TL-191: Filling the Gaps
- Thread starter Craigo
- Start date
Dutch those are great. Can't wait for President's Roosevelt and Mahan.
Allochronian Turtledove does cover that stuff. Puerto Rico is still apart of Spain. President Reed prevents a filibuster of Haiti in 1895, but the CSA invades it during the First and Second Great Wars. CSA buys Cuba before the Second Mexican War, but i do think the CSA is unofficially involved in the wars for independence.
The following is a first of four or five articles on the War at Sea during the Great War. It took so long because I tried to write most of the other articles so i don't get lazy and not finish them as usual.
Allochronian Turtledove does cover that stuff. Puerto Rico is still apart of Spain. President Reed prevents a filibuster of Haiti in 1895, but the CSA invades it during the First and Second Great Wars. CSA buys Cuba before the Second Mexican War, but i do think the CSA is unofficially involved in the wars for independence.
The following is a first of four or five articles on the War at Sea during the Great War. It took so long because I tried to write most of the other articles so i don't get lazy and not finish them as usual.
The Great War at Sea 1914-1917. Part I the Pre-War Period
United States Navy
Despite the success of the US Navy in blockading the Confederate coast, events on land conspired to rob it of glory. Following the armistice of November 1862, Royal Navy warships (with a token French presence, that country being preoccupied with its Mexican designs) arrived to ensure that the blockade was lifted, and the small Union fleet grudgingly returned to port.
Under the Lincoln administration the US continued to maintain a modestly strong navy by European standards. The US developed several new Ironclad designs. However successive doughface Democrat Administrations were no more generous to the Navy than those before the war. Throughout the 1870s dozens of warships were sold off to balance War of Secession debts. When the Tilden administration wanted to intervene in the Chile-Peru-Bolivian war to safeguard US citizens. He was informed by Secretary of the Navy James A. Weston and Chief of the Navigation Bureau (equivalent to the later Chief of operations ) Rear Admiral Rodgers that the Chilean Navy outgunned the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet.
One of President Blaine’s first official acts was to order Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt commission a panel of Naval Officers to address the U.S.’s lack of Naval preparedness. It recommended 21 armored vessels besides 70 unarmored, together with rams, and most significant of all it declared that the material of construction should be steel. Unfortunately there was not a plant in the United States capable of making forgings for guns of more than six-inch calibre - nor one able to make armor plate or torpedoes. Furthermore any increase in Naval spending would only occur when the 47th Congress actually sat in December of 1881.
When the Second Mexican War broke out the U.S had no more than twelve ironclad warships and forty wooden warships of all types. Although the US had pioneered the use of ironclad ships, European navies soon leapfrogged it, and when Britain and France re-joined the CSA in the Second Mexican War, the Navy was helpless to protect the continent against their larger, more modern squadrons. The allies attack on Union cities damaged all but two of the country’s naval shipyards.
Alfred Thayer Mahan served on the USS Congress in the Second Mexican War as a young lieutenant, and had spent the 1870s in various shore installations, burning with resentment at what he saw as the insanely reckless policy of a small Navy. His series of lectures at the Naval Academy on the use of sea power during the Napoleonic Wars earned him wide acclaim, and he began writing a book on the subject.
For him, the Second Mexican War was the last straw. Serving as skipper of the USS Charles Ellsworth, he watched in rage as the superior steel armor and gunnery of the Royal Navy wrecked a flotilla Ironclad U.S. warships sent to intercept British troops moving to Canada. Mahan was not alone in his fury over the U.S. lack of fighting prowess on the high seas. Navy Officers, victims of the Royal Navy bombardments of U.S. ports, Democrat and Republican congressman all vowed never to let this happen again. The war spelled not only the death of the Republican Party but that of the “doughface” Democrat as well.
Though the U.S. shipyard saw large scale destruction, the Union Navy was able to leave the war with 6 modern Ironclads on par with anything the British or French Constructed. This would form the nucleus to of the Navy’s new Atlantic Fleet. In the wake of the war March of 1883, Congress approved the Naval Appropriations Act that included $15 million to rebuild the U.S. Navy’s destroyed navy yards in Portland, Boston, New London, and Brooklyn. Much to the chagrin of navy enthusiasts it allocated funds to build only a fraction of the ships requested in 1881, but with steel rather than iron hulls. They authorized building four cruisers, most commonly known today as the ABCD ships, cruisers Augusta, Boston, Cleveland and the courier ship Dolphin – named after cities that were victims of Royal Navy bombardment in the Second Mexican War. A far cry from the nearly 90 ships and $30 million the first Naval Advisory Board had recommended.
President Blaine’s successor General Hancock campaigned on the introduction of Conscription, rebuilding of the Navy and harbor defense. General Hancock would die in early 1886, but not before securing the funding for the ABCD Fleet. President Hancock’s successor Allen Thurman disagreed with Hancock’s militarist policies. As a result during this period Congress dominated Naval planning. When the Thurman administration requested only a further $1.3 million to up keep current warships in 1885, Congress awarded another $29 million thanks to the lobbying of Chief of Navigation Rear Admiral Stephen Luce and Alfred Thayer Mahan. By March 1887 all four ABCD cruisers were complete and the funding to begin construction on four coastal defense battleships plus two semi-battleships due to be completed by 1890.
1888 saw the election of Thomas Brackett Reed, the first president to serves a naval officer. The young Thomas Brackett Reed joined the Navy in the autumn of 1862 after the fall of Philadelphia. Many young nationalists hoped the US might launch an apocalyptic attack on the British-French- Confederate Fleet, which never occurred. Though only serving as a supply officer for a year before being let go in the post war military personnel reductions, Reed as a member of the Naval Affairs committee and later Speaker of the House had worked to secure naval funding during the Thurman administration. As a naval enthusiasts and former congressman of a district attacked by the Royal Navy, Reed was the first presidential candidate who campaigned on a naval rearmament agenda. Reed envisioned a large but defensive brown water navy. As Speaker Reed prevented the construction of an offensive oriented Navy, allowing funds for coastal defense battleships only. What President Reed did not want, was a powerful Blue Water Fleet capable of supporting an imperialist agenda abroad.
One of Reed’s most influential decisions was the selection of naval theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Mahan arrived with a plan to plan for a revitalize the Navy. Drawing on the Hunt Commission in the early 1880’s, lessons learned in the Second Mexican War. Mahan quickly drew up a budget asking a for a twenty battleship fleet with twelve battleships in the Atlantic and eight in the Pacific, with sixty cruisers and auxiliary craft. This would make the U.S. Navy second only to the Royal Navy. This was too ambitious and expensive for Reed, coming in at $290 million.
Instead Reed supported a navy bill allocating the $90 million proposed in 1881. In the Naval authorization bill of 1889, Congress authorized the construction five steel Battleships equal in firepower to the most modern British equivalent vessels and twelve armored cruisers. Mahan however was successful in convincing the President that to be competitive with European warships would require them to be able to fight defensive battles in enemy waters. That interdicting the enemy's reinforcement of Canada and the Confederacy required Battleships to have a range of 5,600nm. After pressure from Congress and the Navy Department, President Reed finally agreed. But because of Reed’s apprehension that the navy could be used for overseas adventures, significant funding was spent on harbor defense, river monitors, torpedo boats, auxiliary craft. These vehicles would all be due no later than 1895.
