thumb|Seal of the [[Confederate States Department of the Navy|Department of the Navy]]

This is a list of ships of the Confederate States Navy (CSN), used by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865. Included are some types of civilian vessels, such as blockade runners, steamboats, and privateers which contributed to the war efforts by the CSN. Also included are special types of floating batteries and harbor defense craft.

CSN warships

The secretary of the CS Navy, Stephen Mallory, was very aggressive on a limited budget in a land-focused war, and developed a two-pronged warship strategy of building ironclad warships for coastal and national defense, and commerce raiding cruisers, supplemented with exploratory use of special weapons such as torpedo boats and torpedoes.

Batteries

Based upon the successful employment of ironclad warships, particularly batteries, at the Battle of Kinburn, Britain and France decided to focus on armor-plated warships, starting with coastal battery designs. Initial ocean going ironclad cruisers, such as the French and the British were only just emerging in 1859 and 1860, and were beyond the budget and timeline necessary for rapid force deployment that the CS Navy needed for immediate coastal defenses in 1861.

Therefore, the Confederate Congress voted $2 million in May 1861 to buy ironclads from overseas, and in July and August started work on construction and converting wooden ships locally. On 12 October 1861, the became the first ironclad to enter battle when she fought Union warships on the Mississippi. In February 1862, the even larger joined the Confederate Navy, having been built at Norfolk. The Confederacy built a number of ships designed as versions of the Virginia, of which several saw action. In the failed attack on Charleston on April 7, 1863, two small ironclads, and participated in the successful defense of the harbor. For the later attack at Mobile Bay, the Union faced the .

Ironclad steam-powered batteries

thumb|Ex-CSS USS Atlanta on the James River, photo by [[Mathew Brady]]

thumb|right|CSS Chicora

thumb|right|CSS Muscogee also known as CSS Jackson

thumb|right|Ex-CSS USS Tennessee

thumb|right|Ex-USS Merrimac/CSS Virginia

thumb|CSS Albemarle

The CS Navy ironclad steamer batteries were all designed for national coastal defense.

  • , twin-screw steamer, ironclad ram, sunk: October 28, 1864
  • , twin-screw steamer, ironclad ram, destroyed: August 5, 1862
  • , triple-screw steamer, ironclad ram, captured: June 17, 1863
  • , side-wheel steamer, cotton-clad and ironclad ram, surrendered: May 10, 1865
  • , ironclad steam sloop, destroyed: February 18, 1865
  • , steamer, ironclad ram, destroyed: February 18, 1865
  • , single-screw steamer, ironclad ram, captured: April 26, 1865
  • , side-wheel steamer, ironclad gunboat, captured incomplete: February 8, 1862
  • , twin-screw steamer, ironclad ram, destroyed: April 4, 1865
  • , ironclad steam floating battery, scuttled: April 12, 1865
  • , twin screw and double center-wheel steamer, ironclad, destroyed: April 28, 1862
  • , screw steamer, ironclad ram, sunk: April 24, 1862
  • , steamer, ironclad, burned incomplete: December 21, 1864
  • , triple-screw steamer, ironclad, burned: April 25, 1862
  • , center-wheel steam sloop, ironclad ram, surrendered: June 3, 1865
  • , screw steamer, ironclad, burned before launching: May 21, 1863
  • , twin-screw with center-wheel steamer, ironclad, burned: April 17, 1865
  • , side-wheel steamer, ironclad ram, surrendered: May 10, 1865
  • , twin-screw steam sloop, ironclad ram, destroyed: March 14, 1865
  • , steam sloop, ironclad, accidentally sank: September 27, 1864
  • , sloop, ironclad ram, destroyed: 18 February 1865
  • , steam sloop, ironclad, wrecked: May 7, 1864
  • , screw steamer, ironclad ram, scuttled: April 3, 1865
  • , steam sloop, ironclad, burned: December 21, 1864
  • , twin-screw steamer, ironclad ram, destroyed before launching: June 5, 1862
  • , single-screw steamer, ironclad ram, captured: August 5, 1864
  • , ironclad steam floating battery, scuttled: April 12, 1865
  • , screw steamer, ironclad ram, destroyed: May 11, 1862
  • , steam sloop, ironclad, destroyed: April 4, 1865
  • , twin-screw steamer, ironclad gunboat, destroyed before completion: January 1865

Ironclad floating batteries

CS Navy ironclad floating batteries lacked steam engines for propulsion and were towed into firing positions.

