Blackhorse
Posts: 1983
Joined: 8/20/2000 From: Eastern US Status: offline
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Just some figures on the respective sizes of the two navies near the end of 1861: The CSA navy started out with 10 vessels mounting a total of 15 guns, only one of which (a 68-lber on the Lewis Cass) was comparable in size to the VIII (8") guns carried on US Sloops (12-20 each) or Frigates (40+) each. By November, the CSA had about 30 wooden vessels, all of them small, and most of them armed with a single gun. By contrast, by December 1861, the Union had brought into commission 76 of the "Old Navy" vessels, mounting 1,783 guns, and had built or purchased other vessels to bring the total to 264 vessels, carrying 2,557 guns. Simply comparing the number of guns afloat gives the Union about a 50:1 advantage; adjusted to reflect the heavier caliber of the Union guns, the edge would probably be more than 200:1. It is unlikely that the entire assembled Confederate fleet of 1861 could have defeated a single US (steam) screw sloop, or a steam or sail Frigate. On the two occasions when CSA "mosquito fleets" of wooden gunboats tried to engage the US Navy in the Atlantic -- at Port Royal and Roanoke Island -- the CSA vessels were sunk or scattered without seriously damaging a single US ship. Figures for the respective sizes of the Union and Confederate Navies are taken from J.Thomas Sharf's "History of the Confederate Navy." (pgs 24, 41, 47)
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WitP-AE -- US LCU & AI Stuff Oddball: Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? Moriarty: Crap!
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