By 1890 six battleships were slated for construction. Assistant Secretary Mahan worked hard to get the production of warships on schedule, but many were behind schedule due to a lack of technical expertise and steel production. Now armed with the new rationing legislation, Secretary Mahan was able to obtain the requisite steel and complete the battleship on schedule. By the time these battleships were complete they were outdated and their main caliber guns and armor was too thin. Resulting in the first class of coastal defense battleships downgraded their classification to Armored cruiser. All through this period Mahan worked to standardized construction and ship classification. New battleships would require their main caliber be 12 inch guns and thick US produced steel Armor. This success convinced President Reed to elevate Assistant Secretary Mahan to full Secretary in 1891.
His first task as full Secretary was the reorganization the Navy’s organization. During this period the Navy was organized into eight departments. Each with their own chief, who though subordinate to the Secretary of the Navy directly requested their funding from Congress. No department was answerable to the other and many were redundant and there was confusion over which department handled the new advances in steam production, dynamite munitions and electricity. As a former Navy Officer Mahan knew how important it was to have a competent naval staff advising their civilian officers. Mahan passed an navy reorganization bill in 1891, which streamlined the bureau in three divisions, Navigation, Construction and Maintenance. The Navy was headed by a chief of staff controlling operation and logistics, the staff then advised the civilian controlled the Navy departments. This went a long way to eliminating redundancies and improving production. Unfortunately Reed could not secure funding for a naval reserve. Instead the Navy was forced to rely on state naval militias, which received significantly less funding than the new army national guard.
The Navy’s greatest success during this period of renewal was the thwarting of Confederate attempts to annex Haiti. When the U.S. heard that Confederate filibusters were planning to invade Haiti, the U.S. sent a squadron of two Battleships and three armored cruisers into Port-au-Prince. This success helped to rebuild the confidence of the nation after three decades of humiliation. It especially helped rebuild the moral and spirit of the Navy, which was shattered in the Second Mexican War. President Reed capitalized on this success with a request for a new class of four new battleships.
At the time of the Haitian Crisis in 1895 the navy included five Battleships, two semi-battleships, six armored cruisers, ten light or scout cruisers and more than a dozen ocean/river/Great Lakes monitors. This fell far short of the fleet Secretary Mahan believed the nation required. Mahan was a firm believer in the decisive battle doctrine. The Second Mexican War had shown that a strategy of commerce raiding was not effective. To win a war the U.S. had to locate and destroy the enemy's fleets in large decisive fleet actions. To this effect powerful capital ships were the decisive weapon. Congress and President Reeds cost cutting, by constructing coastal defense battleships and armored cruisers only weakened the fleet. These continuing disagreement between the President and Secretary Mahan, led Mahan to be receptive to entreaties by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge that he should seek higher office.
Coastal Defense Battleships- No Class Name (1887)
* reclassified as armored cruisers in 1891. In 1905 all ships were renamed so their name could be reused for the forthcoming New York Class Dreadnoughts.
Kentucky Class (1888)
*considered Semi-battleships in 1895.
First Ocean Going Battleships- Victory Class (1889)
Remembrance Class (1894)
When the Democratic convention of 1896 deadlocked, party bosses handed the nomination to Mahan, who was uninterested in partisan politics, but now had the power to put his ideas fully into practice. When the Nicaragua crisis broke out almost immediately after his taking office in 1897 the US Navy proved a powerful deterrent to Confederate imperial designs. This gave President Mahan the popularity needed to push through the central plank in his campaign platform the two ocean navy bill.
The bill called for a radical increase in the size of the Navy with the construction of 10 battleships, 8 armored cruisers and 68 protected cruisers. It’s passage created the modern two-ocean US navy. Which consisted of the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, and Great Lakes Squadrons, with riverine operations becoming the Army's province. (As befitting US strategic interests, the Atlantic Fleet received the bulk of funding.) By 1906 the U.S. had completed 25 pre-dreadnought Battleships and 40 cruisers and 20 ocean monitors/great lakes battleships.
Ohio Class (1897)
New Jersey Class (1901)
Illinois Class (1903)
As a result of the bills passage, ships construction capacity drastically improved during this period. With Fleet Yards in most major coastal cities. The three largest being in Boston, Brooklyn and Philadelphia. Smaller shipyard. As a part of the Two Ocean Navy Bill, President Mahan included funding for a major expansion of the Shipyards in San Francisco as well as funding for smaller shipyards in Seattle, Oakland, Tacoma and Everett. Southern California was not included because President Mahan failed to grasp its strategic value at the time. Mahan was forced to also include funding for a number of naval facilities scattered throughout the smaller cities of the Great Lakes. While President Mahan knew this pork spending was necessary to pass the Two Ocean Navy bill, he nonetheless lamented the waste in resources. During this period naval construction was divided between state owned shipyards and privately held firms. Eastern Congressman and Senators tended to support privately owned naval construction firms, because of the already large number of native construction firms. Midwestern and Pacific congressman tended to favor state owned shipyards. Hoping there creation would increase ship construction in their districts. This was also favored by Socialist Congressman and labor unions, which believed they could win more concessions from private firms. Mahan tended to steer a neutral course in these debates. Supporting the he creation of state owned enterprises where none existed and rely on private ones to cut personnel costs in east coast cities.
During this period US naval engineering drastically improved. In 1896 most of the US Fleet were largely experimental craft. Testing knew technology and methods of ship construction. This resulted a fleet of varying quality. Under the old system each Navy yard and bureau was run by a chief appointed by and answerable to congress. This gave each chief power to run their bureau or yard as they saw fit. Leading a wide variety of construction methods and quality. As a result US ship construction was not on par with its British, German and even French rivals. This led to few orders from foreign navies, which proved so vital keeping to British shipbuilding firms financially successful. . With the introduction of the new naval staff system, a single department now ran construction, which allowed for better quality control measures and increased economies of scale. By 1904 the US Naval engineering was considered the equal to Germany and nearly equal to Britain’s.
The first US proposals for an all big gun super battleship dates back to late 1904. When Japanese reports of the ineffectiveness of guns under 12 inches in naval actions with Russia, began filtering to the US Navy. Initially there was a debate in Congress over appropriating funds for a new “all big gun super” battleship. Even Mahan worried over the soundness of placing “all of our Naval eggs in one basket.” However with the news that Britain had begun working on the Dreadnought, Congress authorizes funds for the New York class which matched the Dreadnought in size and fire power. Thanks to Mahan's emphasis on large capital warship construction, the USS New York class was commissioned in 1907, quickly followed by its sister ship the Michigan later that year.
However Mahan’s strategic brilliance and political accomplishment had its limit. His love of the surface navy caused him to underestimate inventions that would revolutionize warfare in the Great War such as the submersible, aviation and battlecruisers. Mahan Naval build up also strained the nations finances resulting in increased rationing of materials used to make warships. While the creation of the dreadnought had essentially reset the battleship arms race, the thought of completely rebuilding a new fleet horrified fiscally conservative Democrats like President Nelson Aldrich. Resulting in the US only coming in third behind Britain and Germany in the global naval arms race. Mahan’s emphasis in ship construction also left little for personnel issues. Despite repeated attempts Mahan failed to gain Congressional funding for the creation of a nationwide Naval Reserve, like the Army National Guard. Instead the Navy was forced to rely on state militias. This created personnel shortages at the outbreak of war as 100,000s of new seaman has to be trained from scratch when the state naval reserve system failed in 1915.
