Transcript Admiral Franklin Buchanan, CSN

Sea Power and Maritime
Affairs
Lesson 5: The Civil War, 1861-1865: Two Navies
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.
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
Background of the War
War 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 Sumter
Naval Comparison
A Navy Divided
David Glasgow Farragut
David Dixon Porter
John Ericcson
John Dahlgren
Charles Wilkes
Samuel F. DuPont
Franklin Buchanan
Matthew Fontaine
Maury
Raphael Semmes
Balance of Naval Power
North
–
Naval Yards
4
–
Ship Builders
4
–
Industrial Base
4
–
Number of Ships
4
–
Leadership
4
South
Common Operational Heritage
Union and Confederate Navies

War of 1812 — Coastal defense and commerce raiding:
–

1815-1846 — Global deployments:
–

Fighting from an inferior position against an enemy that has
“command of the sea”.
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 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.
Diplomacy
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.
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.
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.
•
Strategy
19 June 1864
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.
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 - 1856.
 Unable to secure prize courts (sovereignty problems).
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
Union
Secretary
of the
Navy
Gideon Welles
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.
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.
Confederate
Secretary
of the
Navy
Stephen Mallory
Naval Operations and
Important Battles
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.
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.
USS Port Royal
Battle of Hampton Roads
“The Monitor and the Merrimack”
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.
Franklin
Buchanan
Confederate States Navy
Commanding Officer
of
CSS Virginia
at the
Battle of Hampton Roads.
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.

USS Monitor versus CSS Virginia
9 March 1862
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.
Three Theaters

Great Inland Rivers
– Mississippi River Basin
– Vicksburg
– Mobile Bay

Atlantic and Gulf Coasts
– Fort Fisher

Blue Water
– CSS Alabama
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
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
Mortar Boats
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
Siege of Vicksburg
David Dixon
Porter
Siege of Vicksburg
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!”
Torpedo

Wooden keg filled with black powder with
a contact fuse anchored in port channels.
David
Glasgow
Farragut
Battle
of
Mobile
Bay
“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
Battle of Mobile Bay
5 August 1864
Fort Fisher

The seaward protector of Wilmington, NC
– railhead to Richmond supplies Lee’s Army

Highly-defended by Confederate guns.
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.
Confederate Commerce
Raiders
 Highly
successful in the disruption of Union
maritime commerce.
 Captain
Raphael Semmes
– CSS Sumter
– CSS Alabama
 Captures
 Sunk
68 Union vessels.
at Cherbourg, France in duel with USS Kearsarge.
Captain
Raphael
Semmes
CSS Alabama
CSS Alabama
- Commerce Raiding
Route
CSS Alabama
Raphael Semmes
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.
Overall Technological Advances
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.
CSS Hunley
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.
Conclusions

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.
Discussion
Next Time: Developments of Naval Technology and
Strategy