The U.S. Navy in the Civil War

Union Sailors

From humble beginnings in 1861, eventually some 118,000 individuals saw service in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The majority of them were drawn from working-class areas of the urban North and rural South. The wartime Navy included a particularly large number of immigrants and African Americans among their crews. In contrast to the army, all these men served together unsegregated, living cheek by jowl in their small shipboard communities. The capacity for these men and the crews of which they formed a part to offer a unique window into ordinary life in this period is one of the primary drivers behind the Civil War Bluejackets project.

The majority of men who entered the wartime Navy did so for a term-of-enlistment of either 12 months or three-years. While some were professional seamen with longstanding ties to the water, large numbers appear to have little or no maritime experience. The Navy had a longstanding reputation for attracting men drawn from some of the poorest sections of society, and in this the Civil War appears to have been no different. Aside from offering an opportunity to serve the nation during wartime, the Navy also offered an increased prospect for survival (when compared to the army), a perceived greater capacity for travel, and the potential for additional monetary reward as a result of bounties realised from captured vessels. Even so, ship-borne life was not for the faint-hearted. Long service in cramped and confined conditions, poor rations and prolonged service in inclement weather conditions all took their toll, and disease was a major killer. Sailors also had to contend with what could be extremely harsh disciplinary conditions.

Men who enlisted with maritime experience could expect to enter the service at a higher rating, (e.g. Seaman or Ordinary Seaman), and enjoy more pay than their inexperienced colleagues. Those setting sail for the first time often entered at the Landsman rating, the lowest of the standard naval ratings. The majority of naval recruits joined up at what were known as Naval Rendezvous, essentially naval recruiting offices that were set up throughout major population and maritime centres. From there they could expect to be sent to what were known as “Receiving Ships”, stationary vessels where they would receive basic training and await their deployment to operational duties.

The Wartime Navy

The wartime Navy can broadly be divided into two spheres of operation, “blue-water” and “brown-water”. These were the contemporary terms generally applied to operations in the seas and oceans- “blue-water” and on the inland rivers and waterways- “brown-water”. When the war began, vessels operating on inland waterways remained under the purview of the Army. This changed in 1862 when the Navy was given command and control over U.S. river-going fleets, which they retained through to the conflict’s conclusion.

There were two major naval campaigns in the Civil War. The first was the blockading of Confederate ports on the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico to deprive the rebel states of supplies and to halt exports. This formed a key part of the United States strategy to win the war- the plan of strangling the Confederacy by land and water designed by General Winfield Scott, often known as “Scott’s Great Snake”.

The Union vessels that engaged in the blockade ranged off the coast, seeking to prevent shipping from departing the Confederacy and attempting to intercept and capture incoming “blockade runners”. The majority of men on blockade duty served in one of the “Blockading Squadrons”, such as the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, the East Gulf Blockading Squadron and the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. An extension of this campaign saw U.S. ocean-going vessels range around the globe in search of Confederate commerce raiders.

The second major campaign took place on the rivers and inland waterways of the United States. Operating in the shallower “brown-waters” required special shallow-draft vessels, and often involved frequent close contact with troops and civilians in the Confederacy. The most famous participants in this campaign were the “Mississippi Squadron”, which played an integral part in finally closing off that waterway to the Rebels, and “splitting the Confederacy in two.”

Squadrons like those operating on the Atlantic blockade worked primarily from east coast ports such as Boston, New York and Philadelphia, cities with the largest numbers of foreign and especially Irish and British immigrants, along with sizeable numbers of free African Americans. In addition Union vessels in foreign waters often “topped-up” their compliment with local sailors, bringing a truly global flavour to their makeup. On the rivers, the U.S. Navy turned particularly towards recruiting large numbers of recently enslaved African Americans, who regularly enlisted directly onto their ship of service, and who were usually referred to as “Contrabands”. Together, this sometimes unlikely mix of men played an integral role in securing United States’ victory in the conflict.