Confederate Shipbuilding in England

From the September 19, 2021, Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) ) "Confederate ships topic for BRCWRT" by George Morris.

Patrick Martin spoke  about Confederate ships made in England before the Baton Rouge Civil War Round Table on August 19.

Martin noted that at the beginning of the Civil War,  the Confederacy  did not have a Navy of facilities to construct and equip warships.  Confederate states did not have the industrial base of the North, so shipbuilding was undertaken on a much smaller scale.

Early in the war, Union General Winfield Scott drew up a strategy known as the Anaconda Plan to restrict  water access to Southern ports, which would  deny the Confederacy   of needed supplies.

This would be the blockade of the Southern coast.

Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory immediately embarked in a program that involved foreign shipyards to build ocean-going ships  to draw the Union Navy away from the South and disrupt international commerce going to the North.

Three commerce raiders were built for the Confederacy  in Liverpool, England.  The most famous of these was the CSS Alabama commanded by Captain, later Admiral, Raphael Semmes, which sank 64 Union vessels until it was sunk by the USS Kearsarge in the English Channel.

Semmes was rescued from the channel by a yacht and taken to England where he was received as a hero.

The other two ships were the CSS Florida and CSS Shenandoah.

After the war, England was made to pay damages by the ships built for the Confederacy.

--Old B-Runner

Edward Simpson's Ships-- Part 4: USS Vixen in the Mexican War

After the successful completion of the Yucatan Campaign, the Vixen returned to blockade duty and later participated in the capture of Laguna on 20 September.  She also took part in the capture of Tampico on 14 November then covered U.S. troop landings at Vera Cruz on 9 March 1847.

After Mexican envoys rejected peace offers, the American squadron attacked the city on the 23rd.  Two days later, the USS Spitfire and Vixen made a daring  and visually spectacular close range attack on Vera Cruz's shore defenses.

Vera Cruz finally surrendered unconditionally on the 28th.

This stunning victory enabled General Winfield Scott's army to march overland by the shortest distance and capture Mexico City which was the decisive event in the war.

HOME SQUADRON (1848-1854)

The Vixen then conducted cleanup operations for the remainder of the war.

After the ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on 30 May 1848, she joined the Home Squadron and underwent repairs at the Washington Navy Yard in 1850.  Temporarily decommissioned at Pensacola, Florida, in 1853 by several outbreaks of yellow fever and she underwent further repairs at Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1854.

The Vixen was sold in 1855.

--Old B-Runner

155 Years Ago: Scott's Anaconda Plan

MAY 2ND, 1861:  General Winfield Scott wrote to President Lincoln suggesting a cordon capable of enveloping the seceded states and noted that "the transportation of men and all supplies by water is about a fifth of land cost, besides the immense savings of time."

On the next day, Scott elaborated further to General George McClellan:  "We rely greatly on the sure operation of a complete blockade of the Atlantic and Gulf ports soon to commence.  In connection with such blockade we propose a powerful movement down the Mississippi to the ocean, with a cordon of posts at proper points ...

"..The object being to clear out and keep open this great line of communication in connection with the strict blockade of the seaboard, so as to envelop the insurgent States and bring them to terms with less bloodshed than by any other plan."

--Scott's Anaconda Plan.  --Old B-Runner

155 Years Ago: Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan-- Part 2

MAY 2ND, 1861:  This was the heart of the Winfield Scott's celebrated Anaconda Plan which would strangle the Confederacy on all sides.  Control of the sea and inland waterways by the Union was key.

The great strategy for victory was to (a) strengthen the blockade, (b) split the Confederacy along the line of the Mississippi River, and (c) support land operations by amphibious assault, gunfire and transport.

The Union Navy had a key role to play in all of this.

--Old B-R'er

Dec. 28, 1860: The Sad Shape of Forts Taylor and Jefferson in Florida

Continuing with Winfield Scott's letter to the Secretary of War.

Scott said that Forts Taylor and Jefferson were "of far greater value to even the distant points of the Atlantic coast and to the people on the upper waters of the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio Rivers than to the State of Florida.

"There is only a feeble company at Key West (Capt. John Brannon's) for the defense of Fort Taylor, and not a soldier at Fort Jefferson to resist a handful of filibusters or a rowboat of pirates; and the Gulf, soon after the beginning of secession or revolutionary troubles in the adjacent States, will swarm with such nuisances."

Things Looking Bleak in Florida.  --Old B-Runner

Dec. 28, 1860: Fort Sumter Not to Be Evacuated and Should Be Reinforced

Continuing with Winfield Scott's message to the Secretary of War:

"1.  That orders may not be given for the evacuation of Fort Sumter;

2.  That one hundred and fifty recruits may instantly be sent from Governor's Island to re-enforce that garrison, with ample supplies of ammunition,  subsistence, including fresh vegetables, as potatoes, onions turnips; and

3.  That one or two armed vessels be sent to support said fort."

--Old B-R'er

Dec. 27 and 28, 1860: The Army Hasn't Heard From Anderson and Scott Is Ill

As South Carolina seceded, things were looking bleak for the Union's forts in that state as well as elsewhere.

Making matters worse, the head U.S. Army commander, Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott  was in ill health.

  Lt.Col. G.W. Lay, delivered a message to the President of the U.S. about 3:30 p.m. on December 27, 1860, saying that no orders had been sent to Major Anderson at Fort Moultrie, nor had they received any reports from him.

The next day Col. Lay delivered another message to the secretary of War saying:

"Lieutenant-General Scott, who has had a bad night, and can scarcely hold his head up this morning."

--Old B-Runner