![]() The Macon, the Sampson, the Resolute, and the Isondiga, wooden gunboats of varying designs, constituted the remainder of the Confederate fleet in Savannah. This ship, as well as the Georgia and later the Savannah, were ironclads patterned after the CSS Virginia, famous for its battle against the USS Monitor at Hampton Roads, Virginia, in 1862. While built as a British merchant ship, the blockade-running Fingal was converted to an ironclad in 1862 and renamed the Atlanta. Simons Island in the war’s beginning stages, the virtual closing of Savannah’s port to privateers like Anderson greatly contributed to eventual Union success in Georgia.Ĭonfederate leadership and the people of Savannah came to pin their hopes of resisting Union occupation and breaking the blockade on a handful of gunboats. Because Union forces took control of the seas around Brunswick and St. While smaller vessels than the Fingal sometimes did evade Northern capture, their modest hauls made for paltry victories. If the Union hoped to wear the South down by cutting it off from the outside world, then it had to put a stop to incidents like the Fingal’s arrival at Savannah. Naval Historical Centerīut Anderson’s remarkable feat also signaled to the Union that it needed to bolster its blockade and close off access to Savannah, which, like Charleston, South Carolina, to the north, offered an access point readily able to provide Confederate armies with necessary war materiel. The landing of Enfield rifles and cannons, as well as sabers and military uniforms, at the state’s major port marked the high tide of the South’s ability to penetrate the North’s naval forces stationed along the Georgia shore.Ītlanta Courtesy of U.S. However, in Georgia none would match Anderson’s success. A native of Savannah, Anderson was the first of many who attempted to assist the Confederate cause by breaking through the Union’s extensive coastal blockade, which stretched from Virginia to Florida. Anderson, escaped under Union eyes and piloted his ship, the Fingal, into the port of Savannah. On the night of November 11, 1861, a daring Confederate blockade-runner, Edward C. ![]() Confederate Privateering and Naval Innovation ![]() In this way, Lee minimized reliance upon the fledgling Confederate navy and maximized the use of Confederate military forces in coastal areas, including both Georgia’s Sea Islands and mainland ports with railroad connections. He countered Union naval superiority by ensuring easy reinforcement of Confederate coastal positions along railroad lines. Lee quickly realized the impossibility of defending the entire coastline and decided to consolidate limited Confederate forces and materiel at key strategic points. Lee to reorganize Confederate coastal defenses. After the fall of Port Royal, South Carolina, in November 1861, Confederate president Jefferson Davis appointed General Robert E. ![]() Beyond Savannah, Union forces generally focused on securing bases of operation on outlying coastal islands to counter Confederate privateers.Ĭonfederate defensive strategy, in turn, evolved with the Union blockade. In Georgia, Union strategy centered on Savannah, the state’s most significant port city. president Abraham Lincoln’s call at the start of the war for a naval blockade of the entire Southern coastline took time to materialize, but by early 1862, under Union general Winfield Scott’s “Anaconda Plan,” the Union navy had positioned a serviceable fleet off the coast of the South’s most prominent Confederate ports. The battle between ship and shore on the coast of Confederate Georgia was a pivotal part of the Union strategy to subdue the state during the Civil War (1861-65). ![]()
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