Lieut. James H. North was sent abroad in May to procure iron-clad ships, if possible; but finding it impracticable to purchase in Europe, the department commenced the construction of such vessels in the waters of the South. It was recognized by Secretary Mallory in his report of November 20, 1861, that "iron-clad steamships capable of resisting the crushing weight of projectiles from heavy ordnance must at an early day constitute the principal part of the fighting vessels of all naval powers"; and to secure iron for covering, construction and ordnance of naval vessels, the department, as soon as Virginia entered the Confederacy, contracted with Joseph R. Anderson & Co. and the Messrs. Deane for a supply of all classes of iron, including ordnance and projectile, as far as those shops could supply.

At various dates from June 28th, 1861, to Dec. 1st, 1862, Secretary Mallory entered into thirty-two contracts, for the construction of forty gunboats, floating batteries and vesselsof-war, with parties in various cities, from Norfolk to New Orleans and Memphis. In addition to these, the department had vessels under construction superintended by its own officers. This did not include the vessels under contract and construction in foreign countries.

These contracts were with John Hughes & Co., Myers & Co., Ritch & Farrow, David S. Johnston, Frederick G. Howard, Ollinger & Bruce, H. F. Willink, Jr., Gilbert Elliott. William A. Graves, N. Nash, Krenson & Hawkes, F. M. Jones, Wm. O. Safford, Lindsey & Silverton, Henry D. Bassett, Porter & Watson, I. E. Montgomery and A. Anderson, Howard & Ellis, Thomas Moore and John Smoker, for the immediate construction of forty-two gunboats and floating batteries. Many of these vessels were constructed and delivered, and performed valuable service in the Confederate

navy.

The building of these gunboats was hindered by a variety of causes, and in many instances their completion prevented by the enemy capturing the localities where the boats were being built. Such failures could not have been prevented by the Navy Department, and the wonder is, not that greater success did not attend Secretary Mallory's efforts, but that so much was done with such limited means, and in spite of the active and unremitting advances of a powerful enemy.

The preparation in 1861 of an iron-clad fleet of gunboats at St. Louis by the U. S. government attracted the attention of the Navy Department at Richmond, and immediate steps were taken to have reliable mechanics sent to St. Louis and employed on those boats who would obtain accurate information of their strength and fighting character and the progress made toward their completion. These reports, with an accurate plan and description of the Benton, were made to Mr. Mallory. In consequence of which, it was deemed of more

immediate importance to defend New Orleans against an attack from above rather than from the Gulf.

To this end the Act of Congress of August 30th was passed, authorizing and directing the "preparation immedidiately of floating defences best adapted to defend the Mississippi River against a descent of iron-plated steam gunboats." Under this act contracts were made, August 24, 1861, at Memphis, for the construction of the Tennessee and the Arkansas, both to be completed by December 24, 1861. The enemy's fleet, building at St. Louis, threatened the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, and the country through which these rivers flowed equally with that along the banks of the Mississippi. The Legislature of Tennessee, apprehending an invasion along the line of one or perhaps both of those rivers, called the attention of Congress, by joint resolution of date June 24, 1861, to their unprotected condition; and efforts to purchase and adapt to defensive purposes the river steamboats Helman, Jas. Johnson, J. Woods, and B. M. Runyon, lying at Nashville, were immediately undertaken, and were in such progress that, on November 8, Gen. C. F. Smith, U. S. army, commanding at Paducah, called the attention of the authorities at Washington to the fact that, "some eight miles above Fort Henry, the enemy has been for many weeks endeavoring to convert river steamers into iron-clad gunboats. This fort is an obstacle to our gunboats proceeding to look after such work." The construction of the gunboat Eastport, on the Tennessee River, was commenced, but not being completed when the forts fell was destroyed by the orders of Gen. A. S. Johnston.

