previous next


The Navy Department.

The joint select committee of the two Houses of Congress raised to Investigate the administration of the Navy Department submitted a report before the adjournment of Congress.

In their report the committee state that they have inquired into everything relating to the materials and the operations of the Navy of the Confederate States; the means and resources for building a navy; the efforts to purchase or build vessels and to obtain ordnance stores; the naval defences of the Mississippi river, and especially of New Orleans, of the Cumberland, Tennessee, and James rivers, and of the city of Norfolk.

At the commencement of the war but seven steam war vessels had been built in the States now forming the Confederacy since the war of 1812, and the engines of only two of these had been contracted for in these States. All the labor or materials requisite to complete and equip a war vessel could not be commanded at any one point of the Confederacy.

In Justification of the Secretary of the Navy, the committee state that he has invited contracts for building gunboats wherever they could be soonest and best built and most advantageously employed, and that his contracts seem to have been judicious, and to have been properly enforced. In relation to the destruction of the Mississippi at New Orleans, the committee say the contractors--Messrs. Tift--undertook her construction without pecuniary reward, and prosecuted the work on her with industry and dispatch, and that neither they nor the Secretary are censurable for the incomplete ness of that vessel when the enemy reached New Orleans, or for her destruction. A foot note states that some of the committee think that the Mississippi was lost by want of energy and diligence of officers of the navy at New Orleans.

With reference to what the Department has accomplished since its organization, the Committee state that it has created a powder mill, which supplies all the powder required by our navy; two engine boilers and machine shops and five ordnance workshops. It has established eighteen yards for building war vessels, and a rope walk, making all cordage, from a rope yarn to a nine inch cable, and capable of turning out 8,000 per month.

Of vessels not iron clad the Department has purchased and otherwise acquired and converted to war vessels44
Has built and completed as war vessels12
Has partially constructed and destroyed to save from the enemy10
And has now under construction9
Of iron clad vessels it has completed and has new in commission.12
Has completed and destroyed, or lost by capture4
Has in progress of construction, and in various stages of forwardness20

It has also one iron-clad floating battery, presented to the Confederate States by the ladies of Georgia, and one iron-clad ram, partially completed and turned over to the Confederacy by the State of Alabama.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Sort places alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
United States (United States) (2)
Mississippi (United States) (1)
Georgia (Georgia, United States) (1)
Cumberland City (Tennessee, United States) (1)
Alabama (Alabama, United States) (1)
hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
Tift (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
1812 AD (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: