Confederate Navy.
The Confederacy was able to enter upon the seas early, with a naval force that had to be reckoned with, as a result of its enterprise in seizing the undefended Norfolk Navy-yard only nine days after
Sumter was fired upon.
As early as February 21, 1861,
Jefferson Davis appointed
Stephen Mallory as
Secretary of the Confederate Navy.
He resigned from the United States Senate, where he had represented his State, Florida, and before he joined the
Confederate Cabinet the navy-yard in his home town,
Pensacola, had been seized, January 10, 1861, by
Florida and
Alabama State troops.
The Federal navy-yards in the
South were neither so active nor so well equipped as those at the
North.
But Norfolk Navy-yard, one of the oldest and most extensive, was provided with everything for the building and finishing of vessels of the largest size.
At the time of the secession of
Virginia it contained at least 2,000 pieces of heavy cannon, including 300 new Dahlgren guns.
The aggregate value of the property there was close to $10,000,000. Most of this fell into the hands of the
Confederates.
Owing to the possession of the yard equipment, it was here that the
Southern naval constructors were first able to exemplify their ideas in ironclad construction by raising the hull of the sunken “
Merrimac” and converting her into the armored “
Virginia,” to strike terror at the heart of the
North by her performances in
Hampton Roads in 1862.
Although the
Federals regained possession of
Norfolk soon afterward and compelled the destruction of the “
Virginia,” her record stirred the
Confederates to almost superhuman efforts.
Secretary Mallory was most active in founding enterprises both at home and abroad for the construction of vessels.
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The beginning of the Confederate navy--ruins of the Norfolk navy-yard, 1862 |
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