 Seal of the Department of the Navy | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | February 21, 1861 |
| Dissolved | May 20, 1865 |
| Jurisdiction |  Confederate States Navy  Confederate States Marine Corps |
| Headquarters | Richmond, Virginia, U.S. |
| Agency executive | |
The Department of the Navy was the Confederate Civil Service department responsible for the administration of the affairs of the Confederate States Navy and Marine Corps. [1] It was officially established on February 21, 1861. [1]
The Department of the Navy was established by an act of the Provisional Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Alabama which passed into law on February 21, 1861. This act also established the position of Secretary of the Navy which was according to the act authorized to handle all affairs related to the navies of the Confederacy. President Jefferson Davis nominated Stephen R. Mallory and he was confirmed by Congress. On May 9, 1862, Mallory issued orders to James D. Bulloch instructing him to proceed to London, England to act as the Confederacy's agent in securing six new vessels, armaments, and supplies for the nascent Confederate Navy. These orders granted Bulloch a wide berth of discretion in the selection of these ships, but specified that these ships must be suitable for the commerce raiding. Furthermore, the orders specified that at least one Armstrong breech-loading rifled cannon be acquired for each vessel. [2] An amendment to this act passed on May 21, 1861 granted the Department of the Navy the power to grant patents concerning armed vessels, floating batteries, or other defenses.
Key positions of the Department of the Navy included: [3]
Important Bureaus and Offices of Department of the Navy included: [5]
The Office of Special Service was responsible for the construction of wooden gunboats. [5]
The Bureau of Orders and Details was responsible for the administration of personnel affairs of the Navy. This included the postings of officers and crews to ships, recruitment for the Navy, and the determination of promotions. [5] Captain William F. Lynch was Chief of the Bureau in 1862 and Captain French Forrest in 1862 to 1863. [6]
The Bureau was led by Commander John M. Brooke from 1863 to the Civil War's conclusion. [5]
The Confederate Torpedo Bureau was not part of the Navy Department. It was part of the War Department; i.e., the army. The Submarine Battery Service comprised the navy's torpedo specialists. It was created 31 October 1862 and originally commanded by Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury. The Submarine Battery Service primarily utilized electrically-detonated torpedoes to protect the South's waterways.
The Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, later the Office of Provisions and Clothing, was charged with supplying ships with food and clothing. [5]
The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery was responsible for the operation of several medical facilities in Southern ports. This department was managed by William A. W. Spotswood throughout its entire existence from April 10, 1861 to April 1865. [5]
The Marine Corps was established by an act of the Provisional Congress on March 16, 1861. [7] As originally legislated the Marine Corps was to be a battalion-sized force of six companies and a headquarters element led by a major. [7] The Marine Corps was later expanded into a regiment following an act of the Provisional Congress on May 20, 1861; this was spurred on by the secession of Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The newly expanded legion was authorized to consist of 1,000 men. [7] The first Commandant of the Corps was Colonel Lloyd J. Beall who was appointed to that capacity on May 23. On June 1, 1861 the Virginia Marine Corps was incorporated into the Confederate States Marine Corps. [7] In 1862, the first Confederate Congress appropriated a budget of CS$243,322 for the operation of the Marine Corps.
The Confederate States Navy (CSN) was the naval branch of the Confederate States Armed Forces, established by an act of the Confederate States Congress on February 21, 1861. It was responsible for Confederate naval operations during the American Civil War against the United States's Union Navy.
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting against the United States forces to win the independence of the Southern states and uphold and expand the institution of slavery. On February 28, 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress established a provisional volunteer army and gave control over military operations and authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to the newly chosen Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. Davis was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, and colonel of a volunteer regiment during the Mexican–American War. He had also been a United States senator from Mississippi and U.S. Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. On March 1, 1861, on behalf of the Confederate government, Davis assumed control of the military situation at Charleston, South Carolina, where South Carolina state militia besieged Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, held by a small U.S. Army garrison. By March 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress expanded the provisional forces and established a more permanent Confederate States Army.
Stephen Russell Mallory was a Democratic senator from Florida from 1851 to the secession of his home state and the outbreak of the American Civil War. For much of that period, he was chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs. It was a time of rapid naval reform, and he insisted that the ships of the U.S. Navy should be as capable as those of Britain and France, the foremost navies in the world at that time. He also wrote a bill and guided it through Congress to provide for compulsory retirement of officers who did not meet the standards of the profession.
The Civil War Campaign Medal is considered the first campaign service medal of the United States Armed Forces. The decoration was awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces who had served in the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865.
