List of ships of the Confederate States Navy

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Template:Short description

Seal of the Department of the Navy

This is a list of ships of the Confederate States Navy (CSN), used by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865. Included are some types of civilian vessels, such as blockade runners, steamboats, and privateers which contributed to the war efforts by the CSN. Also included are special types of floating batteries and harbor defense craft.

CSN warships

The secretary of the CS Navy, Stephen Mallory, was very aggressive on a limited budget in a land-focused war, and developed a two-pronged warship strategy of building ironclad warships for coastal and national defense, and commerce raiding cruisers, supplemented with exploratory use of special weapons such as torpedo boats and torpedoes.

Batteries

Based upon the successful employment of ironclad warships, particularly batteries, at the Battle of Kinburn, Britain and France decided to focus on armor-plated warships, starting with coastal battery designs. Initial ocean going ironclad cruisers, such as the French Template:Ship and the British Template:HMS were only just emerging in 1859 and 1860, and were beyond the budget and timeline necessary for rapid force deployment that the CS Navy needed for immediate coastal defenses in 1861.

Therefore, the Confederate Congress voted $2 million in May 1861 to buy ironclads from overseas, and in July and August started work on construction and converting wooden ships locally. On 12 October 1861, the Template:Ship became the first ironclad to enter battle when she fought Union warships on the Mississippi. In February 1862, the even larger Template:Ship joined the Confederate Navy, having been built at Norfolk. The Confederacy built a number of ships designed as versions of the Virginia, of which several saw action. In the failed attack on Charleston on April 7, 1863, two small ironclads, Template:Ship and Template:Ship participated in the successful defense of the harbor. For the later attack at Mobile Bay, the Union faced the Template:Ship.

Ironclad steam-powered batteries

Ex-CSS USS Atlanta on the James River, photo by Mathew Brady
CSS Chicora
CSS Muscogee also known as CSS Jackson
Ex-CSS USS Tennessee
Ex-USS Merrimac/CSS Virginia
File:The photographic history of the Civil War - thousands of scenes photographed 1861-65, with text by many special authorities (1911) (14760374114).jpg
CSS Albemarle

The CS Navy ironclad steamer batteries were all designed for national coastal defense.

Ironclad floating batteries

CS Navy ironclad floating batteries lacked steam engines for propulsion and were towed into firing positions.

Wooden floating batteries

File:FloatingBatteryofCharlestonHarbor.jpg
The Floating Battery of Charleston Harbor
File:Drawing of CSS Alabama.jpg
CSS Alabama This sketch was made from a photograph (of a drawing) which Captain Semmes gave to a friend, with the remark that it was a correct picture of his ship. (Battles and Leaders of the Civil War Vol 4 p.601
File:The Photographic History of The Civil War Volume 06 Page 307.jpg
Officers of the CSS Alabama
File:Officers of the CSS Florida.jpg
Officers of the CSS Florida

CS Navy wooden floating batteries were towed into firing positions, and as in the case at Charleston Harbor, used for makeshift defense.

Cruisers

CS Navy cruisers were ocean-going ships designed primarily for the Confederate Navy's strategy of guerre de course. Confederate States Navy cruisers were typically lightly armed, with a couple of large guns or a pivot gun, and often very fast. The Navy planned to add ironclad cruisers to their fleet, successfully procuring one, but too late to be of benefit for the war.

Wooden cruisers

  • Template:Ship, screw steamer, sloop-of-war, built in Birkenhead, England by John Laird Sons and Company, sunk: June 19, 1864
  • Template:Ship, screw steamer, bark-rigged, built in Liverpool, England, seized before delivery: April 5, 1863
  • CSS America, racing yacht, scuttled: 1862
  • Template:Ship, schooner, captured: June 28, 1863
  • Template:Ship, revenue cutter, burned: June 28, 1863
  • Template:Ship, screw steamer, burned
  • Template:Ship, brig, burned: June 12, 1863
  • Template:Ship, screw steamer, sloop, captured: October 7, 1864
  • Template:Ship, screw steamer, iron, sold: June 1, 1864
  • Template:Ship, steamer, destroyed: After leaving port on March 20, 1863, the steamer is destroyed on March 22, 1863
  • Template:Ship, bark, burned: June 20, 1863
  • Template:Ship, side-wheel steamer, brig rigged, sold and used as privateer Rattlesnake and sunk, February 28, 1862
  • Template:Ship, screw steamer, sloop-of-war, turned over at war's end
  • Template:Ship, screw steamer, full rigged, iron-framed, turned over to British Government
  • Template:Ship, screw steamer, sloop, sold: December 19, 1862
  • Template:Ship, bark, burned: June 25, 1863
  • Template:Ship, twin-screw steamer, sloop, seized: April 9, 1865 by British Government
  • Template:Ship, bark, seized: December 29, 1863
  • CSS United States, frigate, sail, harbor defense use only, scuttled

