A School History of the United States Part 48

4. a.s.sist the army in opening the Mississippi, Arkansas, and other rivers.

5. Destroy all Confederate cruisers and protect the commerce of the United States.

To accomplish this great work, most of the vessels abroad were recalled (a slow process in days when no ocean cable existed), more were hastily built, and in time 400 merchantmen and river steamboats were bought and roughly adapted at the navy yards for war service.

%455. %The Blockade of the Southern Coast.%--The war on sea was opened (April 19-27,1861) by two proclamations of Lincoln declaring the coast from Virginia to Texas blockaded. This meant that armed vessels were to be stationed off the seaports of the South, and that no s.h.i.+ps from any country were to be allowed to go into or out of them. To stop trade with the South was important for three reasons:

1. The South had no s.h.i.+ps, no great gun factories, machine shops, or rolling mills, and must look to foreign countries for military supplies.

2. The South raised (in 1860) 4,700,000 bales of cotton, almost all of which was sold to England and the North, and if this cotton should be sent abroad, the South could easily buy with it all the guns, s.h.i.+ps, and goods she needed.

3. England was dependent on the South for raw cotton, and would sell for it everything the South wanted in exchange.

The blockade, therefore, was to cut off the trade and supplies of the South, and so weaken her. But as England, a great commercial nation, wanted her cotton, it was certain that unless the blockade were rigorous and close, cotton would be smuggled out and supplies sent in.

%456. Blockade Runners%.--This is just what did happen. The blockade in the course of a year was made close, by s.h.i.+ps stationed off the ports, sounds, and harbors. In some places the hulks of old whalers were loaded with stone and sunk in the channels, and to get in or out became more difficult. As a result the price of cotton fell to eight cents a pound in the South (because there was n.o.body to buy it) and rose to fifty cents a pound in England (because so little was to be had). Then "running the blockade" became a regular business. Goods of all sorts were brought from England to Na.s.sau in the West Indies, where they would be put on board of vessels built to run the blockade. These blockade runners were long, low steam vessels which drew only a few feet of water and had great speed. Their hulls were but a few feet out of water and were painted a dull gray. Their smokestacks could be lowered to the deck, and they burned anthracite coal, which made no smoke. They would leave Na.s.sau at such a time as would enable them to be off Wilmington, N.C., or some other Southern port, on a moonless night with a high tide, and then, making a dash, would run through the blockading vessels. Once in port, they would take a cargo of cotton, and would run out on a dark night or during a storm. During the war, 1504 vessels of all kinds were captured or destroyed.[1]

[Footnote 1: Read T. E. Taylor's _Running the Blockade, _pp. 16-32, 44-54.]

%457. The Commerce Destroyers.%--While the North was thus busy destroying the trade of the South, the South was busy destroying the enormous trade of the North. When the war opened, our merchant s.h.i.+ps were to be seen in every port of the world, and against these were sent a cla.s.s of armed vessels known as "commerce destroyers," whose business it was to cruise along the great highways of ocean commerce, keep a sharp lookout for our merchantmen, and burn all they could find. The first of these commerce destroyers to get to sea was the _Sumter_, which ran the blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi in June, 1861, and within a week had taken seven merchantmen. So important was it to capture her that seven cruisers were sent in pursuit. But she escaped them all till January, 1862, when she was shut up in the port of Gibraltar and was sold to prevent capture.

%458. The Trent Affair, 1861.%--One of the vessels sent in pursuit of the _Sumter_ was the _San Jacinto, _commanded by Captain Wilkes. While at Havana, he heard that two commissioners of the Confederate government, James M. Mason and John Slidell, sent out as commissioners to Great Britain and France, were to sail for England in the British mail steamer _Trent_; and, deciding to capture them, he took his station in the Bermuda Channel, and (November 8, 1861) as the _Trent_ came steaming along, he stopped and boarded her, and carried off Mason and Slidell and their secretaries. This he had no right to do. It was exactly the sort of thing the United States had protested against ever since 1790, and had been one of the causes of war with Great Britain in 1812. The commissioners were therefore released, placed on board another English vessel, and taken to England. The conduct of Great Britain in this matter was most insulting and warlike, and nothing but the justice of her demand prevented war.[1]

