In addition to the many machine and boiler ships, sail lofts, foundries, and carpenter shops, it also housed nearly 1,200 naval gun barrels, including many of the new Dahlgren type. It boasted the largest dry dock on the East Coast and housed the navy’s reserve supply of powder and shot. They were the pride of the navy.ĭuring the last weeks before the Virginia secession, the primary concern of the U.S War Department was the Navy Yard at Norfolk. The best of the lot were the six newly built Wabash-class steam frigates, of 40 guns and 3,300 tons-the Wabash, Colorado, Roanoke, Merrimack, Minnesota, and Niagara. Of the steam-powered vessels, 21 were on foreign station, several were in yards being overhauled, and the balance were smaller vessels, tugs, supply craft, cutters, and other auxiliaries. They lay rotting in various yards and were used as receiving and store-ships and would be of little use in the war. There were 90 ships on the list, but more than half were sailing ships 40 to 50 years old. This proved to be the last straw for the Virginians, and within a month they had joined the Confederacy, making their state the last to leave the Union.Īt the outbreak of hostilities, the U.S. When Virginia and North Carolina refused to turn over the required regiments, Lincoln ordered the blockade extended to include those two states, even though they were still in the Union, and in spite of the fact that the Virginia legislature had passed a resolution of loyalty only two weeks before. Five weeks later, Lincoln ordered the naval blockade of the South, and called upon the loyal states to furnish 75,000 militia to retake the Federal property seized by the Confederates. This policy of indecision and failed reconciliation was to be partly responsible for giving the Southerners their most famous ship of war.īy the time president-elect Lincoln was sworn in on March 4, 1861, six more states had joined South Carolina and had formed the Confederate States of America. Up until the Star of the West incident, only South Carolina had seceded, but feelings were running high in Dixie and more states were expected to follow. government, at the time led by lame duck President James Buchanan, who was loath to do anything that the Southerners might view as provocative, and thus drive more states out of the Union. She was, however, unarmed and unescorted, and was forced to stand out to sea to prevent her capture or destruction. The ship carried 204 Union troops along with their arms and baggage, and several tons of ammunition and provisions for the relief of Fort Sumter. Actually, the Stars and Stripes was fired upon over three months earlier, on January 9, 1861, when the steamer Star of the West, under Federal charter, suffered hits from the same batteries that were to begin the war in April. Most history books teach that the War between the States began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate batteries ringing Charleston harbor fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender the following day.
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