Ironclad cruisers

But the CS Navy attempts to procure ironclad cruisers from overseas were frustrated as European nations confiscated ships being built for the Confederacy. Only the Stonewall was completed and successfully delivered, and she arrived in American waters just in time for the end of the war.

Gunboats

File:CSS LAdy Davis.jpg
Top picture CSS Lady Davis May 18, 1861
File:CSSTeaser.jpg
CSS Teaser at the right
File:The "Governor Moore " after the fight.png
CSS Governor Moore

Torpedo boats

File:CSS David photo.jpg
Photograph of a captured David class torpedo boat (possibly CSS David herself), taken after the fall of Charleston in 1865

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CSN support ships

Government blockade runners

File:BlockadeRunnerRobertELee2.jpg
CSS Robert E Lee
File:LC-DIG-CWPB-03883 (17115220687).jpg
CSS William G Hewes later USS Malvern
File:USSHendrickHudson.jpg
CSS Florida renamed USS Henderick Hudson
File:USS Hornet 1865.jpg
CSS Lady Sterling renamed USS Hornet

Government steamers

File:Queen Vicksburg.jpg
Federal ram USS Queen of the West attacks CSS City of Vicksburg.

Government transports

File:NH 74054 Steamer Planter.jpg
CSS Planter

Cutters

Hospital ships

Tenders and tugs

File:CSS Uncle Ben.jpg
Uncle Ben captured 1861

Civilian auxiliary

Privateers

  • Template:Ship, privateer steam tug
  • Template:USS, privateer cutter, schooner rigged, captured: November 12, 1861
  • Bonita, 8-gun, 1,110-ton privateer steamer<ref name=gwa>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Boston, 5-gun privateer steamer operating out of Mobile burned captured barques Lenex and Texana<ref name=gwa/>
  • Charlotte Clark, 3-gun, 1,110-ton privateer steamer<ref name=gwa/>
  • Chesapeake, 4-gun, 60-ton privateer schooner<ref name=gwa/>
  • Template:Ship, privateer schooner, captured on April 15, 1862, but had itself captured the USA schooner Mary Alice on July 25, 1861, the USA barque Glenn on July 31 of 1861.
  • Dove, 8-gun, 1,170-ton privateer steamer<ref name=gwa/>
  • Gallatin, 150-ton privateer schooner with 2 × 12-pdr<ref name=gwa/>
  • General N.S. Reneau, privateer steamer<ref name=gwa/>
  • Template:Ship, privateer schooner
  • Template:Ship, privateer steamer, captured: May 11, 1862
  • Hallie Jackson, privateer brig captured by USS Union<ref name=gwa/>
  • Template:Ship, privateer screw steamer
  • Template:Ship, privateer side-wheel steamer, which captured the barque Ocean Eagle on May 16, 1861, the ship Milan in May, 1861, the schooner Etta in May, 1861, the brigantine Panama on May 29, 1861, the schooner Mermaid on May 24, 1861, and the schooner John Adams on May 24, 1861, all within its first month of operation in 1861, and which was burned: 1862
  • J. M. Chapman, privateer schooner, captured: March 15, 1863
  • Template:Ship, privateer schooner
  • Template:Ship, privateer brig, ran aground: mid-August, 1861
  • Joseph Landis, 400-ton privateer steamer<ref name=gwa/>
  • Josephine, privateer schooner<ref name=gwa/>
  • Template:Ship, privateer schooner, destroyed: September 14, 1861
  • Lamar, privateer schooner<ref name=gwa/>
  • Template:Ship, privateer schooner
  • Template:Ship, privateer screw steamer, which captured the US schooner Nathaniel Chase on July 25, 1861.
  • Mocking Bird, 8-gun, 1,290-ton privateer steamer operating out of New Orleans<ref name=gwa/>
  • Template:Ship, privateer steamer
  • Onward, 70-ton privateer schooner with 1 × 32-pdr<ref name=gwa/>
  • Paul Jones, 2-gun, 160-ton privateer schooner<ref name=gwa/>
  • Pelican, 10-gun, 1,479-ton privateer steamer<ref name=gwa/>
  • Template:Ship, privateer, went to sea on July 1, 1861, and sunk on July 28, 1861, by the Union Navy frigate Template:USS.
  • Phoenix, 7-gun, 1,644-ton privateer steamer<ref name=gwa/>
  • Template:Ship, privateer schooner
  • Template:Ship, privateer schooner, captured: June 3, 1861
  • Template:Ship, privateer brig
  • Template:Ship, privateer side-wheel steamer, renamed Gordon, captured the USA brigantine William McGilvery on July 25, 1861, the USA schooner Protector on July 28, 1861
  • Triton, 30-ton privateer schooner with 1 × 6-pdr<ref name=gwa/>
  • V.H. Ivy, privateer steamer
  • Template:Ship, privateer pilot boat, schooner rigged, which was burned on August 9, 1861, after capturing the US brigantine B.T. Martin about July 28, 1861 and the schooner George G. Baker on August 9, 1861, on the day of its demise, whereafter the Union quickly recaptured the George G. Baker.