While the Mahan administration was the high point of interwar naval reform, the Aldrich administration was one of reigning in of what he considered ruinous naval spending. Under Aldrich and his Naval Secretary William H. Moody, the Navy saw its first budget reduction in over sixteen years. While most navalist in Congress called building four Dreadnoughts a year for the next four years, Aldrich secured funding for a two for four building program. He further would not build any new warships without retiring an older vessel already in service. What funding Aldrich did spend on the Navy was devoted to defensive systems. Including upgrades to the US’s aged Great Lake Fleet and the introduction of torpedo boat destroyers. Under Mahan the Navy focused primarily on large capital warship construction. This left little room for smaller craft like torpedo boats. With the Confederacy focusing on smaller attack craft the Navy desperately needed new defenses for these weapons. In the introduction of the Navy’s first torpedo boat destroyer the Smith class. These ships would become invaluable in the navy’s fight against Confederate submersibles. Aldrich’s cuts to naval funding also left an indelible mark on US naval engineering. With the cuts in funding to overseas US mission, battleships no longer required as much room for sailor accommodations. Because Battleships primarily remained at port US sailors generally slept in barracks. This led to more room for deck and side armor. As a result US dreadnoughts tended to have more armor but be slower than their British counterparts.
Aldrich believed that the only way to stop runaway naval spending was to go after its underlying cause, the global naval arms race. The centerpiece of Aldrich's foreign policy was to be a global arms limitation conference in Philadelphia. Hoping to establish an agreed upon naval strength ratio, Aldrich continues to submit decreases in annual Naval Budget requests. This forced the Navy to reduce its overseas missions that had provided invariable experience under the Mahan administration.
The conference’s ultimate failure forced Aldrich to begrudgingly continue dreadnought construction. It’s failure sufficiently aroused Congress into increasing naval funding over Secretary’s objections. A scandal erupted when the House Naval Committee run by Congressman Herbert Satterlee of New York learned there were no plans to use the funds. Chairman Satterlee threatened to prosecute the Secretary of the Navy for violating an act of Congress. During this period it was Satterlee who most jealously guarded the Navy’s interest in the House, along with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge in the Senate. Many jokes in this period that Satterlee was the shadow Secretary of the Navy. Satterlee a former naval officer was also the president of the New York Navy League as well as a officer in the New York Navy Militia. Satterlee was a formidable check on President Aldrich and his desire to weaken the Navy. Not only was he well connected in Navy circles but was also the nephew of financier JP Morgan.
As a result of Chairman Satterlee’s tireless efforts, Aldrich administration bowed to the pressure and increased Naval Construction. However fearing the financial cost and believing the destabilizing effect constructing more than two battleships a year would cause on the international system. Aldrich again compromised by ordering the construction of eighteen fast long range cruisers, designed to disrupt british and confederate commerce. Most Mahanist’s (including Mahan himself) were appalled by this move. Across the naval community experts argued that the new cruiser fleet would be the same waste of resources as the commerce raiders of the SMW and more importantly it would distract the Navy’s primary mission of crushing the Royal Navy.
The search for a more cost effective naval strategy ended in 1912 with the election of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt a long time friend of Mahan and proponent of naval power, dramatically increased the naval arms race with the four for four Naval Bill. Thanks to this construction plan the U.S fleet would grow more in size and strength than any other nation in the world. Roosevelt also called for the construction of new fast firing super-dreadnoughts to match the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth class. The result was the Idaho Class and its eight 16 inch guns, which would be come standard on all future warships. Roosevelt also pushed Navy to shed some of the conservatism of the Mahan era and invest in new weapons such as submersibles and aerial reconnaissance. Despite both technologies being invented in the United States, Roosevelt ordered the purchase of German aircraft and submersible designs, as these technologies matured much faster in Europe.
Roosevelt also set his mark on Naval Strategy and planning. Roosevelt promoted aggressive Naval Commanders and ordered a complete overhaul of the Navy’s war plans. Roosevelt hand picked a committee of the most aggressive and capable officers, with ex-president Mahan advising. To develop a new strategy aimed at fulfilling the Mahanian ideals of decisive battle. The plans for the Sandwich Island Campaign was a direct result of this commuter. However there was still push back on Roosevelt's reforms from conservative Atlantic Fleet commanders. Thanks to Roosevelt and his Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, The US Navy was as ready to engage its enemies almost immediately and drastically increase in size.
New York Class (1905) First Class of Dreadnoughts
It has often been said that the Confederacy is an Army with a country. Though primarily a land-power, the states forming the confederacy inherited a strong naval tradition. At the outbreak of the War of Secession many of the Union’s best seaman were born in the south. However unlike the Army most of these talented officers chose to remain loyal to the Union. The War of Secession did not last long enough for the infant Confederate Navy to cover itself in glory. Despite its lack of heavy industries the Confederate Navy did surprise the world with its naval innovation, especially the construction of the Ironclad C.S.S. Virginia. Once the French and British Navy arrived in Confederate waters in October of 1862, the Naval campaigns of the War of Secession came to an end. Still the War at sea provided many important lessons for the fledgling Confederate Navy. The loss of its largest port New Orleans, the defeat of the Ironclad Virginia, the lack of shipyards and being forced to rely on the purchase of warships abroad; showed the Confederacy it needed to expand its domestic ship building capacity and its heavy industries.
In the interwar period Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory set out the framework for the Confederate Naval growth over the next twenty years. Because of the strength of US industries and its alliance with the world’s foremost naval powers of Britain and France, the Confederacy decided it did not require a true blue water navy. Instead C.S. Naval spending was focused on shore defense to prevent another loss like New Orleans and ironclad gunboats to bolster defense. Huge new shore defenses were constructed in at its largest ports like Norfolk, Wilmington, Savannah, Charleston, Mobile, New Orleans Habana and Galveston. Integral to these defenses was a eight new fleet of Ironclads warships, completed by 1869 to bolster harbor defense and maintain superiority in the economically vital Caribbean.
The development of this fleet was heavily supported by the growing Whiggish element and Southern Imperialists who wished to extend Confederate influence into the Caribbean. Successive doughface Yankee administrations meant there was little competition to build a strong Atlantic fleet. The new Confederate Navy operated primarily in the Caribbean supporting Franco- Confederate interventions in the region. Like the Confederate acquisition of Cuba, the Confederate blockade of Mexico in support of French occupation and confederate interventions in Nicaragua and Santo Domingo.When six newer ironclads were finished in 1878, to replace the older vessels the Confederate Navy was theoretically stronger than the U.S. Fleet.
Despite comparisons on paper, the relatively small size of the new fleet and President Longstreet’s agreement with the British to not turn the world sea lanes into a warzone by engaging in a guerre de course meant the CSA navy saw little fighting during the Second Mexican War. The only ship on ship actions between the US and CS Navies during Second Mexican War occurred between U.S. commerce raiders and confederate patrol ships in the Caribbean. What little glory won at sea during the War was done by the Royal Navy.
In the aftermath of the Second Mexican War there was still little reason to engage in large scale naval construction. Naval warfare had not been a determining factor in either the last two wars. The US began a moderate naval reconstruction program under President Blaine, but delays meant the U.S navy remained a minor threat throughout the 1880s.
