Existing comment:
Total War By Sea:
-- "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" -- Vice Admiral David G. Farragut -- U.S. Navy Gulf Blockading Squadron - 1865
The North's superior industrial capacity heavily weighted the naval balance of power against the Confederacy, and U.S. naval forces played a key role in the Civil War. The Navy moved troops and supplies from northern depots to all theaters of war. It established a blockade of southern seaports which eventually kept the South's considerable foreign trade from market. Perhaps most importantly, the Navy dominated the river systems of the South, transforming them into military highways for advancing deep into the heart of the Confederacy.
The Union's naval effort was multifaceted. It took place on the high seas and on inland waterways, and it produced many different kinds of naval encounters. These ranged from dramatic engagements between single ships to fleet actions and shore bombardments. Less glamorous duties included the patrolling the Southern coast to strangle Confederate trade.
As many as 500 Wisconsinites served in the naval forces during the Civil War. The largest concentration of Wisconsin volunteers to serve aboard a ship occurred when a group of Second Wisconsin infantry-men transferred to the ironclad gunboat Mound City in 1862. In the fall of 1864, Navy Lt. William Cushing of Delafield led a daring and successful night raid against the formidable Confederate ironclad Albemarle off Plymouth, North Carolina. Cushing attacked and sank the enemy warship with a spar torpedo mounted on the prow of his diminutive steam launch. |