Download Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

Sea Power and Maritime
Affairs
Lesson 5.4: The Civil War, 1860-1865
Two American Navies
Enabling Objectives
• IDENTIFY the origins of the U.S. Civil War.
• DESCRIBE the role of the Union Navy in the
strategy for the defeat of the Confederacy.
• DESCRIBE the role of the Confederate Navy in
the strategy for the defeat of the Union.
• UNDERSTAND reasons for the vital importance
of the acquisition of European allies in the
South’s naval strategy.
• UNDERSTAND innovations of naval weapons
and technology that emerged during the Civil
War.
A House Divided
• Dispute between slave and free
states over status of western
territories.
– Missouri Compromise - 1820.
– Kansas-Nebraska Act - 1854.
• The problem of state’s rights vs
federal government authority
A House Divided
• Southern states secede after
Lincoln elected in 1860
• Confederate States of
America established Feb
1861
• Fort Sumter, Charleston,
South Carolina:
– Attacked by Confederate
forces on April 12, 1861.
– 15 Apr: Lincoln calls 75K
state militia to Federal
service…
Fort Sumter
Charleston, South Carolina
Confederate States of America
(CSA) est. February 1861
Federal Territory Within the
Confederacy in Question
The CSA claimed eminent domain:
• Pensacola Navy Yard.
• 15 forts guarding harbors.
• 6 Federal arsenals.
• 18 military posts in Texas.
After Virginia joined the Confederacy:
• 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.
A Navy Divided
David Glasgow Farragut Franklin Buchanan
David Dixon Porter
Matthew Maury
John Ericcson
Raphael Semmes
John Dahlgren
Charles Wilkes
Samuel F. DuPont
Balance of Naval Power
North
–
Naval Yards
–
Ship Builders
–
Industrial Base
–
Number of Ships
–
Leadership
South
Union Naval Strategy
• Rapid and massive ship building
program.
–
–
Only 42 ships at the beginning of
the war.
264 commissioned by December,
1861
• General Winfield Scott’s
“Anaconda Plan”
– Blockade the entire Confederate
Coast
– Control the Mississippi River.
– Sever vital lines of communication
for Confederacy.
Union SECNAV Gideon Welles
Confederate Naval Strategy
• Attrition Warfare
– Confederacy issues letters of
marque to privateers.
– Attempt to continue commercial
trade with Europe
• New technology
– Conversion of older ships to
armored “ironclads”.
– Coordinates construction of
warships in Great Britain.
– CSS Hunley
• Blockade-running
– Successful cruises divert Union
ships from blockade duty.
Confederate
SECNAV Stephen
Mallory
Diplomatic Strategies
• NORTH: Keep Great Britain truly neutral
• SOUTH: Win British recognition and naval aid.
–
Problems for the Confederacy:
• 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.
• 1861- The “Trent Affair”
•
Union Navy violates neutral rights of British ship.
• Battle of Antietam (September 1862) allows
Lincoln to issue Emancipation Proclamation
Three Naval Theaters
1. Blue Water
– CSS Alabama
2. Atlantic and Gulf
Coasts
– Port Royal
– Hampton Roads
– Fort Fisher
3. Great Inland
Rivers
– Vicksburg
– Mobile Bay
Confederate Commerce Raiders
• Highly successful in the
disruption of Union maritime
commerce.
• Captain Raphael Semmes
– CSS Sumter
– CSS Alabama
•
Captures 68 Union
vessels.
•
Sunk at Cherbourg,
France in duel with USS
Kearsarge.
Confederate Commerce Raiders
The Union Blockade
• Union blockade of the
Confederacy:
– “Paper Blockade” needs to
become real as soon as
possible…
– 42 ships and 7,600 men to
blockage a 3500 mile
coastline…
– 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.
– Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
• Commodore Stephen F. DuPont
– Commands Union fleet- 11 Warships & 13K troops
• Superior naval gunfire:
– Directed against Confederate forts defending the Sound.
– Confederates abandon forts- out gunned 5:1
• Union soldiers and Marines land unopposed.
• Other Union amphibious operations will resemble
Port Royal operation.
Battle of Hampton Roads
8 March 1862
• First engagement between “ironclad” ships.
• 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.
• USS Monitor moved to Norfolk area to engage
Virginia.
–
Designed by John Ericcson.
• Highly armored with low freeboard.
• Single turret mounting two Dahlgren guns.
• Tactical draw but a strategic Union victory Confederate Navy unable to break the blockade of
Norfolk.
Battle of Hampton Roads
Fort Fisher Expeditions
• Defends the only remaining supply line through
Wilmington, North Carolina for General Lee’s
Army of Northern Virginia
• Highly-defended by Confederate guns.
• Combined Union Army-Navy operation.
– Union fleet commanded by David Dixon Porter.
• First assault fails – 7-27 December 1864.
• Second Assault – 15 January 1865
– 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.
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.
• Battle of New Orleans
– David Dixon Porter -- Uses “mortar boats” to
neutralize forts.
– David Glasgow Farragut commands Union assault.
• Siege of Vicksburg
– General Ulysses S. Grant in command.
– David Dixon Porter runs the Vicksburg batteries.
Inland River Vessels
USS Conestoga (1861-1864),
a converted gunboat that
served on the Mississippi
River. Photographed on the
Western Rivers during the
Civil War.
Siege of Vicksburg
• 19 May 1863 – 4 July 1863
• 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
• Naval support: gunfire, troop
transport, and logistical
reinforcement
• Lincoln: “The key to victory.”
Battle of Vicksburg
19 May – 4 July 1863
Battle of Mobile Bay
5 Aug 1864
• Union fleet commanded
by David Glasgow
Farragut.
• Entrance to Mobile Bay
heavily defended by
torpedoes.
• Brooklyn’s captain stops
and blocks the channel.
“Damn the torpedoes,
full speed ahead!”
Civil War Naval Technological
Innovations
• 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.
– CSS Hunley - submarine.
– “Torpedoes”
– “Laird” rams.
Conclusions
• Lee surrendered to Grant at the
Appomattox Court House on 9
Apr 1865.
• North successfully applied
offensive naval warfare.
• South failed to use commerce
raiding to win the war at sea.
• Joint Navy-Army Operations
reach an unprecedented level of
high efficiency on the Mississippi
River.
Battle History Video
• Chapter 1 "Born Into
War", Time 12:52 21:49
Enabling Objectives
• IDENTIFY the origins of the U.S. Civil War.
• DESCRIBE the role of the Union Navy in the
strategy for the defeat of the Confederacy.
• DESCRIBE the role of the Confederate Navy in
the strategy for the defeat of the Union.
• UNDERSTAND reasons for the vital importance
of the acquisition of European allies in the
South’s naval strategy.
• UNDERSTAND innovations of naval weapons
and technology that emerged during the Civil
War.
QUESTIONS?
Next Time:Developments of Naval Technology and
their Impact on Strategy