Complex sentence: They appealed to the War Department for an overland expedition to destroy the ram, which was named "Albemarle" after the body of water into which the Roanoke emptied, but the Union Army never felt it could spare the troops needed to carry out the task.
Split into simpler sentences: They appealed to the War Department for an overland expedition to destroy the ram that was to be named "Albemarle" after the body of water into which the Roanoke emptied. But the Union Army never felt it could spare the troops needed to carry out the task.