Postby rklenseth » Mon Oct 06, 2003 8:25 pm
Ooh, the fight between the Merrimack and the Monitor. It's kinda funny how they didn't even do any damage to each other. The only reason why the Confederate ironclad lost the battle was because it got grounded which made them vulnerable to being scuttled. So they scuttled it instead as not to lose men or give the Yankees the pleasure.
The Confederacy also developed the first working submarine, called the CSS Hunnely(not sure if I'm spelling that right. It's not a really well known fact in the American Civil War and none of my books probably wouldn't have it; it really just became popular in the last five years with the efforts of raising the sub from where it sank after torpedoing a US Frigate in the blockade.), it was able to torpedo and sink a US frigate before it sunk itself because the concussion of the torpedo blast threw off the sub's balance.
The British built a few ships for the Confederacy as well until the Federal government shut that down. I believe the famous blockade runner, the CSS Arkansas was built by the British. It was finally chased down by the Federal government and sunk off the coast of France. But one of the reasons why the British didn't enter the war was because of the blockade. The British didn't want to fight through the blockade which goes to show that the American Navy was starting to make some fear in some countries across the world. The British were going to invade the North from Canada at one point but decided not to. The French at one point was about ready to invade the whole US under Napoleon III who had invaded Mexico. Napoleon decided not which was probably his best choice considering such a thing would have united the states again and with all the soldiers already in the field with all the Generals would have equaled a disaster for Napoleon III.
But the most damning thing to have happened to the Confederacy during the American Civil War was the blockade which pretty much squeezed the South to economic tragedy. I believe in Richmond, towards the end of the war, a loaf of bread costed about $1,000 dollars due to inflation and shortage of supply.