Civil War Naval Chronology, 1861-1865 (Part I--1861)
Washington, DC: Navy Department, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History Division, 1961. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Wraps. iv, 41, [3] pages, counting covers. PART I ONLY. Wraps. Illustrated front cover. Illustrations. Maps. Covers somewhat worn and soiled. This is part of a 6 volume work. This was issued to coincide with the centennial of the Civil War. The Naval History and Heritage Command, formerly the Naval Historical Center, is an Echelon II command responsible for the preservation, analysis, and dissemination of U.S. naval history and heritage located at the historic Washington Navy Yard. The NHHC is composed of 42 facilities in 13 geographic locations including the Navy Department Library, 10 museums and 1 heritage center, USS Constitution repair facility and detachment, and historic ship ex-USS Nautilus. The Naval History and Heritage Command traces its lineage to 1800, when President John Adams requested Benjamin Stoddert, the first Secretary of the Navy, prepare a catalog of professional books for use in the Secretary's office. When the British invaded Washington in 1814 this collection, containing the finest works on naval history from America and abroad, was rushed to safety outside the Federal City. Thereafter the library had many locations, including a specially designed space in the State, War, and Navy Building (now the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) next to the White House. When the library was placed under the Bureau of Navigation in 1882, the director, noted international lawyer and U.S. Naval Academy professor James R. Soley, gathered the rare books scattered throughout Navy Department offices. The Union Navy was the United States Navy (USN) during the American Civil War, when it fought the Confederate States Navy (CSN). The term is sometimes used carelessly to include vessels of war used on the rivers of the interior while they were under the control of the United States Army, also called the Union Army. The primary missions of the Union Navy were:
1. Maintain the blockade of Confederate ports by restraining all blockade runners; declared by President Lincoln on April 19, 1861, and continued until the end of the Rebellion.
2. Meet in combat the war vessels of the CSN.
3. Carry the war to places in the seceded states that were inaccessible to the Union Army, but could be reached by water.
4. Support the Army by providing both gunfire support and rapid transport and communications on the rivers of the interior.
To accomplish these, the Union Navy had to undergo a profound transformation, both technical and institutional. During the war, sailing vessels were completely supplanted by ships propelled by steam for purposes of combat. Vessels of widely differing character were built from the keel up in response to peculiar problems they would encounter. Wooden hulls were at first protected by armor plating, and soon were replaced by iron or steel throughout. Guns were reduced in number, but increased in size and range; the reduction in number was partially compensated by mounting the guns in rotating turrets or by pivoting the gun on a curved deck track so they could be turned to fire in any direction. The institutional changes that were introduced during the war were equally significant. The Bureau of Steam Engineering was added to the bureau system, testimony to the U.S. Navy's conversion from sail to steam. Most important from the standpoint of Army-Navy cooperation in joint operations, the set of officer ranks was redefined so that each rank in the U.S. Army had its equivalent in the U.S. Navy. The establishment of the ranks of admirals implied also a change of naval doctrine, from one favoring single-ship operations to that of employing whole fleets. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Chronology, Civil War, Gunboats, Naval Operations, Merchant Shipping, Fort Sumter, Reference Works, Blockade, John LaMountain, Aerial Reconnaissance, Thaddeus Lowe, Blockade Runner, Norfolk Navy Yard, Pamlico Sound, Samuel Du Pont, Battle of Belmont
[Book #82188]
Price: $50.00