Rebel Raiders The Astonishing History of the Confedracy's Secret Navy

Montgomery Throughout the early spring of 1861, the sleepy little city of Montgomery, Alabama, found itself caught up in a state of jubilant uproar and patriotic euphoria. Ever since February, when it was proclaimed provisional capital of the Confederate States of America, trainloads of strangers had been pouring into town from all across the South--patriots and adventurers, visionaries and opportunists--crowding the city's streets and monopolizing its facilities, eagerly clamoring to participate in the creation of a huge new nation the size of western Europe. In April, the level of excitement in Montgomery ratcheted up to new heights when news of the bombardment of Fort Sumter came clattering over the telegraph from Charleston. Overnight, a new martial spirit gripped the city, and a heady sense of participating in the unfolding of great events was everywhere apparent. The fledgling Confederate government, suddenly faced with the need to put itself on a war footing, quickly ran out of office space and was forced to take rooms in the Exchange Hotel. Despite the sense of urgency generated by the news of war, President Jefferson Davis maintained a serene equanimity. For months he and other Southern leaders had hoped that the secession of the Southern states might be managed peacefully, but now that war had come, he remained optimistic. He was convinced that the war would all be over in a matter of weeks. It could not last much longer than that. Neither side was prepared for a more extended conflict, and it was bound to sputter to an inconclusive end as soon as the hotheads in Washington came to understand the futility of trying to force the seceded states back into the Union against their will. Besides, the Europeans would not allow a long war. Both Great Britain and France maintained huge textile industries, which were totally dependent on regular supplies of raw cotton from the South. If those supplies were stopped by the blockade that President Abraham Lincoln had just announced, thousands of European textile mills would have to close, millions of factory hands would be thrown out of work, and there would be riots in the streets of Manchester and Lyons. Davis was confident that before that could happen, the British and French navies would steam across the Atlantic, force open the blockade, and give Mr. Lincoln a choice: He could either sue for peace or find himself battling not just the South but the great powers of Europe as well. Davis was convinced that the key to victory was cotton, and for months he had been encouraging cotton growers to hold their harvest off the market in order to increase pressure on Europe. The less raw cotton the mills had in inventory, the faster their governments would act to ensure the supply. It was just another precautionary step on his part to guarantee a short war. Most of the members of Jefferson Davis's cabinet shared his optimism, but since there was no guarantee that the Yankees would behave in a reasonable manner, they continued to labor diligently to meet the Northern threat. It was always possible, after all, that the war might drag on for as long as a year. During those first hectic weeks of the war, the cabinet officer under the most immediate pressure was probably Stephen R. Mallory, the newly appointed secretary of the navy. It was his responsibility to organize a response to the blockade the Yankees were already putting in place, and that was not going to be easy. The South had virtually nothing in the way of a navy with which to fight back. The entire Confederate fleet consisted of a sorry collection of four small revenue cutters, three leaky slavers, and a handful of smaller boats inherited from the seceded states, and there was no chance of improving the situation in the immediate future. It takes time and money to build proper warships, and Mallory had little of either. With his round, open face and vaguely distracted appede Kay, James T. is the author of 'Rebel Raiders The Astonishing History of the Confedracy's Secret Navy' with ISBN 9780345431820 and ISBN 0345431820.