[Footnote 1: Harris's _The Trent Affair._]

%459. The Famous Cruisers Florida, Alabama, Shenandoah.%--The loss of the _Sumter_ was soon made good by the appearance on the sea of a fleet of commerce destroyers all built and purchased in England with the full knowledge of the English government. The first of these, the _Florida_, was built at Liverpool, was armed at an uninhabited island in the Bahamas, and after roving the sea for more than a year was captured by the United States cruiser _Wachusett_ in the neutral harbor of Bahia in Brazil. Her capture was a shameful violation of neutral waters, and it was ordered that she be returned to Brazil; but she was sunk by "an unforeseen accident" in Hampton Roads.[1]

[Footnote 1: Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe,_ Vol. I., pp. 152-224.]

The next to get afloat was the _Alabama_. She was built at Liverpool with the knowledge of the English government, and became in time one of the most famous and successful of all the commerce destroyers. During two years she cruised unharmed in the North Atlantic, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, along the coast of South America, and even in the Indian Ocean, destroying in her career sixty-six merchant vessels. At last she was found in the harbor of Cherbourg (France) by the _Kearsarge_, to which Captain Semmes of the _Alabama_ sent a challenge to fight. Captain Winslow accepted it; and June 19, 1864, after a short and gallant engagement, the _Alabama_ was sunk in the English Channel.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., Vol. I., pp. 225-294. _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,_ Vol. IV., pp. 600-625.]

The _Shenandoah_, another cruiser, was purchased in England and armed at a barren island near Madeira. Thence she went to Australia, and cruising northward in the Pacific to Bering Strait, destroyed the China-bound clippers and the whaling fleet. At last, hearing of the downfall of the Confederacy, she went back to England.[1]

[Footnote 1: Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe_, Vol. II., pp. 131-163.]

%460. The Ironclads.%--To blockade the coast and cut off trade was most important, but not all that was needed. Here and there were seaports which must be captured and forts which must be destroyed, bays and sounds, and great rivers coming down from the interior, which it was very desirable to secure control of. The Confederates were fully aware of this, and as soon as they could, placed on the waters of their rivers and harbors vessels new to naval warfare, called ironclad rams. These were steamboats cut down and made suitable for naval purposes, and then covered over with iron rails or thick iron plates. The most famous of them was the _Merrimac_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: %Remodeling the Merrimac%]

[Ill.u.s.tration: %The U.S. steamer Merrimac%]

%461. The Merrimac or Virginia.%--When Sumter was fired on and the war began, the United States held the great navy yard and naval depot at Portsmouth, Va., where were eleven war vessels of various sorts, and immense quant.i.ties of guns and stores and ammunition. But the officer in charge, knowing that Virginia was about to secede, and fearing that the yard would be seized by the Confederates, sank most of the s.h.i.+ps, set fire to the buildings, and abandoned the place. The Confederates at once took possession, raised the vessels, and out of one of them, a steamer called the _Merrimac_. made an ironclad ram, which they renamed the _Virginia_ and sent forth to destroy the wooden vessels of the United States then a.s.sembled in Chesapeake Bay.

Well knowing that he could not be harmed by any of our war s.h.i.+ps, the commander of the _Merrimac_ went leisurely to work and began (March 8, 1862) by attacking the _c.u.mberland_. In her day the _c.u.mberland_ had been as fine a frigate as ever went to sea; but the days of wooden s.h.i.+ps were gone, and she was powerless. Her shot glanced from the sides of the _Merrimac _like so many peas, while the new monster, coming on under steam, rammed her in the side and made a great hole through which the water poured. Even then the commander of the _c.u.mberland_ would not surrender, but fought his s.h.i.+p till she filled and sank with her guns booming and her flag flying. After sinking the _c.u.mberland_, the _Merrimac_ attacked the _Congress_, forced her to surrender, set her on fire, and, as darkness was then coming on, went back to the shelter of the Confederate batteries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Monitor, side and deck plan]

%462. The Monitor.%--Early the next day the _Merrimac_ sailed forth to finish the work of destruction, and picking out the _Minnesota_, which was hard and fast in the mud, bore down to attack her. When lo!

from beside the _Minnesota_ started forth the most curious-looking craft ever seen on water. It was the famous _Monitor_, designed by Captain John Ericsson, to whose inventive genius we owe the screw propeller and the hot-air engine. She consisted of a small iron hull, on top of which rested a boat-shaped raft covered with sheets of iron which made the deck. On top of the deck, which was about three feet above the water, was an iron cylinder, or turret, which revolved by machinery and carried two guns. She looked, it was said, like "a cheesebox mounted on a raft."

