by Karen Moore

Created on: April 12, 2008

Many of the events that took place during the Civil War would go down in history, either as memorable or as a revolutionary change that helped shape our military. No where does this ring truer than in naval tactics employed by both sides during the Civil War. The battle between ironclad ships, ships dressed in iron, rippled changes in technology and set the stage for many firsts in naval history.

Our current naval fleet and warfare tactics are a direct result of advances to war ships that both sides fighting the Civil War captured and put into use. Some of the innovations made, in an attempt to gain the superior fighting advantage, were to use iron plating to protect the ship, the weaponry and the crew and the first revolving turret mounted on a ship. The Union, having vast resources over the Confederates, built their first ironclads from the ground up and used technology credited to Theodore Ruggles Timby, who designed the first turret. The Confederates used iron to reinforce the small existing fleet they had and was able to put the first ironclad into battle.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis was not a supporter of naval matters, which did not help Stephen Mallory, who Davis appointed as Secretary of the Navy for the Confederates. Mallory saw the need to protect the coastal waterways and the Mississippi River fronts surrounding the south during the Civil War, but he started out at a distinct disadvantage. The Confederates had a variety of ships that numbered ten compared to the naval fleet the Union had and these waterways were not viewed as important as land victories.

Aware of the definite disadvantage, Mallory proposed to build ironclad ships that would be superior to what the Union had. With the green light to build these ironclad ships, Mallory soon ran up against the lack of manpower, skilled workers, materials and monetary issues. Pieces and parts for the ironclad ships came from many different places in the south and many used pieces and parts had to be put into the ironclad ships.

The only ironclad to be used during the first year, 1861, of the Civil War by the Confederate Navy was the CSS Manassas. The following year saw several ironclads put to use by the Confederates and they stood up to the much larger fleet of the Union, until the Union got their ironclad fleet up and running.

History books are ripe with the ironclad battle on March 9, 1862, between the USS Monitor and the CSS Merrimack (a.k.a. Virginia). This battle marked the first

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