WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA
%453. State of our Navy in 1861.%--On the day our flag went down at
Sumter, the navy of the United States consisted of ninety vessels of
every sort. Fifty of these were sailing ships. Forty were propelled by
steam. Of the steam fleet one was on the Lakes, five were unserviceable,
seventeen were in foreign parts, and nine laid up in navy yards and out
of service. Eight steam vessels (one a mere tender) and five sailing
vessels (a fleet of thirteen) made up the naval force of the United
States that was available for actual service on April 15, 1861.
%454. The Work before the Navy.%--The duty of the navy was to
1. Blockade the coast from Norfolk in Virginia to the Bio Grande in
Texas.
2. Capture the seaports and forts scattered along this coast.
3. Acquire control of the sounds and bays, as Chesapeake, Albemarle,
Pamlico, Mobile, and Galveston.
4. Assist the army in opening the Mississippi, Arkansas, and other
rivers.
5. Destroy all Confederate cruisers and protect the commerce of the
United States.
To accomplish this great work, most of the vessels abroad were recalled
(a slow process in days when no ocean cable existed), more were hastily
built, and in time 400 merchantmen and river steamboats were bought and
roughly adapted at the navy yards for war service.
%455. %The Blockade of the Southern Coast.%--The war on sea was
opened (April 19-27,1861) by two proclamations of Lincoln declaring the
coast from Virginia to Texas blockaded. This meant that armed vessels
were to be stationed off the seaports of the South, and that no ships
from any country were to be allowed to go into or out of them. To stop
trade with the South was important for three reasons:
1. The South had no ships, no great gun factories, machine shops, or
rolling mills, and must look to foreign countries for military supplies.
2. The South raised (in 1860) 4,700,000 bales of cotton, almost all of
which was sold to England and the North, and if this cotton should be
sent abroad, the South could easily buy with it all the guns, ships, and
goods she needed.
3. England was dependent on the South for raw cotton, and would sell for
it everything the South wanted in exchange.
The blockade, therefore, was to cut off the trade and supplies of the
South, and so weaken her. But as England, a great commercial nation,
wanted her cotton, it was certain that unless the blockade were rigorous
and close, cotton would be smuggled out and supplies sent in.
%456. Blockade Runners%.--This is just what did happen. The blockade
in the course of a year was made close, by ships stationed off the
ports, sounds, and harbors. In some places the hulks of old whalers were
loaded with stone and sunk in the channels, and to get in or out became
more difficult. As a result the price of cotton fell to eight cents a
pound in the South (because there was nobody to buy it) and rose to
fifty cents a pound in England (because so little was to be had). Then
"running the blockade" became a regular business. Goods of all sorts
were brought from England to Nassau in the West Indies, where they would
be put on board of vessels built to run the blockade. These blockade
runners were long, low steam vessels which drew only a few feet of water
and had great speed. Their hulls were but a few feet out of water and
were painted a dull gray. Their smokestacks could be lowered to the
deck, and they burned anthracite coal, which made no smoke. They would
leave Nassau at such a time as would enable them to be off Wilmington,
N.C., or some other Southern port, on a moonless night with a high tide,
and then, making a dash, would run through the blockading vessels. Once
in port, they would take a cargo of cotton, and would run out on a dark
night or during a storm. During the war, 1504 vessels of all kinds were
captured or destroyed.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read T. E. Taylor's _Running the Blockade, _pp. 16-32,
44-54.]
%457. The Commerce Destroyers.%--While the North was thus busy
destroying the trade of the South, the South was busy destroying the
enormous trade of the North. When the war opened, our merchant ships
were to be seen in every port of the world, and against these were sent
a class of armed vessels known as "commerce destroyers," whose business
it was to cruise along the great highways of ocean commerce, keep a
sharp lookout for our merchantmen, and burn all they could find. The
first of these commerce destroyers to get to sea was the _Sumter_, which
ran the blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi in June, 1861, and
within a week had taken seven merchantmen. So important was it to
capture her that seven cruisers were sent in pursuit. But she escaped
them all till January, 1862, when she was shut up in the port of
Gibraltar and was sold to prevent capture.
