Sea Power and Maritime Affairs Lesson 5: The Civil War, 1861-1865: Two Navies.

Sea Power and MaritimeSea Power and Maritime Affairs Affairs

Lesson 5: The Civil War, 1861-1865: Two NaviesLesson 5: The Civil War, 1861-1865: Two Navies

Learning ObjectivesLearning 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.

Remember our Themes!Remember our Themes!

The Navy as an Instrument of Foreign Policy

Interaction between Congress and the NavyInterservice RelationsTechnologyLeadershipStrategy and TacticsEvolution of Naval Doctrine

Background of the Background of the WarWar

War between the StatesWar between the States Dispute between slave and free states over status of western

territories.– Missouri Compromise - 1820.

– Kansas-Nebraska Act - 1854.

– Dred Scott Decision - 1857.

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.

Fort SumterFort Sumter

Naval ComparisonNaval Comparison

A Navy DividedA Navy Divided

David Glasgow FarragutDavid Dixon PorterJohn EriccsonJohn DahlgrenCharles WilkesSamuel F. DuPont

Franklin Buchanan

Matthew Fontaine Maury

Raphael Semmes

Balance of Naval PowerBalance of Naval PowerNorth South

– Naval Yards

– Ship Builders

– Industrial Base

– Number of Ships

– Leadership

Common Operational HeritageCommon Operational HeritageUnion and Confederate NaviesUnion 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”.

1815-1846 — Global deployments:

– Protection of American maritime commerce overseas.

1846-1848 — Mexican-American War

– U.S. Navy controls the seas throughout the war.

– Ports established on the Pacific Coast.

Naval ComparisonNaval Comparison The Confederate 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.

DiplomacyDiplomacy

Diplomacy for the NorthDiplomacy 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.

Diplomacy for the SouthDiplomacy 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.

Outcome of DiplomacyOutcome 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.

19 June 1864StrategyStrategy

Union Naval StrategyUnion 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.

Confederate Naval StrategyConfederate 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 - 1856.Unable to secure prize courts (sovereignty problems).

Naval Administration in the Naval Administration in the NorthNorth

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

UnionUnionSecretarySecretary

of theof theNavyNavy

Gideon WellesGideon Welles

Naval Administration in the Naval Administration in the SouthSouth

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.

Naval Administration in the Naval Administration in the South (cont’d)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.

ConfederateConfederateSecretarySecretary

of theof theNavyNavy

Stephen MalloryStephen Mallory

Naval Operations and Naval Operations and Important BattlesImportant Battles

Early Naval OperationsEarly 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.

Battle of Port RoyalBattle 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.

USS Port Royal

Battle of Hampton RoadsBattle of Hampton Roads

““The The MonitorMonitor and the and the MerrimackMerrimack””

CSS CSS VirginiaVirginia

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.

Franklin Franklin BuchananBuchanan

Confederate States NavyConfederate States Navy

Commanding OfficerCommanding Officerofof

CSS CSS VirginiaVirginiaat theat the

Battle of Hampton Roads.Battle of Hampton Roads.

USS USS Monitor 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 TacticalTactical draw but a strategicstrategic Union victory -

Confederate Navy unable to break the blockade of Norfolk.

9 March 1862

USS USS MonitorMonitor versus CSS versus CSS VirginiaVirginia

John EriccsonJohn 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.

Three TheatersThree TheatersGreat Inland Rivers

– Mississippi River Basin– Vicksburg– Mobile Bay

Atlantic and Gulf Coasts– Fort Fisher

Blue Water– CSS Alabama

Inland River CampaignsInland 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

Capture of New OrleansCapture 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

Mortar BoatsMortar Boats

Siege of VicksburgSiege of VicksburgVicksburg the big obstacle to dominance of

the MississippiPorter ferried Grant’s troops across to the

east bank of the river, south of the fortGrant takes the fort from the rearSurrender on 4 July 1863

Naval support: gunfire, troop transport, and logistical reinforcement

Siege of VicksburgSiege of Vicksburg

David Dixon David Dixon PorterPorter

Siege of Vicksburg

Battle of Mobile BayBattle 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!”

TorpedoTorpedo

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

DavidDavidGlasgowGlasgowFarragutFarragut

“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

Battleof

Mobile Bay

Battle of Mobile BayBattle of Mobile Bay5 August 1864

Fort FisherFort Fisher

The seaward protector of Wilmington, NC– railhead to Richmond supplies Lee’s Army

Highly-defended by Confederate guns.

Fort FisherFort 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.

Confederate Commerce Confederate Commerce RaidersRaiders

Highly successful in the disruption of Union maritime commerce.

Captain Raphael Semmes

– CSS Sumter

– CSS AlabamaCaptures 68 Union vessels.

Sunk at Cherbourg, France in duel with USS Kearsarge.

CaptainCaptainRaphael Raphael SemmesSemmes

CSS Alabama

CSS CSS AlabamaAlabama- Commerce Raiding - Commerce Raiding RouteRoute

CSS CSS AlabamaAlabama

Raphael Semmes

Tactical Trends in the Civil WarTactical 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.

Overall Technological AdvancesOverall Technological Advances

Technological InnovationTechnological 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.

CSS CSS HunleyHunley

ConclusionsConclusions

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.

ConclusionsConclusions Union blockade sets a precedent that that Woodrow Wilson

finds inconvenient in 1914-1917.

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.

DiscussionDiscussion

Next Time: Developments of Naval Technology and Strategy