Changes

Southerners were not surprised nor disenheartened by their own navy, meager as it were.  The few vessels the new Confederacy had were revenue cutters seized from Federal port authorities during the secession.  Further, Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephan Mallory was a progressive in matters of naval design; he had once been chairman of the Senate Naval Affairs committee, and had told the Southern cabinet that he professed interest in fast surface raiders to go after the Union Navy on the high seas, as well as proposing a very ugly craft that would change naval history:

Southerners were not surprised nor disenheartened by their own navy, meager as it were.  The few vessels the new Confederacy had were revenue cutters seized from Federal port authorities during the secession.  Further, Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephan Mallory was a progressive in matters of naval design; he had once been chairman of the Senate Naval Affairs committee, and had told the Southern cabinet that he professed interest in fast surface raiders to go after the Union Navy on the high seas, as well as proposing a very ugly craft that would change naval history:

:''I regard the possession of an iron-armored ship as a matter of the first necessity.  Such a vessel at this time could traverse the entire coast of the United States, prevent all blockades, and encounter, with a fair prospect of success, their entire Navy.''  

:''I regard the possession of an iron-armored ship as a matter of the first necessity.  Such a vessel at this time could traverse the entire coast of the United States, prevent all blockades, and encounter, with a fair prospect of success, their entire Navy.''  

 

On May 8, 1861 Mallory submitted his plans for building ironclads to the Confederate Committee on Naval Affairs, declaring that it would be costly, but the advantages of the Union Navy being overwhelmed by the sheer power implied in these untested vessels would be worth the price. By the end of the month the plans were approved, and the first ship selected for refitting was the salvaged hulk of USS ''Merrimac'', scuttled the previous month when the Union abandoned Norfolk. She was placed in drydock, and over the next several months the hull was razeed to the gun deck, the engine overhauled, and a heavy-timber casemate was built over the hull and plated with four inches of sheet iron. Inside the casemate were two 7-inch pivot guns at the bow and stern, three 9-inch smoothbore Dahlgrens and one 6-inch Brooke rifled gun in each broadside. As a final weapon, a cast iron ram weighing 1,500 pounds was fitted to the bow (TL 3, pp. 48-49). The Confederacy would christen her CSS ''Virginia''.  

On May 8, 1861 Mallory submitted his plans for building ironclads to the Confederate Committee on Naval Affairs, declaring that it would be costly, but the advantages of the Union Navy being overwhelmed by the sheer power implied in these untested vessels would be worth the price. By the end of the month the plans were approved, and the first ship selected for refitting was the salvaged hulk of USS ''Merrimac'', scuttled the previous month when the Union abandoned Norfolk. She was placed in drydock, and over the next several months the hull was razeed to the gun deck, the engine overhauled, and a heavy-timber casemate was built over the hull and plated with four inches of sheet iron. Inside the casemate were two 7-inch pivot guns at the bow and stern, three 9-inch smoothbore Dahlgrens and one 6-inch Brooke rifled gun in each broadside. As a final weapon, a cast iron ram weighing 1,500 pounds was fitted to the bow (TL 3, pp. 48-49). The Confederacy would christen her CSS ''Virginia''.