%458. The Trent Affair, 1861.%--One of the vessels sent in pursuit of
the _Sumter_ was the _San Jacinto, _commanded by Captain Wilkes. While
at Havana, he heard that two commissioners of the Confederate
government, James M. Mason and John Slidell, sent out as commissioners
to Great Britain and France, were to sail for England in the British
mail steamer _Trent_; and, deciding to capture them, he took his station
in the Bermuda Channel, and (November 8, 1861) as the _Trent_ came
steaming along, he stopped and boarded her, and carried off Mason and
Slidell and their secretaries. This he had no right to do. It was
exactly the sort of thing the United States had protested against ever
since 1790, and had been one of the causes of war with Great Britain in
1812. The commissioners were therefore released, placed on board another
English vessel, and taken to England. The conduct of Great Britain in
this matter was most insulting and warlike, and nothing but the justice
of her demand prevented war.[1]
[Footnote 1: Harris's _The Trent Affair._]
%459. The Famous Cruisers Florida, Alabama, Shenandoah.%--The loss
of the _Sumter_ was soon made good by the appearance on the sea of a
fleet of commerce destroyers all built and purchased in England with the
full knowledge of the English government. The first of these, the
_Florida_, was built at Liverpool, was armed at an uninhabited island in
the Bahamas, and after roving the sea for more than a year was captured
by the United States cruiser _Wachusett_ in the neutral harbor of Bahia
in Brazil. Her capture was a shameful violation of neutral waters, and
it was ordered that she be returned to Brazil; but she was sunk by "an
unforeseen accident" in Hampton Roads.[1]
[Footnote 1: Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in
Europe,_ Vol. I., pp. 152-224.]
The next to get afloat was the _Alabama_. She was built at Liverpool
with the knowledge of the English government, and became in time one of
the most famous and successful of all the commerce destroyers. During
two years she cruised unharmed in the North Atlantic, in the Gulf of
Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, along the coast of South America, and even
in the Indian Ocean, destroying in her career sixty-six merchant
vessels. At last she was found in the harbor of Cherbourg (France) by
the _Kearsarge_, to which Captain Semmes of the _Alabama_ sent a
challenge to fight. Captain Winslow accepted it; and June 19, 1864,
after a short and gallant engagement, the _Alabama_ was sunk in the
English Channel.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., Vol. I., pp. 225-294. _Battles and Leaders of the
Civil War,_ Vol. IV., pp. 600-625.]
The _Shenandoah_, another cruiser, was purchased in England and armed
at a barren island near Madeira. Thence she went to Australia, and
cruising northward in the Pacific to Bering Strait, destroyed the
China-bound clippers and the whaling fleet. At last, hearing of the
downfall of the Confederacy, she went back to England.[1]
[Footnote 1: Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in
Europe_, Vol. II., pp. 131-163.]
%460. The Ironclads.%--To blockade the coast and cut off trade was
most important, but not all that was needed. Here and there were
seaports which must be captured and forts which must be destroyed, bays
and sounds, and great rivers coming down from the interior, which it was
very desirable to secure control of. The Confederates were fully aware
of this, and as soon as they could, placed on the waters of their rivers
and harbors vessels new to naval warfare, called ironclad rams. These
were steamboats cut down and made suitable for naval purposes, and then
covered over with iron rails or thick iron plates. The most famous of
them was the _Merrimac_.
[Illustration: %Remodeling the Merrimac%]
[Illustration: %The U.S. steamer Merrimac%]
%461. The Merrimac or Virginia.%--When Sumter was fired on and the
war began, the United States held the great navy yard and naval depot at
Portsmouth, Va., where were eleven war vessels of various sorts, and
immense quantities of guns and stores and ammunition. But the officer in
charge, knowing that Virginia was about to secede, and fearing that the
yard would be seized by the Confederates, sank most of the ships, set
fire to the buildings, and abandoned the place. The Confederates at once
took possession, raised the vessels, and out of one of them, a steamer
called the _Merrimac_. made an ironclad ram, which they renamed the
_Virginia_ and sent forth to destroy the wooden vessels of the United
States then assembled in Chesapeake Bay.
