From: DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN FIGHTING SHIPS, Vol. II Navy Department, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations Naval History Division, Washington, D.C. Appendix II Confederate Forces Afloat The Government of the Confederate States of America got underway in the spring of 1861, totally unprepared from a naval standpoint to uphold the independence it had declared. The Confederacy lacked adequate means to conduct an offensive or defensive war, wanting in ships to defend its long coastline and inland waters, to carry the war to Northern shores, or to conduct the foreign trade vital to existence. To this bleak outlook was added but limited hope and possibility for constructing or acquiring a navy. Nevertheless, inspired determination and ingenuity, evinced particularly by the more than 300 able officers who resigned from the United States Navy to support the Southern cause, culminated in the rapid appearance of many varied types of forces afloat under the Confederate flag. The State navies provided the foundation for events to follow. The seceding States confiscated small United States ships, such as revenue cutters, coast survey ships, and lighthouse tenders, that were still within their grasp; they purchased others from Northern as well as Southern owners; and they quickly began to build additional vessels better suited to warfare. These actions were repeated in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. Between 20 February 1861 when the Confederate Navy was authorized and the following summer, the State navies were gradually turned over to the central Government. More ships were purchased or captured and added to this nucleus, while construction of ironclads and other war vessels began. Some ships served under direct army control. The Mississippi River Defense Fleet, composed of 14 ships manned by the army and under the overall command of Capt. J. E. Montgomery, CSN, was one such organization which operated during 1862. A second army group, the Texas Marine Department, established in 1861, was charged with the defense of coastal waters and rivers, especially in the vicinity of Galveston. The Department employed more than 25 ships, including gunboats, transports, repair ships, and coal barges. Elsewhere, the army carried men and material over the river highways in transports that they controlled, manned, and sometimes captained. To compensate for the relatively small number of ships and inadequate construction facilities and supplies, the South improvised with marked daring. Their resourcefulness produced the first submarine to sink an opposing warship, and numerous types of torpedoes which wrought heavy damage against United States ships. Confederate cruisers proved venturesome and successful in weakening the North’s war effort by damaging her trade, and luring Union ships from the blockade to facilitate the passage of runners. The Confederacy, like the Union, pioneered in constructing the seagoing as well as river ironclads which significantly influenced the war’s outcome: In the West, the Union’s partially ironclad ships figured decisively in the crucial campaigns that divided and pierced to the heart of the Confederacy. In the East and along the Gulf, ironclads were the spearhead of victory for the North, and those of the South a constant threat. The first battle between the ironclads, MONITOR and VIRGINIA, had world repercussions that revolutionized naval warfare. A realistic appraisal of Southern naval strength has necessitated a broader scope fro this undertaking than inclusion of only naval ships operated by the central Government. Thus “Confederate Forces Afloat considers a wide range of militarily employed craft and ships., whether under Navy, Army, Confederate States Government, or State government control. In categorizing these forces the editors do not try to impose a system of nomenclature which the Confederates themselves did not employ; classification was arbitrary with them and had not yet crystallized into hard and fast rule. The important thing is that the ships here included were all part of the struggle of the South,-all “Public Vessels” and justly called “Confederate Forces Afloat.” In this struggle the efforts of each element demonstrated a keen realization by certain southern leaders of the vital import of effective offensive and defensive measures on the high seas, in coastal waters and inland rivers-but leaders as a group never fully realized the tremendous importance that control of the sea and inland waters played in the ultimate destiny of the South. Along with the histories of over 500 ships of the Confederate forces, this appendix contains four annexes which provide the reader with additional information. In the case of the River Defense Fleet (Annex II), the Texas Marine Department (Annex III), and some Confederate privateers (Annex I), histories of the ships listed in these annexes are included in the body of the appendix. In the case of some Confederate privateers (Annex I) and “Stone Fleet” ships (Annex IV), histories are not included in the body of the appendix. The reader, therefore, not finding a ship listed in the alphabetical section, should also consult Annex I and Annex IV for its listing there. Ships’ histories appearing in the body of the appendix are cross-referenced to an appropriate annex. No listing of Confederate ships prepared in the mid-twentieth century can be considered definitive; and necessarily, the histories of many remain incomplete statistically and operationally. Frequently, exhaustive research produced the most meager returns, or at best conflicting data. It has been difficult to find data that can be totally relied upon, especially when it comes to type, size, number of guns, extent and thickness of armor, speed, tonnage, and complement. Conscientious effort was made to consult primary sources, an endeavor which was persistently complicated by the destruction of many Confederate