  • , ironclad floating battery, scuttled: 24 December 1864
  • , ironclad floating battery, scuttled: December 21, 1864
  • , ironclad floating battery, destroyed: 1865

Wooden floating batteries

thumb|right|350px|The Floating Battery of Charleston Harbor

thumb|CSS Alabama This sketch was made from a photograph (of a drawing) which Captain Semmes gave to a friend, with the remark that it was a correct picture of his ship. (Battles and Leaders of the Civil War Vol 4 p.601

thumb|right|Officers of the CSS Alabama

thumb|right|Officers of the CSS Florida

CS Navy wooden floating batteries were towed into firing positions, and as in the case at Charleston Harbor, used for makeshift defense.

  • , floating battery
  • , floating battery
  • , floating battery, scuttled: April 7, 1862
  • Floating Battery of Charleston Harbor

Cruisers

CS Navy cruisers were ocean-going ships designed primarily for the Confederate Navy's strategy of guerre de course. Confederate States Navy cruisers were typically lightly armed, with a couple of large guns or a pivot gun, and often very fast. The Navy planned to add ironclad cruisers to their fleet, successfully procuring one, but too late to be of benefit for the war.

Wooden cruisers

  • , screw steamer, sloop-of-war, built in Birkenhead, England by John Laird Sons and Company, sunk: June 19, 1864
  • , screw steamer, bark-rigged, built in Liverpool, England, seized before delivery: April 5, 1863
  • CSS America, racing yacht, scuttled: 1862
  • , schooner, captured: June 28, 1863
  • , revenue cutter, burned: June 28, 1863
  • , screw steamer, burned
  • , brig, burned: June 12, 1863
  • , screw steamer, sloop, captured: October 7, 1864
  • , screw steamer, iron, sold: June 1, 1864
  • , steamer, destroyed: After leaving port on March 20, 1863, the steamer is destroyed on March 22, 1863
  • , bark, burned: June 20, 1863
  • , side-wheel steamer, brig rigged, sold and used as privateer Rattlesnake and sunk, February 28, 1862
  • , screw steamer, sloop-of-war, turned over at war's end
  • , screw steamer, full rigged, iron-framed, turned over to British Government
  • , screw steamer, sloop, sold: December 19, 1862
  • , bark, burned: June 25, 1863
  • , twin-screw steamer, sloop, seized: April 9, 1865 by British Government
  • , bark, seized: December 29, 1863
  • CSS United States, frigate, sail, harbor defense use only, scuttled

Ironclad cruisers

But the CS Navy attempts to procure ironclad cruisers from overseas were frustrated as European nations confiscated ships being built for the Confederacy. Only the Stonewall was completed and successfully delivered, and she arrived in American waters just in time for the end of the war.

  • CSS North Carolina I, seized October 1863 and commissioned as
  • CSS Mississippi II, seized October 1863 and commissioned as
  • , twin-screw steamer, brig rigged, ironclad, surrendered in Cuba at end of war, returned to US, sold to Japan and renamed
  • CSS Cheops, sister to Stonewall, built in France and sold to Prussia, October 29, 1865, and named
  • CSS Georgia screw corvette 2017 tons [1,150 tons BOM]. Sold to Peru after the French government stopped its sale to the Confederacy. Taken into service as BAP Unión 1864. Scuttled January 1881 to avoid capture.
  • CSS Texas, screw corvette and sister ship of BAP Union. Sold to Peru after the French government stopped its sale to the Confederacy. Taken into service as BAP America. Lost during the Arica tsunami on 13 August 1868.
  • Ironclad Frigate No. 61, arranged by Captain James H. North, CSN, sold to Denmark, commissioned as

