"The Confederate Ironclad Navy" Topic

Interesting article here.

"During the Civil War, the agricultural South faced a daunting opponent in the industrialized North, and nowhere was that more apparent than on water. The Confederacy began the war without a single warship to its name.

The imminent Italian historian Raimondo Luraghi argued in his books The Plantation South and A History of the Confederate Navy that to win, the Confederacy had to industrialize, which it was able to do. Industrialization allowed the South to take advantage of, as well as contribute to, revolutionary changes that were occurring in naval warfare. The Confederacy would combat test mines (torpedoes), submarines, semi-submersibles ( Davids ), and rifled cannon (Brooke guns) during the war. But the modern weapon in which the C.S. Navy initially placed its greatest faith was the armored ship, and by war's end it had commissioned and put into action a veritable fleet of ironclads.

The Confederate ironclads were neither the first commissioned, the first in battle, nor the most advanced. The concept of iron-armored ships was well known by naval officials. French ironclad floating batteries had engaged Russian shore batteries during the Crimean War. And both Great Britain and France had commissioned powerful armored warships by the time the American Civil War broke out…"

Full article here
link

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

That is an incredibly useful web site – I was reading a book by Still in the middle of last year, he knows his stuff.

Ace Link – 5*'s

Glad you enjoyed it my friend!. (smile).

Amicalement
Armand

Thank you. It is amazing how much the Confederates accomplished with so little to work with. I'm planning on acquiring ships for a Stonewall vs. Niagara and Sacramento battle. I may need to expand.

A votre service mon ami.
Good luck with your project!.

Amicalement
Armand

While managing to build some ironclad ships, they did not industrialize. The south never created a single new steam engine to power anything. They built a small navy by cannibalizing existing civilian ships or captured ships.

Jeans hill is right. Putting together some emergency factories as a wartime necessity for 3 years is not industrializing. Once the blockade was in effect they hadn't the means to industrialize, nor the technicians. Creative, yes. Industrial, no.