records, the dispersal of others among museums, private individuals, and historical societies of the land, and the conflict among those still extant and accessible. It is hoped that readers who hold authentic pertinent documents will send us copies to insure historical accuracy and completeness in a future revision. In considering the statistics included with these Confederate ships’ histories, the reader should remember that they often changed, sometimes radically, during a ship’s lifetime. When ships were taken over, and frequently renamed, they were often altered and fitted for war with generous additions of metal, wood, or cotton. The addition of a ram, for example, increased a ship’s offensive capability. These same materials were often used to increase a ship’s defenses by protection of vital parts and spaces. Armament was often added or changed. In the case of a ship captured, then, the reader should not be surprised to find one set of statistics under her history in the main part of the Dictionary different from her statistics in this appendix. In either case, in the statistics of the U.S. Navy ships, the figure chosen to used were those of the ship when first serving with her respective Navy. Then too, a ship first used by one navy may be quite different after capture and/or conversion by the other navy and the statistics in each case will vary. Likewise with privateers, statistics may vary between the original ship and her configuration when granted a letter of marque. Lengths are not uniform and cannot be assumed to be “overall” rather than “between perpendiculars” or “water-line length.” Neither can anyone give assurance in all cases that “extreme beam” (including paddle-box of a side-wheeler) is shown. Depths and drafts vary beyond recognition. “Tonnage” is the most vexatious set of concepts the reader will ever encounter in dealing with ships of any period-but never more baffling than during the Civil War. It should be understood at the outset that the “t.” is to be interpreted as an index figure rather than a known quantity, solely for identification, not in order to visualize size. Wherever known to be displacement, tonnage is shown by “dp” rather than “t.” conforming to style in other parts of the Dictionary. Generally speaking today: Tonnage of the ship alone, without contents, is “light weight” or “light displacement”; her light plus “deadweight” (her cargo, stores, fuel, water, personnel, etc.) is “load displacement.” No arbitrary yardstick such as “standard” or “normal displacement” can be readily applied to ships of mercantile origin except as an educated estimate by a specialist, even today. It the picture now is legal science fiction, it was legal fiction merely in 1861-65. Conceive of the chaos implicit in five different systems of measuring “registered” tonnages (gross and net) obtaining at the time. A reader who wishes to understand the unbelievably confused principles of measuring such tonnages can do no better than to consult Dr. John Lyman’s clear expositions of REGISTER TONNAGE AND ITS MEASUREMENT IN THE AMERICAN NEPTUNE, Vol. V (1945), pp. 223-34, 311-25. Suffice it to say that the figures given under “t” in this Dictionary could be “carpenter’s measurement,” “builder’s old measurement,” “Thames measurement,” tons according to New York, Philadelphia or New Orleans custom house rules; ;Moorsom system, which was made mandatory in the United States on 6 May 1864 and brought with it “net tonnage” alongside gross, after deduction or exemption of non-earning spaces. Army records sometimes specify “capacity,” which is usually taken to mean the more deadweight, largely introduced in World War I, yet colloquial term “tons burden” is by no means always an equivalent but may refer to the vexing gross register tons. But no one can be sure it what category a “tonnage” figure belongs at the time of the Civil War whether the ship be sail or steam, British or American, river, lake or oceanside-built. Even the expert must take it in faith believing for whatever it may be worth-an identification label usually, not a size tag. In addition to the staff of the Naval History Division which labored long and diligently in preparing this appendix, several persons merit special recognition and thanks for their contributions. First among many, Mrs. Alma Lawrence worked before and subsequent to her retirement in 1959 from the Naval History Division to bring the project to completion. She prepared the basic study of Confederate warships from which our expanded version, based on changed “rules of the road” has grown; the Navy Department and scholars who use this work will continue to be indebted to her for this latest of her many enduring contributions to the country in naval research. Valuable research assistance, recommendations, and review were rendered at various periods by Capt. Neville T. Kirk, USNR, of the Naval Academy faculty, Comdr. Alexander C. Brown, USNR, literary editor of the Newport News DAILY PRESS, and Mr. William E. Geoghegan, Exhibit Specialist of the Division of Transportation, Smithsonian Institution; Mr. Geoghegan’s many years of Confederate naval research, particularly into the design and construction methods of John L. Porter and the placement of contracts in foreign yards by Commander Bulloch, have been indispensable to this study. Mr. and Mrs. Edwin C. Bearss of Vicksburg, Miss., and Mr. Henry A. Meyer of Evansville, Ind., have helped with particulars of steamboats on the western rivers, while Prof. William N. Still of Mississippi State College for Women, Columbus, has kindly reviewed various points in the manuscript and Mr. William H. Davis’ painstaking Confederate compilations have been consulted frequently. Finally, Captain John Lyman, USNR, of the National Science Foundation, and Lt. Comdr. Richard S. Pattee, USN, have been ever willing to keep our sights straight when asked technical questions beyond the scope of research possible in study covering so many ships.