<gallery>

File:HMS Scorpion (1863).jpg|CSS Scorpion/HMS Scorpion 1863

File:HMS Wivern 1865 USNHC NH 52526.jpg|CSS Mississippi/HMS Wivern 1865

File:CSSStonewall2.jpg|CSS Stonewall/Kōtetsu 1865

File:PrinzAdalbertBordeaux.jpg|CSS Cheops/SMS Prinz Adalbert 1865

File:BAP Unión.jpg|CSS Georgia/BAP Unión 1880

File:Lisle-Lo último de la Unión.png|The scuttled BAP Unión 1881

File:PrinzAdalbertBordeaux.jpg|CSS Cheops/SMS Prinz Adalbert 1865

File:BAP Unión.jpg|CSS Georgia/BAP Unión 1880

File:Corvette America 1868.jpg|CSS Texas/The BAP corvette America wrecked by the 1868 tsunami at Arica

File:Danish Ironclad Danmark (1864).jpg|CSS Frigate No 61/KMD Danmark 1864

</gallery>

Gunboats

thumb|right|Top picture CSS Lady Davis May 18, 1861

thumb|right|CSS Teaser at the right

thumb|right|CSS Governor Moore

  • , dispatch boat, run aground 1 November 1862; seized and placed in service by the Union
  • , side-wheel steamer, burned or captured April 1862
  • , tugboat, burned February 10, 1862
  • , schooner
  • , surrendered to U.S. Navy 1865; sold 1866
  • , screw steamer, captured by U.S. Navy April 3, 1865
  • , side-wheel steamer, destroyed incomplete April 1862
  • , schooner, burned February 10, 1862
  • , steamer, captured: May 5, 1864
  • CSS Calhoun, sidewheel gunboat, captured: January 23, 1862
  • , sidewheel steamer, destroyed April 1862
  • , twin-screw steamer, scuttled: December, 1864
  • CSS Clifton, side-wheel gunboat, Texas Marine Department, scuttled March 1864
  • , side-wheel river steamer, sunk: February 7, 1862
  • CSS De Soto, side-wheel steamer, captured: September 30, 1862
  • , river steamer, destroyed: April 28, 1862
  • , steamer, which twice changed hands, managed to survive the Civil War and was presumably decommissioned
  • , steamer, tender, destroyed: January 24, 1865
  • , steamer, tugboat, captured: February 10, 1862
  • , steamer, burned: 1865
  • , screw steamer, iron hull, burned: February 10, 1862
  • , schooner
  • , steamer, tugboat, burned: February 10, 1862
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • , steamer, destroyed: April 24, 1862
  • , steamer, destroyed: June 26, 1862
  • , side-wheel river steamer, burned
  • CSS Germantown sloop-of-war, sunk as blockship May 10, 1862
  • , side-wheel steamer, schooner rigged, destroyed: April 23, 1862. Also listed as a Cotton Clad ram (see below) since she had cotton as part of her armor.
  • , screw steamer, burned: April 4, 1865
  • , steamer, tug
  • , side-wheel steamer; Charleston harbor gunboat: sank March 10, 1864
  • , cutter, schooner rigged
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • , steamer, burned: December 21, 1864
  • , side-wheel river steamer, burned: 1863
  • , a side-wheel river steamer, burned: January 14, 1863 (See Bayou Teche and ). Sometimes called an ironclad since she had a small amount of railroad iron tacked onto her side.
  • , side-wheel river steamer, tug, sunk
  • , side-wheel steamer, sunk: May, 1862
  • , steamer, tug, dismantled: 1862
  • , schooner, scuttled
  • , steamer tug, iron, machinery mounted in CSS Palmetto
  • , steamer, captured: April, 1862
  • , steamer, destroyed: April 24, 1862
  • , side-wheel steamer, destroyed: June 26, 1862
  • , steamer
  • , bark
  • , side-wheel steamer, sunk: June, 1862
  • , screw steamer, sloop rigged, sunk: April 28, 1862
  • , side-wheel steamer, surrender: 1865
  • , cutter
  • CSS Morning Light, sail, burned: January 23, 1863
  • , twin-screw gunboat, burned: April 3, 1865
  • CS Neptune, steamer, sunk: January 1, 1863
  • , steamer
  • , steamer, scuttled: Apr, 1862
  • , side-wheel river steamer, burned: 1862
  • , side-wheel steamer, CSNA school ship, burned: April 4, 1865
  • , screw steamer, sunk: 1865
  • , sloop-of-war, burned: 1862
  • , side-wheel river steamer, burned: 1863
  • , steamer
  • CSS Rappahannock, formerly St. Nicholas until seized and purchased in 1861, side-wheel steamer, burned: April, 1862 (Not to be confused with the steam sloop of war of the same name.)
  • , cutter, schooner rigged
  • , burned: April 24, 1862
  • , screw steamer, destroyed: April 4, 1865
  • , side-wheel river steamer
  • , steamer, foundered: August 18, 1863
  • , formerly A.H. Schultz, until seized and purchased in 1861, side-wheel steamer, used as a flag of truce vessel, sunk: February 17, 1865
  • , side-wheel river steamer, sunk: February 10, 1862
  • , side-wheel river steamer, captured: August 5, 1864
  • , steam tug, sunk
  • CSS St. Mary, side-wheel river steamer, burned
  • , burned: 1865
  • , side-wheel steamer, sunk: 1863
  • , tug, captured: 1862
  • , screw steamer, tug/tender, iron, burned: April 4, 1865
  • , side-wheel steamer, burned
  • CSS Velocity schooner, captured from the Union,
  • CSS Washington schooner, Previously USRC Washington, scuttled April 25, 1862
  • , side-wheel steamer, burned: December 19, 1864
  • , side-wheel river steamer, wrecked
  • , steamer, burned: 1865