Well knowing that he could not be harmed by any of our war ships, the
commander of the _Merrimac_ went leisurely to work and began (March 8,
1862) by attacking the _Cumberland_. In her day the _Cumberland_ had
been as fine a frigate as ever went to sea; but the days of wooden ships
were gone, and she was powerless. Her shot glanced from the sides of the
_Merrimac _like so many peas, while the new monster, coming on under
steam, rammed her in the side and made a great hole through which the
water poured. Even then the commander of the _Cumberland_ would not
surrender, but fought his ship till she filled and sank with her guns
booming and her flag flying. After sinking the _Cumberland_, the
_Merrimac_ attacked the _Congress_, forced her to surrender, set her on
fire, and, as darkness was then coming on, went back to the shelter of
the Confederate batteries.
[Illustration: Monitor, side and deck plan]
%462. The Monitor.%--Early the next day the _Merrimac_ sailed forth
to finish the work of destruction, and picking out the _Minnesota_,
which was hard and fast in the mud, bore down to attack her. When lo!
from beside the _Minnesota_ started forth the most curious-looking craft
ever seen on water. It was the famous _Monitor_, designed by Captain
John Ericsson, to whose inventive genius we owe the screw propeller and
the hot-air engine. She consisted of a small iron hull, on top of which
rested a boat-shaped raft covered with sheets of iron which made the
deck. On top of the deck, which was about three feet above the water,
was an iron cylinder, or turret, which revolved by machinery and carried
two guns. She looked, it was said, like "a cheesebox mounted on a raft."
[Illustration: HAMPTON ROADS]
The _Monitor_ was built at New York, and was intended for harbor
defense; but the fact that the Confederates were building a great
ironclad at Norfolk made it necessary to send her to Hampton Roads. The
sea voyage was a dreadful one; again and again she was almost wrecked,
but she weathered the storm, and early on the evening of March 8, 1862,
entered Hampton Roads, to see the waters lighted up by the burning
_Congress_ and to hear of the sinking of the _Cumberland_. Taking her
place beside the _Minnesota_, she waited for the dawn, and about eight
o'clock saw the _Merrimac_ coming toward her, and, starting out, began
the greatest naval battle of modern times. When it ended, neither ship
was disabled; but they were the masters of the seas, for it was now
proved that no wooden ships anywhere afloat could harm them. The days of
wooden naval vessels were over, and all the nations of the world were
forced to build their navies anew. The _Merrimac_ withdrew from the
fight; when the Confederates evacuated Norfolk, they destroyed her (May,
1862). The _Monitor_ sank in a storm at sea while going to Beaufort,
N.C. (January, 1863).[1]
[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I., pp.
719-750.]
[Illustration: %An encounter at close range%]
%463. Capture of the Coast Forts and Waterways.%--Operations along
the coast were begun in August, 1861, by the capture of the forts at the
mouth of Hatteras Inlet, N.C., the entrance to Pamlico Sound; and by the
capture of Port Royal in November. A few months later (early in 1862)
control of Pamlico and Albemarle sounds was secured by the capture of
Roanoke Island, Elizabeth City, and Newbern, all in North Carolina, and
of Fort Macon, which guarded the entrance to Beaufort harbor.
McClellan's capture of Yorktown in May, 1862, was soon followed by the
hasty evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederate forces, so that at the
end of the first year of the war most of the seacoast from Norfolk to
the Gulf was in Union hands.
Along the Gulf coast naval operations resulted in opening the lower
Mississippi and capturing New Orleans in April, and Pensacola in
May, 1862.
In April, 1863, a naval attack on Charleston was planned, but was
carried no farther than a severe battering of Fort Sumter. In August,
1864, Admiral Farragut led his fleet past Forts Morgan and Gaines, that
guarded the entrance of Mobile Bay, captured the Confederate fleet and
took the forts. Mobile, however, was not taken till April, 1865, just as
the Confederacy reached its end. Fort Fisher, which commanded the
entrance to Cape Fear River, on which stood Wilmington, the great port
of entry for blockade runners, fell before the attack of a combined land
and naval force in January, 1865.
SUMMARY
1. The naval operations of the war opened with the blockade of the coast
of the Confederate States.
2. This was necessary in order to prevent cotton, sugar, and tobacco
being sent abroad in return for materials of war.
3. As a result blockade running was carried on to a great extent.
4. In order to destroy our commerce a fleet of cruisers was built in
England, purchased and manned by the Confederate government. They
inflicted very serious damage.
5. But the great event of the war was the battle between the ironclads
_Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, which marked the advent of the
iron-armored war ship.