President Abraham Lincoln declared all medicines to the South to be contraband and any captured Confederate privateers would be treated as mere pirates and hanged. Ultimately, no men were hanged for such an offense due to threats from the Confederate government to punish prisoners of war in response to punished privateers. Initially, Confederate privateers operated mostly out of New Orleans, but activity was soon concentrated in the Atlantic as the United States Navy began increasing its operations. Confederate privateers, throughout the war, were successful in harassing Union merchant ships and delivered a significant blow to the Northern economy. Ships
Organization Between the beginning of the war and the spring of 1862, sixteen captains, thirty-four commanders, and seventy-six lieutenants, together with one hundred and 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 quoting the Amendatory Act itself:
Administration By July 20, 1861, the Confederate government had organized the administrative positions of the Confederate Navy as follows: See also Notes | ||||||||||
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