7 - Steam in the Civil War Era

(Part 1)

A Confederate Enterprise

With the declaration that "... the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states under the name of the United States of America is hereby dissolved," South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. Within six months, a total of 11 pro-slavery states had left the United States and joined with each other to form the Confederate States of America. Their president was Jefferson Davis, a graduate of West Point and a former Secretary of War of the United States. Almost immediately, the United States Navy imposed a blockade of southern ports in order to cut off the only supply lines to the South.

One of President Davis's most effective cabinet members was his Navy Secretary, Stephen Mallory. Early on, Mallory recognized the limitations of the southern states' industrial capacity. He also recognized that the coming war between the states would be a long, hard-fought conflict in which seapower would play a crucial role. In this regard, he wrote to his President that:

The United States have a constructed Navy; we have a Navy to construct, and as we cannot hope to compete with them in the number of their ships -- the results of three quarters of a century -- wisdom and policy require us to build our ships in reference to the enemy, and that we should, in their construction, compensate by their offensive and defensive power, for the inequality of numbers. This is confidentially believed to be accomplished by building plated or ironclad ships....33

Knowing that the Confederacy did not have the capability to build such ships, Mallory recommended the only obvious solution: purchase or construct ships in Europe, and more specifically, in Great Britain and France.

On May 8, 1861, Mallory appointed James Dunwoody Bulloch, a merchant marine captain who previously had 14 years of service with the United States Navy, as the Confederacy's liaison in Europe. Bulloch was tasked with the responsibility of overseeing a shipbuilding program in Britain and France. Ultimately, he supervised the construction of 24 vessels in European shipyards. One of these warships was the CSS Enterprise, a steam and sail vessel with an ironclad hull and twin screws, that was built in 1865 by W. Denny & Brothers at Dumbarton, Scotland.

In order to hide the true identity and ultimate destination of the ships acquired in Europe, the Confederate Navy used the practice of assigning different names to each of these vessels at different stages in their voyage to Confederate service. For example, it appears that the name Yangtse was assigned to the Enterprise when the order for her construction was originally placed. The name Enterprise appears on her plans and was assigned for her run across the Atlantic and against the Union blockade. Her name would then have been changed to Black Warrior (an ironic choice!) when in service with the Confederacy as an armed commerce raider.

In fact, however, the Enterprise never saw service under the flag of the Confederacy. Because of the desire of Great Britain and France to remain neutral during the Civil War, only eight of the 24 ships which James Bulloch had constructed in Britain and France actually served with the Confederate Navy. The Enterprise was not one of these eight. She departed the Denny shipyards on November 3, 1865 as the Brasil, and was sold to the country of Brazil in 1866. She was then renamed Leopoldina and served as a transport ship for that South American country until she was retired in 1877.

The Confederate Navy had a large number of ships constructed in Europe to be used as blockade runners. The CSS Enterprise was one of those vessels.

Unfortunately for the Confederacy, the innovative naval weapons that did enter service, such as the ironclads of the CSS Virginia (ex-Merrimac) class, primitive submarines, and floating mines, were not enough. Naval historians still ask the question, "What if ... Bulloch's fleet of European warships had suddenly appeared on the Atlantic coast in opposition to the Union blockade?" Would the final outcome have been different?

Royal Navy Ironclad

At the same time as the American Civil War, the Royal Navy acquired its first ironclad, steam-powered Enterprise. Naval theory at the time suggested that not only was it important for a major power to have a strong fleet at sea, but that small ironclad ships with a short steaming range should be available for harbor and coastal defense. The Royal Navy had a variety of coastal defense ships to meet this need, one of them being the HMS Enterprise.

Construction of two wooden-hulled sloops, named Enterprise and Circassian, was begun at the Deptford dockyards in England on May 1, 1861. In July 1862, the names of the two ships were exchanged. Construction of the Enterprise was canceled in December 1863 and the Circassian was completed as an ironclad steam and sail sloop. The Circassian's name was restored to HMS Enterprise when she was commissioned on February 9, 1864. Her sides were heavily armored, thus giving her the distinction, by a year earlier than the CSS Enterprise, of being the first iron-hulled Enterprise. Unfortunately, the Enterprise was very slow under steam and her war potential was rather uncertain. She was never called to battle, although she did serve in the Mediterranean until 1871 and thereafter at the harbor of Chatham, England until she was sold in 1884 and broken up in 1886.

The ironclad sloop HMS Enterprise was commissioned in 1864 as a coastal defense ship. She served in Mediterranean and British home waters. [Photo: Imperial War Museum]

| Home | Intro | Ventures | Sea | Air | Space | SciFi | Racing | Movies | Art | Travel | Exit |

| Intro | Dedication | Foreword | Preface | Spanish Armada | European Fleets | Independence |
| A Young Nation | Exploration | Steamboats | Civil War | World at War | Air Power | Nuclear Power |
| Airships | Final Frontier | Ship Directory | Bibliography |

Last Updated: March 8, 2007