United States Navy Monitors of the Civil War
by Commander W. H. Cracknell, USN
Developments Prior to the Civil War
Although the desig n of the USS Monitor was revolutionary rather than evolutionary, many of its components were not new. In fact the design of 'ironclad' warships was being actively pursued by the naval ministries of Europe primarily because of the lessons learned during the Crimean War.
It might be argued that the United States Navy had produced the first steam driven 'ironclad' in Robert Fulton's ingenious steam driven battery Demologos (or Fulton /). Although this double-hulled paddle wheeler was built of wood, her 5ft-thick oak sides were impervious to any shot available when she was completed in 1 81 5. The introduction of iron ships in the middle 1 840s and the successful application of screw propulsion to warships (USS Princeton, 1841) added to the naval architect's knowledge.
The successful use of General Henri Joseph Paixhans's shell guns by the Russian fleet against the Turks at Sinope in 1853 and the success of the French armoured steam batteries in warding off the shellfire from Russian forts at Kinburn in 1855 did much to direct naval thinking toward the need for a seagoing ironclad warship. As a result, the first large ironclad was the French Gloire completed in 1859, followed the next year by the British Warrior and Black Prince.
The Industrial Revolution Paves the Way
It was the Industrial Revolution that first inspired a new approach to the protection of naval ships and then provided the means for accomplishing it. It was specifically the advances in metallurgy that forced the question and then gavethe answer.
By 1 860 the Industrial Revolution had been under way for the best part of a century. The fast expanding railroad industry contributed greatly to the use of steam and iron in ships. Although a few more years would pass before the efficiency of steam machinery would allow ocean-going ships to divest themselves completely of their sails, it was becoming obvious that in combat the initiative would always belong to a steam-powered ship ratherthan a sailing ship.
During this same period the advances in ordnance design were fast relegating the wooden hulled ship-of-the-line and frigate, whether steam-powered or not, to secondary duties. The application of new scientific techniques, and superior metals and metallurgical processes to the design of guns resulted in larger guns, firing heavier shot and shell greater distances with better accuracy. Besides General Paixhans, British designers Whitworth and Armstrong and the US Navy's Dahlgren contributed much to the design of ordnance during this period.
In order that combatants could have some chance of survival against these new weapons, ship-designers turned to armour plating and greater compartmentation. The first efforts were applied to standard ship forms as in the Gloire and Warrior, large sailing frigates with auxiliary steam propulsion and broadside armament. But it was the necessity of the time, plus available technology and the inventiveness of the Swedish-born American inventor John Ericsson that produced a revolutionary step in naval ship design, the USS Monitor. Although the 'monitor' type of warship contributed very little tactically in itself (except in the unique circumstances of the American Civil War) to the history of naval warfare, many of its novel features did influence future ship design greatly.
The American Civil War
Historians have often neglected or ignored the important contribution the US Navy made in preserving the Union during the American Civil War. The outbreak of hostilities in April 1861 found the predominantly agricultural Confederacy in the south challenging the industrialised Union in the north, which had, almost twice the population and much of the nation's capital wealth within its boundaries as well.
The United States Navy could not be compared with the major navies of the world as it comprised only 42 commissioned warships in 1861. But the Union retained most of these ships, while the Confederacy started the war with little in the way of naval assets.
Confederate States Navy
The capture of United States arsenals in the south, several US naval ships that were unable to escape or were scuttled by the Federals, and other naval assets such as the Navy Yard at Norfolk were the sum total of the makings of a Confederate Navy. Fortunately for the South a number of capable US Navy officers rallied to the Confederate cause and directed the efforts of the 'have not' Confederate States Navy (CSN), with some success, against the much superior Federal Navy.
The Confederacy naturally adopted the tactics of an inferior naval power against a superior one:
commerce raiding, blockade-running, mining and much ingenuity. Commerce raiding was by far the most successful operation by the CSN, with much credit for this going to Great Britain who furnished most of the successful raiders to the Confederacy. Blockade running proved profitable for the first two years of the war. However by 1 863 the Union Navy had expanded its blockade force and captured a number of the southern ports, and so the trickle of exorbitantly priced supplies getting through did little but drain off the hard currency left in the Confederacy.
