The Most Famous Ships of the Confederacy: The History of Noteworthy Confederate Ships during the Civil War

Without European intervention and the ability to build a navy that could rival the Union’s, the Confederacy was mostly reduced to token resistance and using fast moving ships that could evade the blockade and import and export goods. Again, that was only partially successful, and today, the blockade runners are better known for their extracurricular activities; most notably, some of the crews also acted as privateers on the high seas, attacking U.S. shipping and taking any loot for themselves. The daring exploits of these commerce raiders caught the imagination of Southern soldiers and civilians and buoyed up morale, even as the war news turned increasingly grim. Among all the Confederate commerce raiders, by far the most famous was the CSS Alabama. The Alabama attacked American ships and eluded the U.S. Navy around the globe for more than two years, all without ever having docked at a Southern port.

On March 8, 1862, the newest era of naval warfare began. That day, the CSS Virginia, an ironclad created out of the hull of the scuttled USS Merrimac by the Confederates, sailed down the Elizabeth River to Hampton Roads, where a Union blockade fleet was anchored. The wooden ships of the North were no match for the ironclad, which quickly rammed and sank the USS Cumberland, and as it trained its sights on the USS Congress, one Union officer noted the former Merrimac fired "shot and shell into her with terrific effect, while the shot from the Congress glanced from her iron-plated sloping sides, without doing any apparent injury."

One proposed solution to the South's problems led to one of the strangest and inspiring stories of the Civil War—that of the CSS H. L. Hunley, the first submarine to successfully sink an enemy vessel.

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Lydbog: 29. januar 2026