Near the end of the first year of the war, on March 4th, 1862, Mr. Mallory, in response to a resolution of the House of Representatives, urged that the immediate procurement of "fifty light-draft and powerful steam-propellers, plated with five-inch hard iron, armed and equipped for service in our own waters, four iron or steel-clad single deck, ten-gun frigates of about two thousand tons, and ten clipper propellers with superior marine engines, both classes of ships designed for deep-sea cruising, three thousand tons of first-class boiler plate iron, and one thousand tons of rod, bolt and bar iron "; and under the head of munitions of war the Secretary enumerated as necessary for immediate use, "two thousand pieces of heavy ordnance, ranging in calibre from six to eleven inches, and in weight from six thousand to fourteen thousand pounds, two thousand tons of cannon powder, one thousand tons of musket powder for filling projectiles and pyrotechny, four thousand navy rifles, and four thousand navy revolvers, and four thousand navy cutlasses, with their equipment and ammunition." There were required, he further urged, "three thousand instructed seamen, four thousand ordinary seamen and landsmen, and two thousand first-rate mechanics," and

he requested that five millions of dollars be immediately placed in Europe.

A joint select committee of the two Houses of Congress was raised on the 27th of August, 1862, to investigate the administration of the Navy Department. New Orleans had fallen, and the great gunboats Louisiana and Mississippi, of which so much was expected and had been promised, had been burned, without delivering any seriously damaging blow at the enemy. Norfolk had been captured, and with her fall the great navy-yard at Gosport had returned to the control of the United States, and the pride of the Confederate navy, the Virginia, while riding triumphant in Hampton Roads, had been destroyed by the match in Confederate hands. Disappointment and disaster made men unjust in their review of causes, and a scapegoat was attempted to be made of the Secretary of the Navy. His department was charged with incompetent management, with wastefulness of means, with partiality and favoritism, and with the responsibility for the loss of New Orleans and Norfolk-for the unnecessary destruction of the Mississippi and the Virginia.

In their report the committee state that they inquired into everything relating to the materials and the operations of the navy of the Confederate States; the means and resources for building a navy; the efforts to purchase or build vessels and to obtain ordnance stores; the naval defences of the Mississippi River, and especially of New Orleans, of the Cumberland, Tennessee and James Rivers, and of the city of Norfolk.

Before the war but seven steam war-vessels had been built in the States forming the Confederacy, and the engines of only two of these had been contracted for in these States. All the labor or materials requisite to complete and equip a warvessel could not be commanded at any one point of the Confederacy.

In justification of the Secretary of the Navy, the committee state that he had invited contracts for building gunboats wherever they could be soonest and best built and most advantageously employed, and that his contracts were judicious and seemed to have been properly enforced. In relation to the destruction of the Mississippi at New Orleans, the committee say, the contractors-Messrs. Tift-undertook her construction without pecuniary reward, and prosecuted the work on her with industry and dispatch, and that neither they nor the Secretary were censurable for the incompleteness of that vessel when the enemy reached New Orleans, or for her destruction.

With reference to what the department had accomplished since its organization, the committee state that it erected a powder mill which supplies all the powder required by our navy; two engine-boiler and machine shops, and five ordnance workshops. It has established eighteen yards for building

war-vessels, and a rope-walk, making all cordage, from a rope yarn to a nine-inch cable, and capable of turning out 8,000 yds. per month.

Of vessels not iron-clad the Department has purchased and other-
wise acquired and converted to war-vessels.
Has built and completed as war-vessels

Has partially constructed and destroyed, to save from the enemy
And has now under construction.

Of iron-clad vessels it has completed and has now in commission
Has completed and destroyed, or lost by capture

44

.

12

10

9

12

4

Has in progress of construction, and in various stages of forwardness. 23

It had also one iron-clad floating battery, presented to the Confederate States by the ladies of Georgia, and one ironclad ram, partially completed and turned over to the Confed- / eracy by the State of Alabama.

