Page 52 - NS-2 Textbook

THE CIVIL WAR 45

port could not be held, there did not seem to be much
chance that the Confederacy could survive. Thereafter,
they no longer seriously considered recognizing the
South, though shipyards in both nations continued to
build blockade runners and cruisers for the Confederacy.
Union naval forces and supporting armies nmv con-
verged from both the north and south on Vicksburg,
Mississippi, the major remaining Confederate fortress on
the river. A major naval battle-the only real fleet action
of the war-was fought in the Mississippi at Memphis,
Tennessee. The entire Confederate river navy was de-
stroyed, except for the unfinished ironclad ram Arkal1sas,
which had been towed south into the Yazoo River. By
late 1862 Grant had arrived to surrOlmd Vicksburg, and
Farragut had brought his blue-ocean fleet past Vicks-
burg. The high bluffs prevented serious naval bombard-
ment of the city, so the Navy patrolled, transported
Union troops, protected the Army's flanks, and pre-
vented Confederate relief of the city. The city's defenses
Admiral David Farragut would emerge from the Civil War at age
sixty as the Union's most famous naval hero. ·were strong, hmvever, and Vicksburg did not surrender
tmtil1863.

rier, the superior Union fleet blasted the defenders out of
THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMACK
the water, sinking a dozen vessels. Farragut proceeded
up the river to New Orleans and anchored his fleet off As the Union was sealing off the Confederacy with the
the quays of the port. The next day, the city surrendered, blockade, the Confederates made plans to break out.
and the bypassed forts quickly gave up. They had captured the USS Merrimack, a new steam
The South's leading port was now in the hands of the frigate burned and scuttled by Union forces when they
Union. It was a disaster for the Confederacy. The British withdrew from the Norfolk Navy Yard. The Confeder-
and French, who had been thinking about recognizing ates raised the vessel, placed her in drydock, and set
the South, now thought differently. After all, if a major about converting her into the first Confederate ironclad.

III II III III III II fftn-mlThnrmfnrtrlml 'TTmrrmrrmmll =c==c-

172 feet overall
USSMonitor

263 feet overall
ess Virginia

This comparison chart shows the difference in size between the USS Monitor and the (55 Virginia. The Monitor was smaller and more ma-
neuverable, but the Virginia had more guns.