page_title: Confederate States Navy
section_title: Commerce raiders
hierarchical_section_title: Confederate States Navy / History / Commerce raiders
caption_attribution_description: CSS Alabama escaping from a Federal frigate. Signed at lower right "F. Muller"
context_page_description: The Navy of the Confederate States was the Navy of the Confederate States of America. After the Confederacy established itself in 1861, the elected president, Jefferson Davis appointed Stephen Mallory as his Secretary of the Confederate Navy. At the time the South had no ships capable of challenging the United States Navy's frigates. It did not have the shipbuilding capability or the raw materials necessary to build a navy. While they had limited resources, and did not have the firepower of the Union Navy, they developed a number of technologies. The Confederates developed naval mines, ironclad techniques and managed to sink a Union warship with a working submarine.
context_section_description: The Confederate Navy realized the Union Navy had more ships, guns and men they had with their limited resources. This called for a change in strategy. First, they would build forts to guard their key rivers and ports. They would build gunboats to assist this effort. Secondly, the South set up a fleet of naval vessels to attack Union merchant ships at sea. They also commissioned privateers to help with this effort.
  This was not a new concept. The Americans had been successful using commerce raiding against British merchant ships during the American Revolutionary War. Outgunned by the Union Navy they realized building lighter and faster cruisers would allow them to outrun the larger warships and go after the slower and usually unarmed merchant ships. Because the South had little shipbuilding capacity, they had these ships built in Great Britain. This was technically illegal, since Great Britain was a neutral country. So these ships had to be built in secret.
  
   
  Some the more successful and famous of the Confederate commerce raiders were:
  CSS Florida, was the first of the commerce raiders built in England. She sailed from Liverpool as the Orto and was commissioned the CSS Florida on August 17, 1862 in the Bahamas. She captured 37 merchant ships and two of those were converted into commerce raiders. Together they took another 23 ships. She was illegally captured by the USS Wachusett in the neutral port of Bahia, Brazil.
  CSS Alabama, captured 65 merchant ships in a 22-month period of time. It burned 52 of them, sold 10 and converted one into another commerce raider, the USS Tuscaloosa. It also sank a US gunboat, the USS Hatteras, the only Union ship lost on the open seas to a Confederate raider. She was sunk in a battle with the USS Kearsarge outside the port of Cherbourg, France.
  CSS Jefferson Davis, one of the most successful raiders with nine Northern merchant vessels taken in a two month period. She was a 187-ton former slave ship. The Davis was sunk in a gale off St. Augustine, Florida with all but two of her prize ships.
  CSS Sumter, was a steam cruiser built in Philadelphia in 1859. She was purchased by the Confederate government at New Orleans in 1861 and commissioned the Sumter. In six months she captured 18 US merchant ships. Of these she burned 8 and released or bonded 9. She was blocked by US warships in the port of Gibraltar. While there a number of US warships took turns keeping her from leaving the port. She was sold at auction 19 December 1862, but continued as a Confederate blockade runner renamed the Gibraltar and flying a British flag. She kept a number of US warships tied up hunting her and keeping her in port.
caption: CSS Alabama escaping from a Federal warship
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