MAY 1ST
The Confederate Congress creates a Provisional Navy to forward careers of younger, more energetic officers. The regular Confederate Navy became more of a retired list. The secretary of the Navy could then bring forth younger officers without offending the older ones.
Congress also allowed for the transfer of Army soldiers to Naval service. The Navy always had an acute shortage of seamen
The first part sure sounded like politics.
MAY 2ND
Captain John Rodgers wrote Secretary of Navy Welles in regards to the April ironclad attack on Charleston saying that the monitors had proven they could withstand the heaviest artillery fire, but apparently there were problems with "gun gear." Their ability to shoot back was diminished under heavy fire.
Withdrawing the monitors afterwards was the right thing to do because if " a single monitor were to fall into enemy hands then the whole character of the war would have changed-- the wooden blockade would have been at an end-- as far at least as Charleston is concerned."
USS Sacramento seized blockade running British schooner Wanderer off Murrell's Inlet, SC with cargo of salt and herring.
Old B-Runner
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