This complacency left the Confederate Navy a trivial power. In 1886 the Confederacy awoke to the reality that it was inferior even to many South American Navies. It was in that year that the Navy department brought to Congress’s attention the Empire Of Brazil’s purchase of the Rescunion. A British built battleship that was capable of single handedly sinking the entire Confederate Navy. Further intelligence suggested other Latin American powers were interested in purchase similar warships. With the news of loss of Naval dominance in the Caribbean to a Latin American power Congress Finally reacted. In 1885 Congress authorized the purchase from Britain of a modern ironclad battleship more powerful than any other warship in the Western Hemisphere. Which then would be licensed to be built similar at home. However this set off a controversy at home by Naval officers and Congressmen from districts with Steel Works who wished to block the purchase and produce a completely homegrown steel fleet. Eventually it was agreed to purchase the warship and plans to strength Confederate British naval ties and because the Confederacy did not have the naval engineering expertise to complete a ship on its own. However These arguments meant the battleship was not delivered until 1889 and was by then woefully outdated by newer steel warships.
The Confederacy remained unserious about naval preparedness all throughout the 1880’s. As the US began its breakneck naval buildup the Confederacy felt the need to modernize its fleet. However unlike the U.S. where the Presidency was occupied by former naval officers who guided naval strategy and construction, the Confederate Grey House was again dominated by Ex-Confederate Generals. As a result in this period it was the Confederate Congress that drove Naval Strategy and procurement. With the support of the growing Confederate steel industry and Gulf Coast Imperialists, the Confederate Navy began a program to construct six homemade protected armoured cruisers in 1890. With a plan to have the first delivered by 1892. The first ship was not delivered until 1894 and the six ordered ships were not completed by 1900.
Virginia Class (1893)
*Downgraded to semi-battleships in 1898
In response to the Anglo- German- US Naval arms race, in 1893 the Confederate Congress authorized the construction of six new steel Battleships as large and as powerful as the top of the line British Majestic class battleship. Unfortunately thanks to production delays none of these ships were ready for the 1896 Haitian Crises and only two were ready for the 1897 Nicaraguan Crises. During this period the Confederate naval strategy was predicated on working with the British Navy to deter US aggression or fight alongside Britain in case of all out war. Britain’s decision not to intervene in the Nicaraguan Crises forced the Navy and Congress to completely re-evaluate its naval policy. After President Gist’s backing down for a second time in the face of overwhelming Navy superiority and the passage of the Two Ocean Navy Bill in the US. The Whig party led by presidential candidate Hogg, campaigned on a building a new steel Navy to fight Yankee Gunboat diplomacy in the Caribbean. As a result in 1899 Congress authorized the construction of eight Battleships. The designs of which would be purchased in Britain. As a part of the bill the ships were required to be as large and as powerful as the top of the line British vessels. As a result by 1910 the Confederacy had constructed seven pre-Dreadnought battleships and three semi dreadnoughts. The three delivered after the launch of the HMS Dreadnought, were redesigned increasing three numbers of heavy guns, but they still carried many secondary guns and lacked the speed of Dreadnought. This led them to be classified as semi-dreadnoughts.
Southern Cross (1900)
Stonewall Class (1904)
The late 1890’s and early 1900’s would see the dominance of naval affairs by two Senators Stephen Mallory Jr and Gabriel Semmes. Stephen Mallory Jr was the son of The Confederacy’s first Secretary of the Navy and the Senator of from Florida. Mallory Jr representing Florida was a major proponent of Confederate Imperialism in the Caribbean. He supported the attempted seizure of Santo Domingo and the construction of a Nicaraguan canal. He was one of the first Senators to ring the alarm bells of the growing power of South America. Navies. The passage of the 1899 naval bill was largely his work. Though a proponent of battleships He also understood the need for naval innovation and subterfuge to offset the overwhelming power of the US Navy. As a result it was he who sponsored the purchase of sixteen torpedo boats from Britain in 1894. In this idea he found a protege in the young Congressman Gabriel Semmes. Semmes the grandson of the famed Confederate Admiral Raphael Semmes.
Semmes a former naval officer was preaching about developing technology alternatives to US dominance since the Second Mexican War. Thanks to their leadership the CS continued on its course of Battleship construction. While at the same time the Confederacy purchased new turbine engine torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers. It also began the domestic construction of light cruisers powered by oil and not coal. This allowed them to operate longer and farther.
Like their predecessors both President Hogg and President Clark deferred naval policy development and spending to Congress. This changed however with the election of President Woodrow Wilson and his selection of Gabriel Semmes as his running mate. Though Wilson selected Richmond P. Hobson as his Secretary of the Navy, Wilson allowed Semmes to direct Naval policy. Wilson want to curb military spending, knowing the political power of the Army, it was easier to curb naval spending. After the completion of the final Confederate pre-Dreadnought in 1909, Wilson wanted to halt constructing battleships. Semmes strategy of constructing asymmetrical weapons to negate the US’s battleship preponderance gave Wilson the cover with Naval hawks in Congress to end the Naval build up. This brief naval construction reprieve only lasted two years.
Wilson’s hopes that Confederacy could limit naval construction were hung on the success of the Philadelphia naval conference. It’s failure led the Confederacy to facing a stark naval landscape. With the launch of the HMS Dreadnought all of its vessels were outdated and the Royal Navy power in the Western Hemisphere was retrenching. Until the. CS Navy strategy was to maintain dominance in the Caribbean and building a force large enough to prevent US from close blockading its coast and wait until the Royal Navy arrived in force to crush the US Navy together. This strategy was no longer tenable. Thanks to Admiral Fisher’s plan to focus the Royal Navy in Home waters and Churchill’s desire to cut naval costs, it was clear that there was not going to be any British Dreadnoughts stationed in North American waters. President Wilson tapped Vice President Semmes to develop a new naval strategy.
With the establishment of the US- German alliance it was becoming increasingly clear that any war would span both Europe and the Americas. Any strategy would have to be apart of a comprehensive alliance wide strategy. With British Royal Navy removing its fleet from Canada and Bermuda, Britain was looking for its allies to shoulder more of the burden. With it clear that keeping the sea links between the Confederacy and its European allies opened, Vice President Semmes agreed to the British proposal that the Confederacy focus its naval construction on Battlecruisers. At first Wilson rejected British proposals, believing it would interfere with his desire for more domestic spending. However understanding that the CSA- Great Britain alliance was of primary importance, the President agreed on the new Battlecruiser proposal. Though the army’s allies in Congress attempted to block it, the lighter and cheaper nature of the battleships ensure its passage. In 1910 Congress authorizes the construction of four Battlecruisers, to be constructed entirely in the CSA but based off British Lion Class battlecruiser. With the election of Theodore Roosevelt in 1913, Congress authorized the construction of a further three battleships slated to be finished by 1917.
Manassas Class (1910)- First Dreadnought Battlecruiser Class
Royal and Dominion Navies
In the wake of the Napoleonic wars Britain became the dominant naval power on the planet. During this period, naval warfare underwent a comprehensive transformation, brought about by steam propulsion, metal ship construction, and explosive munitions. Despite having to completely replace its war fleet, the Navy managed to maintain its overwhelming advantage over all potential rivals. Due to British leadership in the Industrial Revolution, the country enjoyed unparalleled shipbuilding capacity and financial resources, which ensured that no rival could take advantage of these revolutionary changes to negate the British advantage in ship numbers.
