Second Test Flashcards
Confederate naval strategy
•Inferior naval strength
•U.S. Navy traditions prior to the Mexican-American War - Defensive
–Coastal defense
–Commerce raiding (Guerre de course)
Union strategy
•Superior naval strength built up throughout the war
•Royal Navy traditions and U.S. Navy traditions in the Mexican-American War - Offensive
–Establish control of sea lines of communication
•Blockade of enemy coast
•Power projection through amphibious assault
How south obtain ships
Had to buy
-•The South could not produce the necessary arms required; In some areas they were not even self-sufficient (could feed its people with supplies)
Goal of union navy with Brits
•The North’s goal: Keep Britain truly neutral and the Royal Navy out of conflict; Avoid conflicts with British ships
What battle did the Brits withdraw
Antietam
•September, 1862
•Union victory
Trent affair
- Charles Wilkes in San Jacinto stopped the British mail steamer Trent
- The Confederate reps on-board were removed
- This was neutrality violation and nearly ignited a war with Britain
- Tension cooled by diplomacy and apology
Union naval bases
•Attempt to establish first Union base on Confederate territory (07 Nov 1861)
–Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
As Alabama
•Raphael Semmes
–Gained early experience in command of the Sumter
•Built in England
–Most Confederate ships built overseas
•Outfitted in Azores
–Britain would not violate her neutrality.
Iron clad
•Norfolk Navy Yard (Biggest in the Country)
–Abandoned by Northern forces; Captured by the South 20 Apr 1861
–Most munitions and facilities were left intact
•South able to raise the USS Merrimack
–40 gun, steamer/sailer, screw-type propeller
•Turned Merrimack into ironclad and renamed CSS Virginia
•One of a kind
As hunley
First sub
Flag rank
•Naval flag rank created in 1861 for better cooperation with Army generals
Iron clad battle
•Crimean War, Battle of Kinburn 1855
–French hastily construct first iron clad against Russian exploding shells
•Hampton Roads, 1862
–Studied heavily by nations of the world
•Battle of Lissa: 20 Jul 1866
–First battle between Iron-clad steam fleets
–Austria (inferior in #s and guns) vs. Italy
–Studies lessons in tactics, armor, armament and construction
•Guns vs. rams
Cannon
Advantages include: •Increased rate of fire •Enhanced crew safety •Increased accuracy •Increased effective ranges •Reduced # of guns/crews
Steam/ iron
–wooden hulls iron hulls steel hulls
–Steel has higher strength but lower density than iron
–Bunkers: coal/tanks/voids in outboard compartments
–Internal sections “segmented” to minimize effects of damage
Torpedo
Torpedoes
•Civil War Torpedo = Mine
•1886: Automotive Torpedo with a contact warhead invented by Robert Whitehouse.
•It was a low cost weapon which caused heavy damage
Torpedo/feet roger
- Small, light & fast
- Significant threat to large warship
- Led to light quick firing guns
- Led to Torpedo Boat Destroyers to act as shield for capital ships which came to be known as simply Destroyers
Sail to steam
–Increases in speed.
•Improved materials allow higher steam pressures.
–Longer ranges.
–Coaling stations required at regular intervals while transiting overseas.
Floating
•Countermeasures against low cost weapons:
–Continued advances in compartmentalization.
–New ship types:
•“Torpedo boat destroyer” shortened to just “destroyer” used to screen capital ships from torpedo attacks.
•Minesweepers used to clear minefields.
Cruiser
Cruisers
•Larger still
•Also carried large guns to protect against destroyers
•Used also for scouting and commerce raiding.
Submarine
•ABCD ships - construction begins in 1883.
–Protected Cruisers: Atlanta, Boston & Chicago
–Dispatch Vessel: Dolphin
–Steam- triple expansion engine greatly increased cruising range (Sail used as secondary means of propulsion).
Tactic
•Commerce raiding and coastal defense = Accepted strategies of the U.S. Navy after Civil War.
•Strategies seem obsolete to an influential group of American naval leaders.
–Push to throw off isolationist attitude
•Commodore Stephen B. Luce
–Establishes Naval War College in 1884 at Newport, Rhode Island to:
•“Apply modern scientific methods to the study and raise naval warfare from the empirical stage to the dignity of a science.”
Naval publication
•Lecture Notes become the basis of The Influence of Sea Power upon History 1660-1783
1889
•Naval War College
–RADM Stephen Luce established
–Mahan assigned there in 1884
Battleships
•U.S. needs to build a balanced battleship navy capable of defeating enemy fleets
•Colonial extensions Valuable locations for coaling stations
–Vital to a steam-driven battleship navy
•Isthmus passage (Panama) necessary for U.S. naval power
–Critical maritime “choke-point”
–U.S. Navy as a “Two-Ocean” Navy - Atlantic and Pacific
Tactics strategy
•Tactics
–Aspects of operations occurring after the beginning of combat
–Dynamic due to changes in technology of armaments and propulsion
•Strategy
–Should remain constant through periods of technological change
–Mahan didn’t realize the extent to which technology would affect the validity of some of his six elements of sea power
Deployed
•How should a navy be deployed?
–Battle fleets
Maritime strategy
•Some Principles of Maritime Strategy (1911)
•Points of agreement with Mahan:
–Command of the sea is of prime importance
–Commerce raiding is the strategy of the weaker power
–Lines of communication are crucial in warfare
•Development of naval strategy related to Clausewitz:
–Relationship of naval strategy to government policy
–Interdependence of all elements of national power
–Contingency of any set of principles regarding war
USA Maine
•Anarchy in Cuba (1895-1898):
–U.S. investments threatened
–Spanish misrule
•Extortion payments for property protection
•“Reconcentration areas” and propaganda
•Spanish Prime Minister and USS Maine “incident” in Feb 1898
•Declaration of war with Spain in April 1898
Alantic fleet
• Atlantic: Sampson/Schley
5 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers plus support ships
• Asiatic: Dewey (China/Japan)
2 heavy / 2 light cruisers plus support ships (117 guns)
Manila bay
•Montojo - Manila Bay
1 light cruiser, 1 wood cruiser plus support ships (86 guns)
Territory
U.S. Empire
•From Spain: Possession of Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines. Naval base in Cuba
•Formerly independent: Wake, Hawaii, Samoa (Harbor of Pago Pago)
General board Dewey
–Access to Secretary of the Navy and / or the President on a regular basis due to increased importance of the Navy.
Panama canal
–Completion of Panama Canal
1900-1904
Japanese navy
–“Open Door” policy and Boxer rebellion in China
–Emergence of Japanese fleet via defeat of Russian fleet
–Spanish wholesale of islands in Pacific
–Control and defense of Philipines
Naval aviators
•Dawn of Aviation –Spawned birth of carriers •Use of liquid petroleum –Spawned battle cruisers •Emergence of submarine as a viable, tactical weapon
Roughriders
Theodore Roosevelt was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He resigned in 1898 to organize the Rough Riders, the first voluntary cavalry in the Spanish-American War.