Privateer submersible torpedo boats

Civilian steamers

Civilian transports

  • Berwick Bay, steamer, captured February 3, 1863
  • Era No. 5, shallow-draft steamer, captured: February 14, 1863
  • Moro, steamer, captured February 3, 1863
  • O.W. Baker, steamer, captured February 3, 1863
  • White Cloud, steamer, carried provisions on the Mississippi. She was captured on 13 February 1863 near Island No. 10 by USS New Era and was sent as a prize ship to Cairo, Ill. Acquired by the Union Navy, she continued as a goods transport until the end of the war.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Civilian blockade runners

File:USS Malvern at the Norfolk Navy Yard in 1865.jpg
Ella and Annie as USS Malvern

Foreign blockade runners


CS Army

CSA cotton-clads

File:Little Rebel.jpg
USS (ex-CSS) Little Rebel
File:USS Queen of the West (1854) watercolor.jpg
USS {later CSS} Queen of the West
File:Cottonclad ram "Stonewall Jackson".png
CSS Stonewall Jackson
File:The "Governor Moore " after the fight.png
CSS Governor Moore after the fight
File:USS General Bragg photo.jpg
Ex-CSS USS General Bragg
File:CSSGeneralPrice.jpg
Ex-CSS General Price
File:CSS Webb.jpg
CSS Webb burned April 1865

Used for river defense, CS Army cottonclads were typically more lightly armored and reinforced than a regular ironclad, such as the General Sterling Price, which was converted by placing a 4-inch oak sheath with a 1-inch iron covering on her bow, and by installing double pine bulkheads filled with compressed cotton bales. Many of the cottonclads were outfitted with rams.

River Defense Fleet cotton-clads:

  • Template:Ship, side-wheel steamer, cotton-clad ram, sunk: June 6, 1862
  • Template:Ship, steamer, cotton-clad ram, sunk: June 6, 1862
  • Template:Ship, steamer, cotton-clad ram, captured: June 6, 1862
  • Template:Ship, stern-wheel steamer, cotton-clad ram, burned: Apr, 1862
  • Template:Ship, side-wheel steamer, cotton-clad ram, burned: 1862
  • Template:Ship, steamer, cotton-clad ram, burned
  • Template:Ship, steamer, cotton-clad ram, sunk: June 6, 1862
  • Template:Ship, steamer, cotton-clad ram, sunk: June 6, 1862; raised into Union service
  • Template:Ship, steamer, cotton-clad ram, captured: June 6, 1862
  • Template:Ship, steamer, schooner rigged, cotton-clad ram, destroyed: April 24, 1862
  • Template:Ship, steamer, cotton-clad ram, captured: June 6, 1862
  • Template:Ship, side-wheel steamer, cotton-clad ram
  • Template:Ship, side-wheel steamer, cotton-clad ram, burned: April 24, 1862
  • Template:Ship, side-wheel steamer, cotton-clad ram, destroyed: April, 1862

Other CS Army cotton-clads:

Other CSA boats

Prizes

  • Alvarado - prize bark, captured: by privateer Jefferson Davis, July 21, 1861
  • Enchantress - prize schooner, captured: by privateer Jefferson Davis July 6, 1861

Undetermined

  • CSS Segar
  • CSS Smith
  • CSS W. R. Miles

See also

References

Template:Reflist

Bibliography