Torpedo boats

right|thumb|300px|Photograph of a captured David class torpedo boat (possibly CSS David herself), taken after the fall of Charleston in 1865

  • , semi-submersible torpedo boat
  • , larger version of David, captured incomplete: February, 1865
  • CSS Gunnison, screw steam spar torpedo boat
  • , spar torpedo boat
  • , steam torpedo boat
  • , steam torpedo boat, captured: February, 1865
  • , spar torpedo boat
  • , spar torpedo boat
  • CSS St. Patrick, semi-submersible torpedo boat or submarine
  • , screw steamer spar torpedo boat
  • , spar torpedo boat

CSN support ships

Government blockade runners

thumb|right|CSS Robert E Lee

thumb|right|CSS William G Hewes later USS Malvern

thumb|right|CSS Florida renamed USS Henderick Hudson

thumb|right|CSS Lady Sterling renamed USS Hornet

  • , side-wheel steamer, captured: September 10, 1864
  • , screw steamer
  • , side-wheel steamer, captured
  • CSS Lady Stirling, side-wheel steamer, captured: October 28, 1864
  • CSS William G. Hewes, (later SS Ella and Annie), captured: November 9, 1863
  • , side-wheel steamer

Government steamers

  • , side-wheel river steamer, captured: April 7, 1862
  • , screw steamer, burned: February 10, 1862
  • , side-wheel coastal steamer, captured: December, 1864
  • , side-wheel river steamer burned: June 28, 1862
  • , side-wheel river steamer, captured: April 7, 1862
  • , stern-wheel river steamer, scuttled: April 7, 1862
  • CSS Ida, side-wheel coastal steamer, captured/burned: December 10, 1864
  • , 1861
  • , side-wheel river steamer, captured: April 7, 1862
  • , side-wheel river steamer, sunk: April 7, 1862
  • , 1861
  • , side-wheel river steamer, captured: April 7, 1862
  • CSS Tennessee, side-wheel steamer, captured: January, 1862
  • , side-wheel river steamer, captured: April 7, 1862

thumb|316x316px|Federal ram [[USS Queen of the West (1854)|USS Queen of the West attacks CSS City of Vicksburg.]]