In spite of all embarrassments and difficulties, the navy had afloat in November, 1861, the Sumter, the Dixie, the Jeff. Davis, the Gordon, the Merrimac, the Petrel, the Everglade, the Savannah (captured), the Webb, the McClelland, the McRae, the Yorktown, the Patrick Henry, the Resolute, the Sallie, the Bonita, the James Grey, the Calhoun, the Ivy, the Dodge, the Lady Davis, the Lewis Cass, the Washington, the Nina, the Jackson, the Tuscarora, the Pickens, the Bradford, the Nelms, the Coffee, the Nashville, the Manassas, the George Page, the Judith (destroyed), and several other vessels. The personnel of the navy then consisted of-Captains, 9; Commanders, 25; Lieutenants, 24; Midshipmen, 6; Surgeons, 7; Paymasters, 8; Chief Engineer, 1; First Assistant Engineer, 1: Navy Agents, 2; Colonel of Marines, 1; Lieut. Colonel of Marines, 1; Major of Marines, 1; Captains of Marines, 2; Second Lieutenants of Marines, 3.-Total, 87.

Notwithstanding the military reverses of 1861 and 1862, by which so many important points were taken possession of by the enemy, the Navy Department, in May of 1863, had twentythree gunboats in progress of construction, twenty of which were of iron and three of wood. The report of Naval Constructor John L. Porter, of November 1, 1862, shows that an iron-clad steamer had just been launched at Richmond, and that at the same place an iron-clad ram was then on the stocks, and four torpedo-boats under construction. At Halifax, N. C., a gunboat of light draft for use in the waters of the Sound would be ready in two months; at Edward's Ferry, on the Roanoke River, a wooden gunboat of light draft, for operations on that river, was approaching completion, and at the same place an iron-clad gunboat for Albemarle Sound was awaiting her machinery. At Wilmington, N. C., there was being built an iron-clad steamer, of such draft of water as would enable her to go out and in at all stages of the tide; the machinery of this steamer was being completed at Columbus, Ga., under the supervision of Chief Engineer J. H. Warner,

C S. navy. At Pedee River Bridge, a wooden gunboat had just been completed with two propellers, the engines of which were built at the naval works at Richmond, and that there was also on the stocks at the same place a small sidewheel steamer for transportation purposes on the Pedee River, as well as a torpedo-boat. At Charleston, an iron-clad steamer was nearly completed, with citadel armor-plated, with iron six inches thick, and mounting six guns; also two first-class steamers, for which there was no iron available at that time. At Savannah, an iron-clad was ready for launching, whose engines were also built by Chief Engineer Warner at Columbus, and another iron-clad was also ready for her armament. At Columbus, Ga., a double propeller iron-clad steamer awaited the rising of the river for launching, and the steamer Chattahoochee had just been thoroughly overhauled and repaired. At Mobile, a large iron-clad side-wheel steamer, built by Montgomery & Anderson, and two light-draft, double propeller, iron-clad steamers, by Porter & Watson, on the Tombigbee River, awaited iron for plating.

"It will be seen," says Mr. Porter, "that everything has been done to get up an iron-clad fleet of vessels which could possibly be done under the circumstances; but in consequence of the loss of our iron and coal regions, with the rolling mill at Atlanta, our supply of iron has been very limited. The mills at Richmond are capable of rolling any quantity, but the material is not on hand; and the amount now necessary to complete vessels already built would be equal to four thousand two hundred and thirty tons, as follows:

Tons.

575

150

800

750

280

1,250

On Tombigbee, for three vessels.

Total.

425

4,230"

Before the war there was no powder stored in any Southern States, except such small quantities of sporting powder as was usual in a country whose people were engaged in field sports. But of powder for military and naval purposes, that captured at the Norfolk navy-yard, and some obtained in the arsenals in the Southern States, amounting in all to about 60,000 pounds, was the only supply on hand.

"I earnestly beg," Governor F. W. Pickens, of South Carolina, wrote, on September 1, 1861, "if possible, that you will order me, if you have it at Norfolk, 40,000 pounds of cannon powder. I loaned the Governor of North Carolina 25,000 pounds, and also the Governor of Florida, for Fernandina and Saint Augustine, 5,000 pounds, besides what I sent to Memphis, Tenn. If I could be sure of getting 40,000 pounds as a reserve for Charleston, I would immediately order a full

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