Confederate States Navy

The **Navy of the Confederate States** (**CSN**) 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 s and managed to sink a Union warship with a working submarine.  

## History 
The Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, won the 1860 presidential election. Southerners were outraged by the election of Lincoln, who opposed slavery in territories and new states. The outgoing U.S. president, James Buchanan, said this was against the law, but did nothing to stop them. Lincoln and his Republican party treated this secession as a rebellion.

Fighting started when the Confederates bombarded Fort Sumter, a Union Army fort. Lincoln called for 75,000 s for a period of 90 days. He also set up a blockade of the Southern coast and ports. Lincoln had no more than 40 usable warships and needed to start building up his Navy. At the time it was called the Gosport Navy Yard. Despite conflicting orders from the Secretary of the Navy, the resignation of many of his officers, and most of his yard workers leaving, his remaining men began destroying the shipyard. 

In early 1862, the Confederate ironclad warship CSS *Virginia* was rebuilt using the burned-out hulk of the *USS Merimack*. In the haste to abandon the shipyard, the *Merrimack* had only been destroyed above the waterline. The Confederates built an armored superstructure over the burned out hull. In March and April of 1862 the Confederate ironclad came close to upsetting the Union Navy's superiority. Both ships left the fight claiming the victory. But the Confederates failed to break the blockade. When Norfolk fell in May 1862, the CSS *Virginia* was destroyed by its crew so it wouldn't be captured. The Confederate Navy had two more ironclads under construction. They would build gunboats to assist this effort. She sailed from Liverpool as the *Orto* and was commissioned the *CSS Florida* on August 17, 1862 in the Bahamas. It burned 52 of them, sold 10 and converted one into another commerce raider, the *USS Tuscaloosa*. 

* *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 owner and crew divided up the large profits. During the Civil War, what was then called a torpedo would be best described as a naval mine.Confederate president Davis was opposed to their use. He thought they were ly weapons and it was un to use them against anyone. 

Another invention was the coal torpedo. Disguised to look like a lump of coal it exploded when shoveled into a boiler. They developed and used inventions such as torpedo boats, underwater mines and submarines during the last two years of the war. Some of these inventions had never been seen before while others were advancements on earlier designs. One of their main weapons was patented by Edgar C. Singer, the underwater contact mine. It contained  of black powder. They used up to seven different types of mines, torpedos, torpedo boats, and submarines. 
 
They built the submersible *H. L. Hunley*. This submarine destroyed the Union warship *USS Housatonic* by ramming it with a torpedo mounted on a pole. 

From their headquarters in the Spotswood Hotel in Richmond, Virginia, Singer and his agents set up secret s all over the South in coastal cities. During their two years of operations they blew up ships, trains, and railroad bridges killing a large number of people. Most of their missions were done at night close to Union patrol boats and sentries. Northern newspapers called Singer's inventions "infernal machines" and condemned their use as unchristian and assassinations of the worst kind. To cover up who they were and what they had done, their records were burned at the end of the war. They were constantly hunted as saboteurs and spies by Northern authorities. Admiral David Dixon Porter ordered that any of Singer's agents were caught with any of these inventions they were to be "shot on the spot". Names and descriptions of Singer's operatives were distributed by Union commanders. 

One group, under the  Henry Dillingham, was sent by Davis near the end of the war to occupied Kentucky and Missouri to destroy a key bridge and any federal transportation they could. They were known to use the "coal torpedos" and several sources say one was used to blow up the *Sultana* in April 1865. It was in the area Dillingham was operating in and it was ferrying ex-confederate prisoners of war at the time it was destroyed.

## Related pages 
* Confederate States Marine Corps
* Confederate States Lighthouse Bureau
* List of ships of the Confederate navy
* Blockade runners of the American Civil War
* Confederate army
* Union Navy
* United States Revenue Cutter Service

## Notes 
## References 
## Other websites 
* The Confederacy and Great Britain; YouTube
* CIVIL WAR at Sea; YouTube
* Civil War Torpedoes; YouTube