Government transports

thumb|right|CSS Planter

  • CSS Darlington
  • , side-wheel river steamer, captured: April 7, 1862
  • , side-wheel steamer, captured by its slave pilot Robert Smalls, May 13, 1862
  • , side-wheel steamer transport, damaged when rammed on February 3, 1863, then destroyed: February/March 1863
  • , side-wheel river steamer, sunk: April 7, 1862

Cutters

  • , revenue cutter, schooner rigged
  • , revenue cutter, schooner rigged
  • CSS Manassas, revenue cutter, schooner rigged, dismantled
  • , revenue cutter, schooner rigged

Hospital ships

  • , stern-wheel river steamer, burned: April 7, 1862

Tenders and tugs

270px|right|thumb|Uncle Ben captured 1861

  • , lighthouse tender, schooner rigged
  • , tugboat
  • , side-wheel steamer tender, burned
  • , side-wheel steamer tender, burned: December 21, 1864
  • , receiving ship, burned
  • , side-wheel steamer, tugboat, captured: December 12, 1864
  • , steam tugboat, sold: March 8, 1863
  • CSS Satellite, sidewheel steamer, gunboat/tugboat, destroyed: August, 1863
  • , tender, burned: April 4, 1865
  • CSS St. Philip, receiving ship, sunk
  • , steam tugboat, machinery mounted into CSS North Carolina II (renamed "Retribution" and "Etta")

Civilian auxiliary

Privateers

  • , privateer steam tug
  • , privateer cutter, schooner rigged, captured: November 12, 1861
  • Bonita, 8-gun, 1,110-ton privateer steamer
  • Boston, 5-gun privateer steamer operating out of Mobile burned captured barques Lenex and Texana

Civilian blockade runners

  • , side-wheel steamer
  • Agnes E. Fry, paddle steamer
  • Alabama, schooner
  • , schooner
  • Annie Dees, steamer, sloop-rigged
  • , schooner
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • Bat, side-wheel steamship, captured: October 10, 1864
  • , screw steamer
  • Caroline, side-wheel steamer (also known as USS Arizona)
  • , schooner
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • , paddle-steamer
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • (also known as Constance), side-wheel steamer
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • Edith, steamer (Later CSS Chickamauga)
  • Ella, side-wheel steamer
  • Ella and Annie, side-wheel steamer (captured April 1863)

300px|thumb|Ella and Annie as USS Malvern

  • , screw steamer
  • Etiwan, sloop
  • Eugenie, side-wheel steamer
  • Eugenie Smith, schooner
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • General Banks, paddle steamer (later Fanny and Jenny)
  • Gibraltar, screw steamer, bark-rigged
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • Lady Davis, steamer
  • , paddle-steamer
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • , screw steamer (later USS Memphis)
  • Monticello, Cuban blockade runner
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • Old Dominion, paddle steamer
  • , steamer
  • , schooner
  • , sloop
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • San Quintin, Cuban blockade runner
  • , schooner
  • Shark, schooner
  • , schooner
  • , (ex-Leopard), side-wheel steamer
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • Thistle, side-wheel steamer
  • Thomas L. Wragg, side-wheel steamer, brig-rigged (later, privateer Rattlesnake)
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • , schooner
  • , screw steamer
  • , steamer
  • , schooner

