During the Civil War, the South’s Confederate States Navy and the North’s Union Navy created a new war in the coasts, rivers and seas. With new technologies, both the North and the South were able to fight brutal battles on the water.
During the Civil War, both the North and the South had their own navies. The North’s Union Navy was superior to that of the South’s Confederate States Navy since they had more fleets, warships, resources, and shipyards. The South had less resources, fleets and shipyards than the North had. However, the South’s latest technologies like Ironclads made it easy to use their resources to their fullest potential. Even though ironclads had been introduced in Europe in the 1850’s, the Union Navy's warships were still
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built of wood, helping the South to have the upper hand as told by the article “The Navies of the Civil War”. The North quickly caught up to the South's new technologies with the help of inventor John Ericsson. Ericsson's ironclads were underwater and included the world’s first rotating gun turner that was protected by eight inches of iron according to the article “The Navies of the Civil War”. The North’s ironclad, Monitor and the South’s ironclad Virginia met in 1862 at Hampton Roads, Virginia marking the first ever ironclad vessels battle. After this battle, both the Union and the Confederate States Navies started to turn their warships to ironclads. The Unions Navy also had a fleet of gunboats that supported Grant’s army. Most of these gunboats were flat-bottomed, steam-driven barges with heavy timbered sides and some like the Cairo were iron plated as stated by the article “The Navies of the Civil War”. Before the Civil War, warships had not changed.
Warships were made out of wood and were sail-driven. The Union Navy's first task was to begin building dozens of warships and to purchase hundreds of merchant ships that were converted into blockades, according to the article “The Navies of the Civil War”. The North’s warships were built of wood until the South switched to Ironclads when they captured the Merrimack which they later renamed Virginia. With the help of John Ericsson, the Union Navy was able to switch their wooden boats to underwater ironclads with gun turret called “Monitor” class gunboats as told by the article “Steel & Steam”. Most of these warships were steam powered. In the article (“Steel & Steam” by Roger A. Bailey) it states that even though steam engines existed before the Civil War, Robert Fulton introduced the Union Navy to steam powered boats. Even though steam engined ship were slow to catch on, by the late 1850’s all new warships featured steam engines. Steamers achieved an unprecedented freedom of movement that allowed ships to easily return upriver after transporting goods to port or continue a journey with weak or adverse …show more content…
winds. During the Civil War, new warships was introduced by both the North and the South. These new warships included ironclads, torpedos, steam-powered warships, rams, and submarines. Ironclads were introduced by the South’s Confederate States Navy after they captured the Unions Merrimack which they later renamed Virginia.With the help of John Ericsson, the Unions Navy were able to make their own underwater ironclads with rotating gun turrets called “Monitor” class gunboats. After the Hampton Roads battle, naval warfare was changed and both the North and the South realised that wooden ships were weak in comparison to that of ironclads. Rams were not an invention of the Civil War, but they were returned to stop ironclads. Roger A. Bailey says in his article “Steel & Steam” that with the help of steam engines, ships were more maneuverable and allowed a ship to get close enough to ram and sink ironclads. Torpedos were introduced in the South were iron was limited. The South was forced to seek new methods to protect their ports, leading to the invention of torpedos. Torpedoes were submerged explosives that could detonate under enemy ships. When torpedoes became successful, the Confederate State Navy designed torpedo boats and the Union Navy quickly adopted to these as told by the article “Steel & Steam.” Even though steam engines were invented before the Civil War, it wasn’t until the 1850’s that almost every warship featured steam engines. Submarines were introduced by the South in February 1864. The South took the concept of low-profile torpedo boats one step further like the article “Steel & Steam” applies. The first submarine was introduced to the Civil War by the South when they took the idea of torpedoes to the next level.
The South used submarines to break the Unions Navy blockades. The first every submarine to destroy an enemy ship was the H.L. Hunley. The Hunley was ready to be tested on July 1863 in Mobile Bay where it proved successful by sinking a coal floatboat like the article “Civil War Submarine” explains. The Hunley was then sent to Charleston, South Carolina to stop Union blockades. On February 17, 1864, the Hunley meet the Union's USS Housatonic. The Housatonic was sunk within five minutes of battle. Lieutenant Dixon and his crew became the first to ever sink an enemy ship using a submarine as told by the article “Civil War Submarine”. After the battle, the Hunley was never heard from again until the 1970’s where it was found by underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence.
During the Civil War, both the North and the South's Navy found new ways to change warfare. From the first warship to submarines, Civil War technology became a new standard of warfare among
nations.
In the American Revolutionary War, a manned underwater craft named the American Turtle (or the "water-machine") was used against the British Navy. David Brushnell designed this ingenious machine in 1771. The submarine was a one manned, egg-shaped vessel which was propelled by hand-operated screw-like devices. It was bottom-heavy in order for it to remain upright. The operator would plant a submersible mine that could be triggered by a simple clockwork mechanism. He could paddle away after he attached the magazine of gunpowder onto the enemy ship. The operator could stay under for about thirty minutes
The Civil War in the United States from 1861 to 1865 serves as a dark reminder of how disjointed a nation can become over issues that persistently cause heated debate among party factions. Most students that have taken courses in American history understand the disadvantage possessed by the Confederate States of America as they fought against the powerful Union army for what they perceived as a necessary institution of slavery. Historians have debated over the effectiveness of the blockade and if it was important in creating the failures faced by the Confederate States of America. This debate has generated the contested question of “Did the Union blockade succeed in the American Civil War?” The blockade, whether considered a success or an absolute failure on the part of the Union, holds grand significance in the history of the United States. The increased development in the Union’s naval department correlates directly with the necessity of possessing ships that could withstand the threat of blockade running.