Britain's commitment to Naval dominance was codified in the Two Navy Law which required the Royal to maintain parody to the two largest rival Naval power. Which Britain maintained throughout this period. Between 1815 and 1914 , the Navy saw little serious action or challenge to its dominance, owing to the absence of any opponent strong enough to challenge its dominance. The only exception was the Second Mexican War. The global reach of U.S. commerce raiders and the harsh requirements of operating continually in the North Atlantic showed the limits of 1880’s naval engineering and steam transports. As a results Parliament passed a series of laws promoting the construction of the first modern battleships.
By 1892 was the absolute master of battleship construction, out pacing its traditional rivals France and Russia by head and shoulders. All of this changed under naval mania of Germany’s Wilhelm II and the naval resurgents of U.S. Presidents Reed and Mahan. Britain remained committed to naval supremacy ushering in the age of the dreadnought in 1906. This was a gamble why it created the most powerful ship on the planet giving Britain a head start on a new no holds bar naval race. It effectively reset the navals race. Despite the ascension of Liberal Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman in 1908 and his promulgation of a people’s budget. Britain remained committed to the construction of at least five dreadnoughts a year until the outbreak of the war.
This commitment however placed an incredible strain on finances and domestic politics. In October 1911, Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and continued in the post into the First Great War. While serving in this position, he put strong emphasis on modernisation He ordered the construction of submersibles and a program to replace coal powered vessels with oil power.
Like his predecessors Churchill prioritized the concentration of the Royal Navy’s dreadnought’s in the North Sea, believing Germany’s High Seas Fleet to be Britain's primary threat. On the advice of Admiral Fisher Churchill resisted calls to place squadrons of dreadnought battleships at Bermuda and the Sandwich Islands to contain the United States. Instead he authorized the construction of concrete Battleships to defend their harbor entrances, the station of Battlecruisers to raid U.S. harbors and forcing allies to contribute dreadnoughts. Under This retrenchment policy, the Britain encouraged its allies to share more of the costs of naval defense. With the Royal Navy coordinating its strategy and deployments with French in the Mediterranean, the Japanese in the Pacific and Confederacy in the West Atlantic. It also devolved greyer responsibilities to it Dominions. The Colonial office successfully lobbied, Australia and New Zealand to construct or pay for dreadnoughts to contribute to the “freedom of the seas.” By the outbreak of the Great War the C.S.A built four dreadnought battlecruisers, Australia built two dreadnought battleships and New Zealand built one. The exception in this regard being Canada, which was allowed to devote what naval construction resources it had to the Great Lakes Fleet.
By the outbreak of the War Britain met the challenge of naval construction laid down by Germany and Britain. By 1914 Britain had constructed 45 Dreadnoughts, 32 Battleships and 13 battlecruisers. With vast bulk stationed in at home ports in Britain. The Royal Navy established the Home Fleet based out of Scapa Flow, the Atlantic Fleet based out of Gibraltar, Mediterranean Fleet based out of Malta, The The East Indies Squadron based out of Trincomalee, The China Station based in Hong Kong and the Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor in the Sandwich Islands.
Global Dreadnought Race
Dreadnoughts were developed as a move in an international battleship arms-race which had begun in the 1890s. The British Royal Navy had a big lead in the number of pre-dreadnought battleships, but a lead of only one dreadnought. This has led to criticism that the British, by launching HMS Dreadnought, threw away a strategic advantage. Most of the United Kingdom's naval rivals were themselves contemplating or even building warships that featured a uniform battery of heavy guns. Both the Japanese Navy and the US Navy ordered "all-big-gun" ships in 1904–05, with the Satsuma and New York class ships, respectively. Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II had advocated a fast warship armed only with heavy guns since the 1890s, Germany’s first dreadnought was the Nassau class constructed in 1907. By securing a head start in dreadnought construction, the United Kingdom ensured that its dominance of the seas continued.
The battleship race soon accelerated once more, placing a great burden on the finances of the governments which engaged in it. The first dreadnoughts were not much more expensive than the last pre-dreadnoughts, but the cost per ship continued to grow thereafter. Modern battleships were the crucial element of naval power in spite of their price. Each battleship was a signal of national power and prestige. Germany, France, United States, Confederate States, Russia, Italy, Japan and Austria all began dreadnought programmes, and second-rank powers including the Ottoman Empire, Greece, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile commissioned dreadnoughts to be built in British, French, German, and American yards.
The crushing expenses made all parties receptive to a treaty limiting battleship construction. As a result all sides agreed to attend the Philadelphia Conference, held by President Aldrich. The British (fully aware that Aldrich did not want to fund a large fleet of dreadnoughts) took a hard line in the proceedings right from the start, insisting that the dreadnought ratio between the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany would have to be 2:1:1. Aldrich himself was willing to consider that ratio, but Germany (with the Kaiser perhaps still smarting from Aldrich’s refusal to support him in the Morocco Crisis two years earlier) flatly refused to consider such an unfavorable ratio, and Senator Lodge likewise warned Aldrich that the U.S. Senate would never ratify any treaty with a ratio below 4:3:3. Aldrich would attempt to compromise with a 3:2:2 ratio, but that proved unacceptable to both the British and Germans. Aldrich would finally propose an agreement where the British could build up to 24 dreadnoughts, the United States would build up to 12, and Germany could build up to 18. (He also hinted that the United States might lower its tariff levels if the British and Germans would agree to the treaty.) The British though still refused to consider any treaty that would leave the United States and Germany with more dreadnoughts than they had, and so the conference broke up in failure.
With the failure of the Philadelphia conference, the battleship race restarted in earnest. Germany and the United States maintained their pre-conference construction. Britain passed a Naval Law which committed them to match US- German construction. Britain convinced its allies to help balance these new threats with the Confederate States agreeing to construct four battlecruisers. South American nations also entered the race during this period, with Argentina, Brazil and Chile agreeing to build three battleships.
By the outbreak of the war the global dreadnought tally stood at 117 dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers. 90 of which were distributed between Britain, Germany and the United States, Britain completing 45 and Germany and Britain completing 45 together. This delicate balance was upset by the election of Theodore Roosevelt and the United States commitment to build 4 battleships a year for the next four years.
United States Navy
Despite the success of the US Navy in blockading the Confederate coast, events on land conspired to rob it of glory. Following the armistice of November 1862, Royal Navy warships (with a token French presence, that country being preoccupied with its Mexican designs) arrived to ensure that the blockade was lifted, and the small Union fleet grudgingly returned to port.
Under the Lincoln administration the US continued to maintain a modestly strong navy by European standards. The US developed several new Ironclad designs. However successive doughface Democrat Administrations were no more generous to the Navy than those before the war. Throughout the 1870s dozens of warships were sold off to balance War of Secession debts. When the Tilden administration wanted to intervene in the Chile-Peru-Bolivian war to safeguard US citizens. He was informed by Secretary of the Navy James A. Weston and Chief of the Navigation Bureau (equivalent to the later Chief of operations ) Rear Admiral Rodgers that the Chilean Navy outgunned the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet.
One of President Blaine’s first official acts was to order Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt commission a panel of Naval Officers to address the U.S.’s lack of Naval preparedness. It recommended 21 armored vessels besides 70 unarmored, together with rams, and most significant of all it declared that the material of construction should be steel. Unfortunately there was not a plant in the United States capable of making forgings for guns of more than six-inch calibre - nor one able to make armor plate or torpedoes. Furthermore any increase in Naval spending would only occur when the 47th Congress actually sat in December of 1881.