Foreign blockade runners

  • , screw steamer
  • , side-wheel steamer
  • , screw steamer
  • Denbigh side-wheel steamer, schooner rigged
  • Fingal, steamer
  • , screw steamer
  • Isabel steamer
  • , schooner
  • , sloop
  • Lark, side-wheel steamer
  • , screw steamer
  • Penquin, side-wheel steamer
  • , screw steamer
  • , screw steamer
  • Prince Albert, side-wheel steamer
  • , screw steamer
  • Thistle, screw steamer
  • , schooner
  • Victory, screw steamer
  • , paddle steamer
  • Wren, side-wheel steamer

<!--This may need to be moved to references:

<Joseph McKenna, British Blockade Runners in the American Civil War></Stephen R. Wise, Lifeline of the Confederacy>

-->

CS Army

CSA cotton-clads

thumb|right|USS (ex-CSS) Little Rebel

thumb|right|USS {later CSS} Queen of the West

thumb|right|CSS Stonewall Jackson

thumb|right|CSS Governor Moore after the fight

thumb|right|Ex-CSS USS General Bragg

thumb|right|Ex-CSS General Price

thumb|right|CSS Webb burned April 1865

Used for river defense, CS Army cottonclads were typically more lightly armored and reinforced than a regular ironclad, such as the General Sterling Price, which was converted by placing a 4-inch oak sheath with a 1-inch iron covering on her bow, and by installing double pine bulkheads filled with compressed cotton bales. Many of the cottonclads were outfitted with rams.

River Defense Fleet cotton-clads:

  • , side-wheel steamer, cotton-clad ram, sunk: June 6, 1862
  • , steamer, cotton-clad ram, sunk: June 6, 1862
  • , steamer, cotton-clad ram, captured: June 6, 1862
  • , stern-wheel steamer, cotton-clad ram, burned: Apr, 1862
  • , side-wheel steamer, cotton-clad ram, burned: 1862
  • , steamer, cotton-clad ram, burned
  • , steamer, cotton-clad ram, sunk: June 6, 1862
  • , steamer, cotton-clad ram, sunk: June 6, 1862; raised into Union service
  • , steamer, cotton-clad ram, captured: June 6, 1862
  • , steamer, schooner rigged, cotton-clad ram, destroyed: April 24, 1862
  • , steamer, cotton-clad ram, captured: June 6, 1862
  • , side-wheel steamer, cotton-clad ram
  • , side-wheel steamer, cotton-clad ram, burned: April 24, 1862
  • , side-wheel steamer, cotton-clad ram, destroyed: April, 1862

Other CS Army cotton-clads:

  • , steamer, cotton-clad, burned: 1863
  • , steamer, cotton-clad, operated by Texas Marine Department
  • , river steamer, cotton-clad and ironclad ram, exploded: April 14, 1863
  • , steamer, cotton-clad, operated by Texas Marine Department
  • , river steamer, cotton-clad ram, transferred to CS Navy early 1865, burned: April, 1865

Other CSA boats

  • , CS Army transport, which was captured by the Union on August 10, 1862, while the transport was on the Savannah River in Georgia
  • CSA John Simonds, CS Army support ship, side-wheel steamer, sunk: April 7, 1862
  • , CS Army cargo steamer, captured: July 13, 1863
  • , CS Army transport, side-wheel steamer, surrendered: May 13, 1862

Prizes

  • Alvarado - prize bark, captured: by privateer Jefferson Davis, July 21, 1861
  • Enchantress - prize schooner, captured: by privateer Jefferson Davis July 6, 1861

Undetermined

  • CSS Segar
  • CSS Smith
  • CSS W. R. Miles

See also

  • List of ironclads
  • Blockade runners of the American Civil War
  • Commerce raiding
  • Confederate privateer
  • Cotton-clad
  • Letters of marque
  • Ransom Bond
  • Bibliography of American Civil War naval history

References

Bibliography

  • Coski, John M. Capital Navy: The Men, Ships and Operations of the James River Squadron, Campbell, CA: Savas Woodbury Publishers, 1996,
  • Gardiner Steam, Steel and Shellfire
  • Lambert A., Iron Hulls and Armour Plate
  • Photos of ships of the Confederate States Navy