[Ill.u.s.tration: HAMPTON ROADS]

The _Monitor_ was built at New York, and was intended for harbor defense; but the fact that the Confederates were building a great ironclad at Norfolk made it necessary to send her to Hampton Roads. The sea voyage was a dreadful one; again and again she was almost wrecked, but she weathered the storm, and early on the evening of March 8, 1862, entered Hampton Roads, to see the waters lighted up by the burning _Congress_ and to hear of the sinking of the _c.u.mberland_. Taking her place beside the _Minnesota_, she waited for the dawn, and about eight o'clock saw the _Merrimac_ coming toward her, and, starting out, began the greatest naval battle of modern times. When it ended, neither s.h.i.+p was disabled; but they were the masters of the seas, for it was now proved that no wooden s.h.i.+ps anywhere afloat could harm them. The days of wooden naval vessels were over, and all the nations of the world were forced to build their navies anew. The _Merrimac_ withdrew from the fight; when the Confederates evacuated Norfolk, they destroyed her (May, 1862). The _Monitor_ sank in a storm at sea while going to Beaufort, N.C. (January, 1863).[1]

[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I., pp.

719-750.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: %An encounter at close range%]

%463. Capture of the Coast Forts and Waterways.%--Operations along the coast were begun in August, 1861, by the capture of the forts at the mouth of Hatteras Inlet, N.C., the entrance to Pamlico Sound; and by the capture of Port Royal in November. A few months later (early in 1862) control of Pamlico and Albemarle sounds was secured by the capture of Roanoke Island, Elizabeth City, and Newbern, all in North Carolina, and of Fort Macon, which guarded the entrance to Beaufort harbor.

McClellan's capture of Yorktown in May, 1862, was soon followed by the hasty evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederate forces, so that at the end of the first year of the war most of the seacoast from Norfolk to the Gulf was in Union hands.

Along the Gulf coast naval operations resulted in opening the lower Mississippi and capturing New Orleans in April, and Pensacola in May, 1862.

In April, 1863, a naval attack on Charleston was planned, but was carried no farther than a severe battering of Fort Sumter. In August, 1864, Admiral Farragut led his fleet past Forts Morgan and Gaines, that guarded the entrance of Mobile Bay, captured the Confederate fleet and took the forts. Mobile, however, was not taken till April, 1865, just as the Confederacy reached its end. Fort Fisher, which commanded the entrance to Cape Fear River, on which stood Wilmington, the great port of entry for blockade runners, fell before the attack of a combined land and naval force in January, 1865.

SUMMARY

1. The naval operations of the war opened with the blockade of the coast of the Confederate States.

2. This was necessary in order to prevent cotton, sugar, and tobacco being sent abroad in return for materials of war.

3. As a result blockade running was carried on to a great extent.

4. In order to destroy our commerce a fleet of cruisers was built in England, purchased and manned by the Confederate government. They inflicted very serious damage.

5. But the great event of the war was the battle between the ironclads _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, which marked the advent of the iron-armored war s.h.i.+p.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE COST OF THE WAR

%464. The Cost in Money.%--When Fort Sumter was fired on in 1861 and Lincoln made his call for volunteers, the national debt was $90,000,000, the annual revenue was $41,000,000, and the annual expenses of the government $68,000,000. As the expenses were vastly increased by the outbreak of war, it became necessary to get more money. To do this, Congress, when it met in July, 1861, began a financial policy which must be described if we are to understand the later history of our country.

%465. Power to raise Money.%--The Const.i.tution gives Congress power

1. "To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises."

2. "To borrow money on the credit of the United States."

3. To apportion direct taxes among the several states according to their population.