When the Second Mexican War broke out the U.S had no more than twelve ironclad warships and forty wooden warships of all types. Although the US had pioneered the use of ironclad ships, European navies soon leapfrogged it, and when Britain and France re-joined the CSA in the Second Mexican War, the Navy was helpless to protect the continent against their larger, more modern squadrons. The allies attack on Union cities damaged all but two of the country’s naval shipyards.
Alfred Thayer Mahan served on the USS Congress in the Second Mexican War as a young lieutenant, and had spent the 1870s in various shore installations, burning with resentment at what he saw as the insanely reckless policy of a small Navy. His series of lectures at the Naval Academy on the use of sea power during the Napoleonic Wars earned him wide acclaim, and he began writing a book on the subject.
For him, the Second Mexican War was the last straw. Serving as skipper of the USS Charles Ellsworth, he watched in rage as the superior steel armor and gunnery of the Royal Navy wrecked a flotilla Ironclad U.S. warships sent to intercept British troops moving to Canada. Mahan was not alone in his fury over the U.S. lack of fighting prowess on the high seas. Navy Officers, victims of the Royal Navy bombardments of U.S. ports, Democrat and Republican congressman all vowed never to let this happen again. The war spelled not only the death of the Republican Party but that of the “doughface” Democrat as well.
Though the U.S. shipyard saw large scale destruction, the Union Navy was able to leave the war with 6 modern Ironclads on par with anything the British or French Constructed. This would form the nucleus to of the Navy’s new Atlantic Fleet. In the wake of the war March of 1883, Congress approved the Naval Appropriations Act that included $15 million to rebuild the U.S. Navy’s destroyed navy yards in Portland, Boston, New London, and Brooklyn. Much to the chagrin of navy enthusiasts it allocated funds to build only a fraction of the ships requested in 1881, but with steel rather than iron hulls. They authorized building four cruisers, most commonly known today as the ABCD ships, cruisers Augusta, Boston, Cleveland and the courier ship Dolphin – named after cities that were victims of Royal Navy bombardment in the Second Mexican War. A far cry from the nearly 90 ships and $30 million the first Naval Advisory Board had recommended.
President Blaine’s successor General Hancock campaigned on the introduction of Conscription, rebuilding of the Navy and harbor defense. General Hancock would die in early 1886, but not before securing the funding for the ABCD Fleet. President Hancock’s successor Allen Thurman disagreed with Hancock’s militarist policies. As a result during this period Congress dominated Naval planning. When the Thurman administration requested only a further $1.3 million to up keep current warships in 1885, Congress awarded another $29 million thanks to the lobbying of Chief of Navigation Rear Admiral Stephen Luce and Alfred Thayer Mahan. By March 1887 all four ABCD cruisers were complete and the funding to begin construction on four coastal defense battleships plus two semi-battleships due to be completed by 1890.
1888 saw the election of Thomas Brackett Reed, the first president to serves a naval officer. The young Thomas Brackett Reed joined the Navy in the autumn of 1862 after the fall of Philadelphia. Many young nationalists hoped the US might launch an apocalyptic attack on the British-French- Confederate Fleet, which never occurred. Though only serving as a supply officer for a year before being let go in the post war military personnel reductions, Reed as a member of the Naval Affairs committee and later Speaker of the House had worked to secure naval funding during the Thurman administration. As a naval enthusiasts and former congressman of a district attacked by the Royal Navy, Reed was the first presidential candidate who campaigned on a naval rearmament agenda. Reed envisioned a large but defensive brown water navy. As Speaker Reed prevented the construction of an offensive oriented Navy, allowing funds for coastal defense battleships only. What President Reed did not want, was a powerful Blue Water Fleet capable of supporting an imperialist agenda abroad.
One of Reed’s most influential decisions was the selection of naval theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Mahan arrived with a plan to plan for a revitalize the Navy. Drawing on the Hunt Commission in the early 1880’s, lessons learned in the Second Mexican War. Mahan quickly drew up a budget asking a for a twenty battleship fleet with twelve battleships in the Atlantic and eight in the Pacific, with sixty cruisers and auxiliary craft. This would make the U.S. Navy second only to the Royal Navy. This was too ambitious and expensive for Reed, coming in at $290 million.
Instead Reed supported a navy bill allocating the $90 million proposed in 1881. In the Naval authorization bill of 1889, Congress authorized the construction five steel Battleships equal in firepower to the most modern British equivalent vessels and twelve armored cruisers. Mahan however was successful in convincing the President that to be competitive with European warships would require them to be able to fight defensive battles in enemy waters. That interdicting the enemy's reinforcement of Canada and the Confederacy required Battleships to have a range of 5,600nm. After pressure from Congress and the Navy Department, President Reed finally agreed. But because of Reed’s apprehension that the navy could be used for overseas adventures, significant funding was spent on harbor defense, river monitors, torpedo boats, auxiliary craft. These vehicles would all be due no later than 1895.
By 1890 six battleships were slated for construction. Assistant Secretary Mahan worked hard to get the production of warships on schedule, but many were behind schedule due to a lack of technical expertise and steel production. Now armed with the new rationing legislation, Secretary Mahan was able to obtain the requisite steel and complete the battleship on schedule. By the time these battleships were complete they were outdated and their main caliber guns and armor was too thin. Resulting in the first class of coastal defense battleships downgraded their classification to Armored cruiser. All through this period Mahan worked to standardized construction and ship classification. New battleships would require their main caliber be 12 inch guns and thick US produced steel Armor. This success convinced President Reed to elevate Assistant Secretary Mahan to full Secretary in 1891.
His first task as full Secretary was the reorganization the Navy’s organization. During this period the Navy was organized into eight departments. Each with their own chief, who though subordinate to the Secretary of the Navy directly requested their funding from Congress. No department was answerable to the other and many were redundant and there was confusion over which department handled the new advances in steam production, dynamite munitions and electricity. As a former Navy Officer Mahan knew how important it was to have a competent naval staff advising their civilian officers. Mahan passed an navy reorganization bill in 1891, which streamlined the bureau in three divisions, Navigation, Construction and Maintenance. The Navy was headed by a chief of staff controlling operation and logistics, the staff then advised the civilian controlled the Navy departments. This went a long way to eliminating redundancies and improving production. Unfortunately Reed could not secure funding for a naval reserve. Instead the Navy was forced to rely on state naval militias, which received significantly less funding than the new army national guard.
The Navy’s greatest success during this period of renewal was the thwarting of Confederate attempts to annex Haiti. When the U.S. heard that Confederate filibusters were planning to invade Haiti, the U.S. sent a squadron of two Battleships and three armored cruisers into Port-au-Prince. This success helped to rebuild the confidence of the nation after three decades of humiliation. It especially helped rebuild the moral and spirit of the Navy, which was shattered in the Second Mexican War. President Reed capitalized on this success with a request for a new class of four new battleships.
At the time of the Haitian Crisis in 1895 the navy included five Battleships, two semi-battleships, six armored cruisers, ten light or scout cruisers and more than a dozen ocean/river/Great Lakes monitors. This fell far short of the fleet Secretary Mahan believed the nation required. Mahan was a firm believer in the decisive battle doctrine. The Second Mexican War had shown that a strategy of commerce raiding was not effective. To win a war the U.S. had to locate and destroy the enemy's fleets in large decisive fleet actions. To this effect powerful capital ships were the decisive weapon. Congress and President Reeds cost cutting, by constructing coastal defense battleships and armored cruisers only weakened the fleet. These continuing disagreement between the President and Secretary Mahan, led Mahan to be receptive to entreaties by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge that he should seek higher office.
