Most military leaders disparaged the plan, as popular thinking held that the war would not last more than a couple of months. The “Anaconda Plan” called for a blockade of Southern seaports, something the Commander in Chief knew would be impossible with a navy numbering so few ships. Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott, who had been the commanding general of the Army since 1841, presented President Abraham Lincoln with the grand strategy for the war shortly before the Battle of First Bull Run. The Department of the Navy had a couple of particularly arduous and seemingly impossible tasks: 1) protect 3,600 miles of shoreline against a foe that had support from the two most powerful navies in the world at the time, England and France and, 2) to recruit and train officers who by necessity, had to have experience and a high degree of technical training.
While the sailors remained faithful to the cause of the Union, no less than 259 naval officers resigned or were dismissed, a staggering 43% of the Navy’s officer corps. Finally, there were three side-wheel steamers including the Michigan, Saginaw, and Water-Witch.Īt the outbreak of hostilities, the US Navy numbered just 7,600 men of all ranks. Four were first-class side-wheel sloops, including the Mississippi, Powhattan, Saranac, and Susquehanna. Two were third-class sloops, including the Narragansett and Seminole. Five were second-class sloops, including the Dakota, Iroquois, Mohican, Pawnee, and Wyoming. Six were first-class sloops (later known as corvettes), including the Brooklyn, Hartford, Lancaster, Pensacola, and Richmond. Six were frigates, including the Colorado, Niagara, Merrimac, Wabash, Minnesota, and Roanoke. Although commercial vessels had been powered by steam for more than four decades, only twenty-six of the American naval vessels were steam-powered. At the outbreak of hostilities in the Civil War, the US Navy consisted of approximately 90 ships, of which fewer than half were combat-capable.
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