International Theater

As I see it, the Civil War was fought on four fronts:

Eastern Theater - Anything east of the Appalachian Mountains

Western Theater - Everything West of the Appalachians to the Mississippi River

Trans-Mississippi Theater - The events west of the Mississippi

International Theater- The Confederate Navy, the Union blockade,

international events

Monitor vs. the Merrimac

The Blockade

The South tried and break the Northern blockade in many creative in inovative ways. For a short time after the enactment of the Union blockade the South blockaded Washington and successfully cut it off from the sea. The Union had to many ships for the Confederates to match and after a brief scare for Lincoln the Potomac was reopened for traffic.

The South commisioned a sea going raider the CSS Alabama, built in England by the Laird Shipworks to disrupt Union shipping. The Alabama captured the the merchant bark Conrad which was converted to a warship and recommissioned as the CSS Tuscaloosa and susequenly joined the Alabama as a merchant raider.

The Tuscaloosa was sized by the British Navy December 27, 1863 for violating British neutrality in Simon's Bay South Africa. The Alabama was sunk by the USS Kearsarge June 19, 1864 off the coast of France. While the adventures of the Alabama and the Tuscaloosa were interesting and make good reading, they didn't have much effect on the Union blockade or upon Union supplies.

CSS Alabama

On February 17, 1864 the USS Housatonic, on blockade duty in Charleston Harbor, exploded and sank. No ship had been seen approaching the Union vessel; only a faint phosphorescent glow under the water betrayed the presence of the CSS Hunley at all. With this single act the age of submarine warfare was begun.

The Hunley

The Hunley was a death trap, twenty men, including the inventor, died getting the ship ready for its attack. After sinking the Housatonic the Hunley herself sank drowning all eight of her crew. By WWI the Germans would have most of the bugs worked out and employed the submarine to much better effect.

The Significance of the Monitor vs. the Merrimac

The epic First Battle of the Ironclads was watched by the people of Hampton and Newport News from the park where these pictures were taken. Hampton Roads off Sewell’s Point is a narrow waterway. The two ships maneuvered back and forth in front of this park in clear view of the watchers on shore.

The significance of the battle was two fold; first it made every non-ironclad naval ship in the world obsolete. The second point is one I’ve not read anywhere, at least I can’t find it but I believe the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac was the first battle between two ships without sails. If that’s true then that might be even more important that the iron hulls. The two ships moved around in the confined space of Hampton Roads without restriction due wind direction of power. The captains of both ships did not have to concern themselves with the danger of the enemy getting up wind and stealing their power or being run aground by an improper tack.

While the Merrimac was technically designed to be an ocean going vessel no one seriously considered her to be a transatlantic ship, her job was to sink the ships blockading the James River. She was not able to perform that mission.

The Development of Iron Clad Ships

Iorn clad ships were not invented in the United States. Both the British and the French had used iron clad gun boats during the Crimean War and the French had launched an iron clad ship, La Gloire, in 1859. By 1861 the British had two iron clads in service "on the line". So while it's often said that the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac made every other navy in the world obsolete, the truth is that other countries were actually ahead of America in developing and building iron ships. The historical significance of the Battle of Hampton Roads was that it was the first time any of these ships had fought each other.

The French La Gloire launched 1859 the first ocean going iron clad ship.

The British HMS Warrior launched in 1861 was the first iron hulled battleship.

The Strange Case of the CSS Shenandoah

As the war dragged on Jeff Davis and the Confederacy knew it was going to have to strike back at the Union economically the way the Union was striking at them. The South had tried to blockade Washington by building forts on the south side of the Potomac River but the Union neutralized them before they could do any serious damage.

The South then ordered several raiders like the Alabama constructed in English shipyards to attack Union shipping in the Atlantic. These raiders captured other ships that were themselves converted to raiders and the little Confederate Navy prospered. This brave little band was never big enough to do any real damage but they certainly gave it their best. Late in the war Davis ordered that serious damage to the northern industry had to be carried out somehow and called for an attack on northern whalers in the Pacific.

Two months after the formal surrender of the Confederacy the CSS Shenandoah, not knowing the war was over, attacked the fleet of northern whaling ships up in the Aleutian Islands, burning twenty two ships and capturing two others. The Confederate ship had setout eight months earlier from England and had been at sea when the South surrendered, so they were quite surprised to find out from a passing British ship, HMS Barracouta, that they were now pirates. Unsure of what else to do the Shenandoah sailed to Japan to seek asylum or at least some time to think. Ultimately, the crew of the Shenandoah surrendered the ship to the HMS Donegal on November 6, 1865 off Liverpool; having become the only Confederate ship to sail around the world.

The Naval War and Blockade

Monitor vs. Merrimac (Hampton Roads, VA)

The Monitor Exhibit Mainers Museum

Civil War Today

A West Coast Yankee's Guide to the War between the States