Coastal Defense Battleships- No Class Name (1887)
* reclassified as armored cruisers in 1891. In 1905 all ships were renamed so their name could be reused for the forthcoming New York Class Dreadnoughts.
- BB-1 Maine (1890)
- BB-2 Rhode Island (1890)
- BB-3 Connecticut (1890)
- BB-4 Massachusetts (1890)
Kentucky Class (1888)
*considered Semi-battleships in 1895.
- BB-5 Kentucky (1892)
- BB-6 Pennsylvania (1892)
First Ocean Going Battleships- Victory Class (1889)
- BB-7 USS Chesapeake (1892)
- BB-8 USS Saratoga (1893)
- BB-9 USS Lexington (1893)
- BB-10 USS Veracruz(1894)
- BB-11 USS Ticonderoga (1894)
Remembrance Class (1894)
- BB- 12 Remembrance (1895)
- BB-13 Teton River
- BB- 13 Winfield Hancock (1896)
- BB- 14 Manila (1896)
- BB- 15 Union (1897)
- BB- 16 President (1897)
- BB- 17 Congress (1897)
- BB- 18 George Washington (1898)
When the Democratic convention of 1896 deadlocked, party bosses handed the nomination to Mahan, who was uninterested in partisan politics, but now had the power to put his ideas fully into practice. When the Nicaragua crisis broke out almost immediately after his taking office in 1897 the US Navy proved a powerful deterrent to Confederate imperial designs. This gave President Mahan the popularity needed to push through the central plank in his campaign platform the two ocean navy bill.
The bill called for a radical increase in the size of the Navy with the construction of 10 battleships, 8 armored cruisers and 68 protected cruisers. It’s passage created the modern two-ocean US navy. Which consisted of the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, and Great Lakes Squadrons, with riverine operations becoming the Army's province. (As befitting US strategic interests, the Atlantic Fleet received the bulk of funding.) By 1906 the U.S. had completed 25 pre-dreadnought Battleships and 40 cruisers and 20 ocean monitors/great lakes battleships.
Ohio Class (1897)
- BB- 19 USS Ohio (1900)
- BB- 20 USS Indiana (1900)
- BB- 21 New Hampshire (1900)
- BB- 22 USS Anthony Wayne (1901)
- BB- 23 USS Tecumseh (1902)
New Jersey Class (1901)
- BB- 24 USS New Jersey (1903)
- BB- 25 USS Kearny (1903)
- BB- 26 USS Delaware (1904)
Illinois Class (1903)
- BB- 27 Illinois (1905)
- BB- 28 Maryland (1906)
- BB- 29 Kansas (1906)
As a result of the bills passage, ships construction capacity drastically improved during this period. With Fleet Yards in most major coastal cities. The three largest being in Boston, Brooklyn and Philadelphia. Smaller shipyard. As a part of the Two Ocean Navy Bill, President Mahan included funding for a major expansion of the Shipyards in San Francisco as well as funding for smaller shipyards in Seattle, Oakland, Tacoma and Everett. Southern California was not included because President Mahan failed to grasp its strategic value at the time. Mahan was forced to also include funding for a number of naval facilities scattered throughout the smaller cities of the Great Lakes. While President Mahan knew this pork spending was necessary to pass the Two Ocean Navy bill, he nonetheless lamented the waste in resources. During this period naval construction was divided between state owned shipyards and privately held firms. Eastern Congressman and Senators tended to support privately owned naval construction firms, because of the already large number of native construction firms. Midwestern and Pacific congressman tended to favor state owned shipyards. Hoping there creation would increase ship construction in their districts. This was also favored by Socialist Congressman and labor unions, which believed they could win more concessions from private firms. Mahan tended to steer a neutral course in these debates. Supporting the he creation of state owned enterprises where none existed and rely on private ones to cut personnel costs in east coast cities.
During this period US naval engineering drastically improved. In 1896 most of the US Fleet were largely experimental craft. Testing knew technology and methods of ship construction. This resulted a fleet of varying quality. Under the old system each Navy yard and bureau was run by a chief appointed by and answerable to congress. This gave each chief power to run their bureau or yard as they saw fit. Leading a wide variety of construction methods and quality. As a result US ship construction was not on par with its British, German and even French rivals. This led to few orders from foreign navies, which proved so vital keeping to British shipbuilding firms financially successful. . With the introduction of the new naval staff system, a single department now ran construction, which allowed for better quality control measures and increased economies of scale. By 1904 the US Naval engineering was considered the equal to Germany and nearly equal to Britain’s.
The first US proposals for an all big gun super battleship dates back to late 1904. When Japanese reports of the ineffectiveness of guns under 12 inches in naval actions with Russia, began filtering to the US Navy. Initially there was a debate in Congress over appropriating funds for a new “all big gun super” battleship. Even Mahan worried over the soundness of placing “all of our Naval eggs in one basket.” However with the news that Britain had begun working on the Dreadnought, Congress authorizes funds for the New York class which matched the Dreadnought in size and fire power. Thanks to Mahan's emphasis on large capital warship construction, the USS New York class was commissioned in 1907, quickly followed by its sister ship the Michigan later that year.
However Mahan’s strategic brilliance and political accomplishment had its limit. His love of the surface navy caused him to underestimate inventions that would revolutionize warfare in the Great War such as the submersible, aviation and battlecruisers. Mahan Naval build up also strained the nations finances resulting in increased rationing of materials used to make warships. While the creation of the dreadnought had essentially reset the battleship arms race, the thought of completely rebuilding a new fleet horrified fiscally conservative Democrats like President Nelson Aldrich. Resulting in the US only coming in third behind Britain and Germany in the global naval arms race. Mahan’s emphasis in ship construction also left little for personnel issues. Despite repeated attempts Mahan failed to gain Congressional funding for the creation of a nationwide Naval Reserve, like the Army National Guard. Instead the Navy was forced to rely on state militias. This created personnel shortages at the outbreak of war as 100,000s of new seaman has to be trained from scratch when the state naval reserve system failed in 1915.
While the Mahan administration was the high point of interwar naval reform, the Aldrich administration was one of reigning in of what he considered ruinous naval spending. Under Aldrich and his Naval Secretary William H. Moody, the Navy saw its first budget reduction in over sixteen years. While most navalist in Congress called building four Dreadnoughts a year for the next four years, Aldrich secured funding for a two for four building program. He further would not build any new warships without retiring an older vessel already in service. What funding Aldrich did spend on the Navy was devoted to defensive systems. Including upgrades to the US’s aged Great Lake Fleet and the introduction of torpedo boat destroyers. Under Mahan the Navy focused primarily on large capital warship construction. This left little room for smaller craft like torpedo boats. With the Confederacy focusing on smaller attack craft the Navy desperately needed new defenses for these weapons. In the introduction of the Navy’s first torpedo boat destroyer the Smith class. These ships would become invaluable in the navy’s fight against Confederate submersibles. Aldrich’s cuts to naval funding also left an indelible mark on US naval engineering. With the cuts in funding to overseas US mission, battleships no longer required as much room for sailor accommodations. Because Battleships primarily remained at port US sailors generally slept in barracks. This led to more room for deck and side armor. As a result US dreadnoughts tended to have more armor but be slower than their British counterparts.
