`confederate naval Innovations of the Civil War`

CONFEDERATE NAVAL INNOVATIONS OF THE CIVIL WAR

The Civil War is immensely relevant to American history as it is the event which shaped the present state of the nation . It was a battle which divided the nation into two : the Union and the Confederacy . If the Union did not emerge victorious in the war , the United States of America would not exist . During the war , the Union was superior in naval capabilities compared to the Confederate states . This caused the Confederacy to resort to radical methods and resourcefulness to level the playing

field when it came to the naval aspect of the war . This research aims to discuss the naval innovations of the Confederacy during the American Civil War

The American Civil War was considered as the biggest naval war to occur during its time . The naval aspect of the war was extensive what started as a struggle on the coasts of the North and South eventually expanded to the Indian Ocean and the English Channel . It was therefore important for both the Union and the Confederacy that they were properly equipped for the battle on water . The Union had no difficulty , as they had the resources to effectively undertake combat in the seas . They had the necessary equipment needed to succeed in the naval battle . This was not the case with the Confederacy . The Confederate Navy had limited resources , forcing them to discover innovative ways to fight the war at sea . One of those innovations was the use of commerce raiders

It was the Confederate Navy who first took commerce raiders and used them for naval warfare . It is with the use of the commerce raiders that the Confederacy was able to match the maritime advantage of the Union One good example is the CSS Atlanta . CSS Atlanta was originally named Fingal , a merchant steam ship constructed in Scotland in 1861 . Later the ship was utilized as a blockade runner . By that time , the ship was already renamed to Atlanta . The ship sailed as a blockade runner on November 1861 into Savannah , Georgia at the time , the ship carried a significant number of weapons and other military equipment . When Union troops blocked all exits from Savannah , the ship was purchased by the Confederate army and was recreated into a casemate ironclad . The weight of the ship was 1006 tons and its length was 204 feet . It had the capacity to carry a Another commerce raider used by the Confederate Navy was the CSS Alabama . Among all the commerce raiders that the Confederacy used , this ship was the most well-known and successful in its endeavors . The ship was manufactured in 1862 by a company called Laird and Sons , which was based in Birkenhead , England . The company created the ship especially for the Confederacy . The ship was initially launched into sea from Liverpool with the name Enrica on July 29 , 1862 . It was commissioned by the Confederate Navy on August 24th , and had assumed the name Alabama The exploits of...