The use of mines, or torpedoes as they were called at that time, accounted for most of the Union naval vessels sunk, but the total was small in the light of the size of the US Navy. As is usually the case the threat of the mines had a much greater influence on Federal Navy operations in the rivers and coastal areasthan the actual casualtiesthe mines caused.
The Rebels harassed the Union blockaders with a number of 'infernal machines' like the ill-fated CSS h'un/ey and the Davide submersibles, but with little effect. The greatest threat the CSN and its allied state navies produced was a number of casemate type ironclads (Tennessee, Arkansas, Albemarle, North Carolina, etc.) that were built at various locations along the coast and in the riversthroughout the war. These were all built along the same general lines as the first, the CSS Virginia (ex-USS Merrimack)—a 'hen-house on a raft' type vessel— although these ships varied greatly in detail depending on the local expertise, material, machinery and armament available.
The Federal Navy
Due to the strong industrial base and large mercantile marine in the North the US Navy expanded rapidly from the first months of the war. Four years later it was the largest active navy in the world in terms of number of ships and personnel.
At the outset of hostilities a blockade of southern ports was declared. The blockade was not too effective at first since over 3500 miles of coast line had to be patrolled. The Navy had to weaken its blockading effort further by scattering the swifter, more powerful frigates and gunboats around the world in search of Confederate commerce raiders. However, as the war progressed the blockade became more effective as more ships became available for blockade duty, but primarily as more southern ports were occupied by joint Federal Army-Navy amphibious operations.
The Navy's most valuable contribution to the ultimate Union victory was its combined operations with the Army on the waters of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. While the forces in the east hammered each other between Washington and Richmond for four years, the Union armies in the west advanced steadily down the Mississippi basin eventually cutting the South in two. The Navy furnished a great percentage of the fire support, transport and supplies required by the army with a specially designed fleet of 'riverine' craft. Included in this fleet were river monitors, the subject of this Profile.
General Sherman was able to cut his own lines of
1 A class leader. USS Canonicus, appears in this view (circa 1907) much as she did during the Civil War—with dean topsides and little clutter about the deck. The monitors of the Canonicus Class were active in the latter stages of the Civil Warm the assaults on Confederate ports along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. (US Navy)
2 USS Onondaga, the first double-turreted monitor to see service, is shown here probably on the James River in Virginia in 1865. This view, on the port quarter, clearly shows the bulletproof shields added around the tops of turrets on many monitors to protect crew members topside from sniper bullets when operating m the river. A one-off design. Onondaga was sold to the French Navy in 1867 where she served as a coast defence battleship until 1903. With such low freeboard the trip across the A tlantic was daring, to say the least. (U S N avy)
3 USS Manhattan of the Canonicus Class (circa 1898) looking forward along the port side. Note the substantial hurricane deck added since originally commissioned. The minimal freeboard, a monitor characteristic, is quite evident here. (US Navy, Cdr C. F. Johnston Collection)
4 John Ericsson. LLD. the designer of the Monitor. Born in Sweden in 1803. he came to the United States in 1839. already a noted inventor. Through the years he contributed a number of designs to naval construction including the screw propeller and improved methods of gun handling. He died in 1889 and his body was returned to his native country aboard the USS Baltimore.
communications and commence his famous 'march from Atlanta to the sea', knowing full well that the Federal Navy would be awaiting his arrival in Savannah with his needed supplies.
By the end of the war in April 1865 the US Navy had grown to a force of approximately 700 ships including 56 monitors built or building, as well as a number of fast, well armed steam frigates, and a wealth of experience in amphibious operations. Notably lacking, however, were any ironclad capital
1 Officer's cabin on monitor Catskill (circa 1890). Light can be seen streaming in through open skylight-ventilator. Note watertight door behind chair and razor strop hanging on the door knob. (US Navy)
2 USS Wyandotte (ex-Tippecanoe) of the Canonicus Class at the Boston Navy Yard. Massachusetts (circa 1898). Note again the substantial vertical construction including a 'hurricane' deck, boats, ventilators, and deck houses that imply the peacetime pursuits of the then 35-year-old warship. (US Navy. Naval Historical Foundation. Washington, DC)
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