Naval Role in the American Civil War essays

Naval Role in the American Civil War essays Three days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, on April 15, 1861, Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand volunteers to enlist for three months. Soon after he called for additional forty-two thousand men to sign on for three years, and provided large increases in the army and navy budgets. With an unlimited budget for both army and navy, lack of planning in the North and poor resources in the South meant that the campaign at sea got off to a slow start. Also, valuable time was needed to build up navies from scratch. The Union Navy received an increase of eighteen thousand men, and in July, as it became obvious that this was not going to be a short campaign, Lincoln asked for additional four hundred thousand men for the army and navy. Once started, the South organized more quickly than the North as it established a navy after the first states had seceded. By August 1861 Stephen R. Mallory, the Confederate Secretary of the Navy had already contracted for several powerful vessels in the west. Here again the South was well in advance of the North. A few problems would arise for the south after a good start. Few Southern shipyards were of sufficient size, and plants for the manufacture of machinery and armor were also in need of. Of the ten yards belonging to the US Navy in 1860, only two were in the South. One at Norfolk which was a great facility, having constructed thirteen major warships before 1861. Then a smaller one at Pensacola, which was better, used to refitting vessels, but it had built several large warships in the past. But even this large output of warships would not be enough when compared with the enormous shipbuilding resources of the Union, which had many well-equipped naval yards, and a large supply of private companies. Many small concerns continued to spring up in the South, but these were often located on a riverbank due to the frequently lacked adequate facilities. In 1860 there...