jimwinsor -> RE: Naval Question. (12/8/2006 6:02:14 PM)
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Well, no they had more than 5 in July, I think. Omitting the CSA river navy, and just listing their sea or coasting capable vessels, it looks like they had as follows: The South entered upon the war without any naval preparation, and with very limited resources by which its deficiencies could be promptly supplied. Indeed, it would hardly be possible to imagine a great maritime country more destitute of the means for carrying on a naval war than the Confederate States in 1861. No naval vessels, properly speaking, came into their possession, except the Fulton, an old side-wheeler built in 1837, and at this time laid up at Pensacola, and the sunken and half-destroyed hulks at Norfolk, of which only one, the Merrimac, could be made available for service. The seizures of other United States vessels included six revenue-cutters, the Duane at Norfolk, the William Aiken at Charleston, the Lewis Cass at Mobile, the Robert McClelland and the Washington at New Orleans, and the Henry Dodge at Galveston; ## three coast-survey vessels, the schooners Petrel and Twilight, and the steam-tender Firefly; and six or eight light-house tenders. As all of these were small, and most of them were sailing vessels, they were of little value. Several coasting or river steamers belonging to private owners, which were lying in Southern waters when the war broke out, were taken or purchased by the Confederate Government. ##The James C. Dobbin was also seized at Savannah, but was soon afterward released.-J. R. S. The most important were the Jamestown and the Yorktown (afterward the Patrick Henry) at Richmond; the Selden at Norfolk; the Beaufort, Raleigh, Winslow, and Ellis, screw-tugs plying on the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal; the side-wheel passenger boats Seabird and Curlew, in the North Carolina Sounds; the Nashville at Charleston, and the Everglade at Savannah. The Star of the West, whose name had been on everybody's lips after the attack made upon her in January, 1861, while she was attempting to relieve Fort Sumter, had subsequently sailed on transport service to Indianola, Texas, where she was seized in April by a party of Texas volunteers. In the Confederate navy she became the St. Philip. She was stationed at New Orleans as a receiving-ship when Farragut passed the forts, and fled with other vessels up the Mississippi River, taking refuge finally in the Yazoo. In March, 1863, when the ships of the Yazoo Pass expedition descended the windings of the Tallahatchie to attack Fort Pemberton, they found the river barricaded by the hull of a sunken vessel, which was no other than the once-famous Star of the West. The purchases and seizures made at New Orleans enabled the Confederate Government to equip at that point its only considerable fleet. The vessels fitted out successively by Commodores Rousseau and Hollins included the Habana, afterward the Sumter, in which Semmes made his first commerce-destroying cruise; the Enoch Train, which was altered into a ram and called the Manassas; the Florida and Pamlico, employed on Lake Pontchartrain; the Marques de la Habama (Mr. Rae), the Webb, Yankee (Jackson), Gros-tete (Maurepas), Lizzie Simmons (Pontchartrain), Ivy, General Polk, and a few others of smaller size. The State of Louisiana and the citizens of New Orleans also made purchases of vessels on their own account. Thus the Governor Moore and the General Quitman, which took part in the action at the forts, were State vessels; and the Enoch Train was originally purchased by private subscription. There were also a large number of flat-boats or coal-barges, destined for use as fire-ships, upon which Commodore George N. Hollins placed great reliance. (http://www.civilwarhome.com/unionconfednavies.htm) If you add up all the early seizures and purchases listed above, you get in the 20-30 range. Now, the same article mentions CSA privateers as well...20 in number...throw those in and you have your 50 or so vessels the USA has to deal with at game start. Of course, you could correctly point out that many (if not most) of these ships were in not first line modern fighting ships...but if you read the description of the 90 vessel Union navy in the same article, you'll see that comment can easily be made for them as well. But in any case, like I pointed out above...the real problem is not so much the number of ships, but the 1=10 scale, IMO.
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