"The Genesis Of The Confederate Navy" Topic

"AS the different States seceded from the Union, each sovereignty made efforts to provide for a navy, and conferred rank upon its officers. A few revenue cutters and merchant steamers were seized and converted into men-of.war. Thus, at the beginning, each State had its own navy. At Charleston several naval officers assisted in the capture of Fort Sumter; notably, Capt. H. J. Hartstene, in command of a picket boat, and Lieut. J. R. Hamilton, in command of a floating battery. General Beauregard mentioned the assistance rendered by these officers; also the services of Dr. A. C. Lynch, late of the United States navy. Mention is also made of Lieut. W. G. Dozier, and the armed steamers Gordon, Lady Davis and General Clinch. The keels of two fine ironclads, the Palmetto State and the Chicora, were laid, and Commodore Duncan N. Ingraham was put in command of the naval forces.

Upon the secession of Virginia, April 17, 1861, a convention was entered into between that State and the Confederate States of America, after which the seat of the Confederate government was removed to Richmond, and the Congress assembled there July 20th; from which time properly commences the history of the Confederate navy. The navy department was organized with Stephen R. Mallory, secretary of the navy: Commodore Samuel Barron, chief of the bureau of orders and detail; Commander George Minor, chief of ordnance and hydrography; Paymaster John DeBree, chief of provisions and clothing; Surg. W. A. W. Spottswood, bureau of medicine and surgery; Edward M. Tidball, chief clerk. The Confederate government conferred commissions and warrants upon officers in accordance with their relative rank in the United States navy, and a more regular and satisfactory course of administration was entered upon…"
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Amicalement
Armand

To man the ships, they also started mass transfers of CSA soldiers to the CSN. My wife's GGGF was a NC artillerymen in the tidewater area of NC and he was involuntarily transferred to the CSN as a Landsman (landlubber) and assigned to the CSS Virginia. This was a life changing event for him, in that he served in the CSN through the reminder of the war and became a merchant captain afterward. (In a bit of karmic balance, the USN transferred me to the USA for a year to go to Iraq and thus the books are balanced).