The Confederate States Marine Corps (CSMC), also referred to as the Confederate States Marines, was a branch of the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. It was established by an act of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States on March 16, 1861. The Corps' manpower was initially authorized at 45 officers and 944 enlisted men, and was increased on September 24, 1862, to 1,026 enlisted men. The organization of the Corps began at Montgomery, Alabama, and was completed at Richmond, Virginia, when the capital of the Confederate States was moved to that location. The headquarters and main training facilities remained in Richmond throughout the war, located at Camp Beall on Drewry's Bluff and at the Gosport Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia. The last Marine unit surrendered to the Union army on April 9, 1865, with the Confederacy itself capitulating a month later.
Atlanta was a casemate ironclad that served in the Confederate and Union Navies during the American Civil War. She was converted from a British-built blockade runner named Fingal by the Confederacy after she made one run to Savannah, Georgia. After several failed attempts to attack Union blockaders, the ship was captured by two Union monitors in 1863 when she ran aground. Atlanta was floated off, repaired, and rearmed, serving in the Union Navy for the rest of the war. She spent most of her time deployed on the James River supporting Union forces there. The ship was decommissioned in 1865 and placed in reserve. Several years after the end of the war, Atlanta was sold to Haiti, but was lost at sea in December 1869 on her delivery voyage.
French Forrest was an American naval officer who served first in the United States Navy and later the Confederate States Navy. His combat experience prior to the American Civil War included service in the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War.
The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading.
The Confederate Secret Service refers to any of a number of official and semi-official secret service organizations and operations conducted by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Some of the organizations were under the direction of the Confederate government, others operated independently with government approval, while still others were either completely independent of the government or operated with only its tacit acknowledgment.
John Lawrence Rapier was an American Civil War soldier and businessman. A native of Mobile, Alabama, he saw action as a sergeant major in the Seven Days Battles, and later became a second lieutenant in the Confederate States Marine Corps. He was captured at Fort Gaines, Mobile Bay, Alabama, August 5, 1864, and paroled at Nanna Hubba Bluff, Alabama, May 10, 1865.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the American Civil War:
The military forces of the Confederate States, also known as Confederate forces, were the military services responsible for the defense of the Confederacy during its existence (1861–1865).
The Confederate States Department of the Treasury was the department of the executive branch of the Confederate States of America responsible for the administration of the economic affairs of the Confederacy. These affairs including the issuing of debt, the collecting of taxes, the printing of money, and the administration of customs. The Department of the Treasury was led by the Secretary of the Treasury, a position which was established in legislation passed by the Provisional Confederate Congress in 1861.
The Confederate States War Department was a cabinet-level department in the government of the Confederate States of America responsible for the administration of the affairs of the Confederate States Army. The War Department was led by the Confederate States secretary of war. During its existence, the War Department was the largest department of the Civil Service in the Confederacy.
George Washington Gift (1833–1879), U. S. Navy officer, writer, banker, civil engineer, politician, Confederate Navy officer, businessman, and newspaper editor.
During the American Civil War, blockade runners were used to get supplies through the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America that extended some 3,500 miles (5,600 km) along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastlines and the lower Mississippi River. The Confederacy had little industrial capability and could not indigenously produce the quantity of arms and other supplies needed to fight against the Union. To meet this need, numerous blockade runners were constructed in the British Isles and were used to import the guns, ordnance and other supplies that the Confederacy desperately needed, in exchange for cotton that the British textile industry needed greatly. To penetrate the blockade, these relatively lightweight shallow draft ships, mostly built in British shipyards and specially designed for speed, but not suited for transporting large quantities of cotton, had to cruise undetected, usually at night, through the Union blockade. The typical blockade runners were privately owned vessels often operating with a letter of marque issued by the Confederate government. If spotted, the blockade runners would attempt to outmaneuver or simply outrun any Union Navy warships on blockade patrol, often successfully.
James Brown was an officer in the United States Navy who served as quartermaster aboard the USS Albatross during the American Civil War. He received his nation's highest award for bravery during combat, the U.S. Medal of Honor, for his actions aboard ship during the Union Navy's May 4, 1863 attack on Fort DeRussy in an attempt to disrupt the hold by Confederates over the Red River region of Louisiana. That award was conferred on April 16, 1864.
The Confederate Nitre and Mining Bureau was a civilian government bureau to provide the Confederate States of America with needed materials such as copper, iron, lead, saltpeter, sulfur, zinc, and other metals. The Bureau oversaw civilian contracts and offered advice, instruction and guidance in the production of these materials. The Nitre and Mining Bureau was also known as the "CSNMB", the "Bureau of Nitre" or the "Nitre Bureau". The Niter and Mining Corps was the military division of the Bureau. The Nitre and Mining Bureau was part of the Confederate Ordnance Department, under the supervision of General Josiah Gorgas. The Nitre and Mining Bureau was supervised by General Isaac M. St. John. The Central Ordinance Laboratory was headed by John Mallet.
Felix Senac was a Confederate States Navy agent to Europe from 1862 to 1865.