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The Civil War and its Ironclads
Beginning in the 1820’s to the 1860’s, it seemed as if the United States were actually
made up of three or four different countries. The Northeast was growing as a haven for
industry. In the South, “Cotton was King,” and the Western boundaries continued to
increase. In the 1830’s and 1840’s most Americans were convinced that their nation was
destined to absorb all the land from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. This
belief came to be known as “Manifest Destiny”
By the mid 1800s, the first and second generation of English-born American colonists
had died. A new, young, American-born generation was running the country. A similar
pattern held true for slaves. In 1808, a federal law was passed that prohibited the
importation of Africans slaves. This was largely circumvented because American
plantation owners had implemented the practice of designating some women slaves as
“breeders,” whose job it was to produce as many children as possible. Children born to
slaves were also property of the parents’ master. Thus, few, if any, slaves of the period
were African-born, and most of their parents would have been raised in America. While
this large number of American-born citizens created a new feeling of nationalism, a
contradictory feeling of sectionalism continued to grow.
In the years prior to the Civil War, sectional disputes rose to a never-before seen level.
After the Mexican war, the question of slavery dominated the political arena. The North
wanted the new territories to be free areas and not allow slavery. At the same time, the
South worked for the extension of slavery in the new frontier. During the early 1850s,
the economy grew and the U.S. prospered. Southern production of cotton flourished,
Northeastern factories expanded as the demand for manufactured products increased, and
Midwestern railroads opened prairie land up for settlement and development.
In the election of 1860, the Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln for
president and ran on a platform opposed to the extension of slavery. The Democrats were
split into Northern and Southern factions, and Lincoln was elected with a minority of the
popular vote. Soon after Abraham Lincoln won the election, South Carolina decided to
secede from the Union. Many Southern states soon followed, allowing the newly formed
Confederacy to draft their on Confederate Constitution, based on the U.S. Constitution.
The Montgomery convention elected Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederacy.
When the Civil War began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, Lincoln offered
command of the Union armies to Robert E. Lee, but he declined because he was more
loyal to his home state of Virginia. He would eventually become the head general for the
Confederate Army. In the beginning, Americans did not expect that civilians would get
involved in the war. Almost everyone, North and South, thought the war would be over
in a matter of weeks. They thought the war would be short and exciting. In fact, during
the First Battle of Bull Run, the citizens of Washington, D.C. brought their picnic baskets
to a nearby hill to watch the show. Very few people would have predicted burning cities,
starving civilians, or four years of fighting.
Southerners were confident that Britain and France, who were highly dependent on
cotton, would come to the aid of the Confederacy. The South also had an advantage
because they were fighting for their independence on their home turf, and because they
had more experienced military officers than the North. The North had many advantages
in the war. They had a bigger population than the South, which made them able to form a
bigger army. The North also had the advantage of business, technology, and industry.
Inventions like Hussey’s and McCormick’s reapers, Howe’s sewing machine, and
McKay’s shoe manufacturing machine allowed the North to produce enough supplies and
food to keep their army fighting. The South depended on imported goods. The Union
knew this and implemented the Anaconda Plan, a naval blockade of the South that
seriously hampered the Confederate war effort. The Confederate Navy posed no serious
threat to the U.S. Navy so the North was able to block many imports that the South
depended on.
On both sides new technologies were developed including that first ironclads (a
steam-propelled warship fitted with plates of iron armor) and submarines. The Civil War
was truly a pivotal moment in naval warfare as it signaled the wooden sailing ships,
confirmed steam power as a means of propulsion, and gave rise to armored, ironclad
warships. The introduction of the ironclad warship has revolutionized naval warfare, to
the ultimate advantage of the industrial North. Southern ironclads were often simply
called rams. A monitor was a low-freeboard steamship with a small number of heavy
guns in a tower. Warships were built for two main purposes: to fight other ships and to
attack forces on land. At the outbreak of the Civil War the United States ranked next to
Great Britain in merchant marine. The very first time that one ironclad fought another
was when the Monitor and the Virginia (formerly known as Merrimack) fought in
Hamptons Roads, Virginia, on March 9, 1862. The naval war was an important part of
the war and the ironclads were a big part of the story of the naval war.
The Civil War
also saw the first submarine to successfully sink its target, the 40-foot-long Hunley,
which was operated by eight men turning a hand crank attached to her propeller shaft.
The Hunley sunk and was recovered three times during trail runs before it was successful.
On February 16, 1864, under the cover of darkness, the Hunley sank the USS Housatonic
off Charleston. As a result of operations on the high seas, on rivers, and in bays and
harbors, the Navy was a decisive factor in the Civil War’s outcome.
On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee and his worn down army surrendered at
Appomattox Courthouse. The Civil War had officially ended, but it was just the
beginning of the movement to rebuild the South and mend scars, both emotional and
physical. In 1865 Congress passed the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery. In 1868
African-American were made citizens by the passage of the 14th Amendment. In theory,
the 15th Amendment gave African-American men the right to vote. In practice, Southern
states created numerous obstacles to prevent eligible black men from voting; among them
were poll taxes and literacy tests.
The Civil War was the most savage and deadly war in American history, In proportion
to casualties among those participating, it was the costliest war in the nation ever fought,
with casualties totaling between 33 to 40 percent of the combined forces of the Union and
the Confederate armies. The Civil War cost the lives of more Americans than all pother
American wars put together prior to World War II.