The North entered the Civil War with many distinct assets that rendered them more competent than the Southern states. Those assets consisted of having more men, more financial stability, economic strength, and far reaching transportation systems. According to the book: Why the North Won the Civil War by Donald, David Herbert, and Richard Nelson the primary cause to the North’s success was given by, “the vast superiority of the North in men and materials, in instruments of production, in communication facilities, in business organization and skill – and assuming for the sake of the argument no more than rough quality in statecraft and generalship – the final outcome seems all but inevitable.” In many ways the north, during the Civil, was more economically dominant than the South
The book I read is called IRONCLADS OF THE CIVIL WAR. When you think of the Civil War you think of on land battles, but there were also many battles in the water. The Civil War introduced the Ironclads, which are huge ships made of iron with no sails and very destructive.
An even greater advantage of the North was its industrial development. The states that joined the Confederacy produced just seven percent of the nation’s manufactures on the eve of the war. What made the disparity even greater was that little of this was in heavy industry. The only iron foundry of any size in the Confederacy was the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, which had long supplied the United States Army. Tr...
When the war began and the union blockaded all their ports the south was out of luck. They had very little industrial workers and manufactured goods compared to the north so during the blockade they could not make their own weapons or food other than corn. (Doc 2) The north had the advantage because they supplied the south with a lot of important items such as cotton-mills and steamships. (Doc 3) They also had better means of transportation. The north had better boats because they had factories equipped to make them and they also had more railroads to transfer weapons and equipment to soldiers. (Doc 1) The north was meant to win from the beginning and even though it took longer than expected they still beat the south and defeated slavery. No one document will tell you that slavery caused the Civil War, but if it had not been for slavery the war would have never
Throughout the early parts of the century the North had heavily concentrated on industrial improvement while the South had mostly concentrated on agricultural means. This proved to be of great significance, as the two sides would find themselves in a high cost and high demand war. During the onset of the war the "North contained 80% of total U.S. industry" (Rivera pg.1), and many of these production facilities were quickly and easily transformed in order to support the demands of the military. The South on the other hand had very few production facilities and most of them lay along the contested Border States, and they lost most of these facilities when West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware opted to...
The Civil War was unlike any other war ever fought in America and had many effects on the home front for both the North and the South. It is stated to be the first ever total war, which is a war against not only the civilians but also the armies. The Civil War is also considered the first modern war fought by the U.S. troops. Lincoln asked volunteers to sign up for only three months. Many people thought the war wouldn’t last long. However, the war continued on for four years. The Union armies had around 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men and the Confederate army had approximately 750,000 to 1,250,000 men. The entire North and South society was affected by the war and desired for many social and economic assets. The Civil war brought new military techniques which caused the armaments to be more destructive. Ironclad ships and railroads were sufficiently used within the war. The north had a motive; they wanted to weaken the South’s longing to victory. The North tried to achieve this last motive by inflicting wholesale destruction upon the South (Janda, 1995). More than a hundred people seemed to be spies or secessionists in Maryland. In time, they were arrested due to not being faithful to the union and their state. Pro-secessionist newspapers were shut down, and telegrams and mail were censored (Perret, 2004).
The South was fighting against a government that they thought was treating them unfairly. They believed the Federal Government was overtaxing them, with tariffs and property taxes making their lifestyles even more expensive than they already had been. The North was fighting the Civil War for two reasons, first to keep the Nation unified, and second to abolish slavery. Abraham Lincoln, the commander and chief of the Union or Northern forces, along with many other Northerners, believed that slavery was not only completely wrong, but it was a great humiliation to America. Once we can see that with these differences a conflict would surely occur, but not many had predicted that a full-blown war would breakout.
"If wars are won by riches, there can be no question why the North eventually prevailed." The North was better equipped than the South, with the resources necessary to be successful in a long term war like the Civil War was, which was fought from 1861 1865. Prior, and during the Civil war, the North's economy was always stronger than the South's, boasting of resources that the Confederacy had no means of attaining. Compared to the South, The North had more factories available for production of war supplies and larger amounts of land for growing crops. Its population was several times of the South's, which was a potential source for military enlistees. Although the South had better naval leadership and commanders, such as Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson, they lacked the number of factories and industries to produce needed war materials. Therefore, the North won the American Civil War due to the strength of their industrialized economy, rather than their commanders and strategies.
There were several reasons why the North won the Civil War. One of the major reasons was the blockade of conferderate ports from 1861 to 1865. After the battle of Fort Sumter in april of 1861, U.S. Secretary of State William Henry Seward proposed this naval blockade to President Lincoln, which would prevent the conferderate states from exporting their cotton cash crop, and importing valuable war supplies and necessities such as weapons, army tents, blankets and food. The U.S. Could have decided to close the ports since a nation does not blockade their own ports. However, under international law a country was not allowed to stop and search international traffic. For this reason the North decided to blockade the ports, this decision served two purposes. One, it allowed the North to make lawful stops and searches of vessels under the protection of international law. Secondly the Conferderate states were recognized as an independent nation by foreign governments.
1. The civil war was fought between the Northern and the Southern states from 1861-1865.
The Civil War consisted of many legendary battles over the soil of the United and Confederate States of America, which will be retold for generations in history books. Although these land battles were indeed great, the concept of this paper will be the Naval warfare of the Civil War, paying certain attention to the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac.
The Civil War was a battle between the northern states and the southern states. The southern states wanted to secede
The USS Constitution started Construction in November 1, 1794 and wasn’t finish till October 21, 1797. When it got finished it set of to guard the coast and the Boston Harbor.after that it became the first navy ship in America. It had a strong body that was so tough,that would cannon- balls bounce right off it.