Aldrich believed that the only way to stop runaway naval spending was to go after its underlying cause, the global naval arms race. The centerpiece of Aldrich's foreign policy was to be a global arms limitation conference in Philadelphia. Hoping to establish an agreed upon naval strength ratio, Aldrich continues to submit decreases in annual Naval Budget requests. This forced the Navy to reduce its overseas missions that had provided invariable experience under the Mahan administration.
The conference’s ultimate failure forced Aldrich to begrudgingly continue dreadnought construction. It’s failure sufficiently aroused Congress into increasing naval funding over Secretary’s objections. A scandal erupted when the House Naval Committee run by Congressman Herbert Satterlee of New York learned there were no plans to use the funds. Chairman Satterlee threatened to prosecute the Secretary of the Navy for violating an act of Congress. During this period it was Satterlee who most jealously guarded the Navy’s interest in the House, along with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge in the Senate. Many jokes in this period that Satterlee was the shadow Secretary of the Navy. Satterlee a former naval officer was also the president of the New York Navy League as well as a officer in the New York Navy Militia. Satterlee was a formidable check on President Aldrich and his desire to weaken the Navy. Not only was he well connected in Navy circles but was also the nephew of financier JP Morgan.
As a result of Chairman Satterlee’s tireless efforts, Aldrich administration bowed to the pressure and increased Naval Construction. However fearing the financial cost and believing the destabilizing effect constructing more than two battleships a year would cause on the international system. Aldrich again compromised by ordering the construction of eighteen fast long range cruisers, designed to disrupt british and confederate commerce. Most Mahanist’s (including Mahan himself) were appalled by this move. Across the naval community experts argued that the new cruiser fleet would be the same waste of resources as the commerce raiders of the SMW and more importantly it would distract the Navy’s primary mission of crushing the Royal Navy.
The search for a more cost effective naval strategy ended in 1912 with the election of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt a long time friend of Mahan and proponent of naval power, dramatically increased the naval arms race with the four for four Naval Bill. Thanks to this construction plan the U.S fleet would grow more in size and strength than any other nation in the world. Roosevelt also called for the construction of new fast firing super-dreadnoughts to match the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth class. The result was the Idaho Class and its eight 16 inch guns, which would be come standard on all future warships. Roosevelt also pushed Navy to shed some of the conservatism of the Mahan era and invest in new weapons such as submersibles and aerial reconnaissance. Despite both technologies being invented in the United States, Roosevelt ordered the purchase of German aircraft and submersible designs, as these technologies matured much faster in Europe.
Roosevelt also set his mark on Naval Strategy and planning. Roosevelt promoted aggressive Naval Commanders and ordered a complete overhaul of the Navy’s war plans. Roosevelt hand picked a committee of the most aggressive and capable officers, with ex-president Mahan advising. To develop a new strategy aimed at fulfilling the Mahanian ideals of decisive battle. The plans for the Sandwich Island Campaign was a direct result of this commuter. However there was still push back on Roosevelt's reforms from conservative Atlantic Fleet commanders. Thanks to Roosevelt and his Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, The US Navy was as ready to engage its enemies almost immediately and drastically increase in size.
New York Class (1905) First Class of Dreadnoughts
- BB- 30 New York (1907)
- BB- 31 Michigan (1907)
- BB- 32 Indiana (1908)
- BB- 33 Vermont (1908)
- BB- 34 USS Massachusetts (1910)
- BB- 35 USS Rhode Island (1910)
- BB- 36 USS Pennsylvania (1911)
- BB- 37 USS Missouri (1911)
- BB- 38 USS Connecticut (1912)
- BB- 39 USS Dakota (1912)
- BB- 40 USS Nevada (1913)
- BB- 41 USS Wisconsin (1913)
- BB- 42 USS California (1914)
- BB- 43 USS West Virginia (1914)
- BB- 44 USS Minnesota (1915)
- BB- 45 USS Nebraska (1915)
- BB- 46 USS Idaho (1916)
- BB- 47 USS Wyoming (1916)
- BB- 48 USS Washington (1916)
- BB- 49 USS Utah (1916)
- BB- 51 USS Maine (1917)
- BB- 52 USS Rhode Island (1917)
- BB- 53 USS New Hampshire (1917)
- BB- 54 USS New Jersey (1917)
It has often been said that the Confederacy is an Army with a country. Though primarily a land-power, the states forming the confederacy inherited a strong naval tradition. At the outbreak of the War of Secession many of the Union’s best seaman were born in the south. However unlike the Army most of these talented officers chose to remain loyal to the Union. The War of Secession did not last long enough for the infant Confederate Navy to cover itself in glory. Despite its lack of heavy industries the Confederate Navy did surprise the world with its naval innovation, especially the construction of the Ironclad C.S.S. Virginia. Once the French and British Navy arrived in Confederate waters in October of 1862, the Naval campaigns of the War of Secession came to an end. Still the War at sea provided many important lessons for the fledgling Confederate Navy. The loss of its largest port New Orleans, the defeat of the Ironclad Virginia, the lack of shipyards and being forced to rely on the purchase of warships abroad; showed the Confederacy it needed to expand its domestic ship building capacity and its heavy industries.
In the interwar period Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory set out the framework for the Confederate Naval growth over the next twenty years. Because of the strength of US industries and its alliance with the world’s foremost naval powers of Britain and France, the Confederacy decided it did not require a true blue water navy. Instead C.S. Naval spending was focused on shore defense to prevent another loss like New Orleans and ironclad gunboats to bolster defense. Huge new shore defenses were constructed in at its largest ports like Norfolk, Wilmington, Savannah, Charleston, Mobile, New Orleans Habana and Galveston. Integral to these defenses was a eight new fleet of Ironclads warships, completed by 1869 to bolster harbor defense and maintain superiority in the economically vital Caribbean.
The development of this fleet was heavily supported by the growing Whiggish element and Southern Imperialists who wished to extend Confederate influence into the Caribbean. Successive doughface Yankee administrations meant there was little competition to build a strong Atlantic fleet. The new Confederate Navy operated primarily in the Caribbean supporting Franco- Confederate interventions in the region. Like the Confederate acquisition of Cuba, the Confederate blockade of Mexico in support of French occupation and confederate interventions in Nicaragua and Santo Domingo.When six newer ironclads were finished in 1878, to replace the older vessels the Confederate Navy was theoretically stronger than the U.S. Fleet.
Despite comparisons on paper, the relatively small size of the new fleet and President Longstreet’s agreement with the British to not turn the world sea lanes into a warzone by engaging in a guerre de course meant the CSA navy saw little fighting during the Second Mexican War. The only ship on ship actions between the US and CS Navies during Second Mexican War occurred between U.S. commerce raiders and confederate patrol ships in the Caribbean. What little glory won at sea during the War was done by the Royal Navy.
In the aftermath of the Second Mexican War there was still little reason to engage in large scale naval construction. Naval warfare had not been a determining factor in either the last two wars. The US began a moderate naval reconstruction program under President Blaine, but delays meant the U.S navy remained a minor threat throughout the 1880s.
This complacency left the Confederate Navy a trivial power. In 1886 the Confederacy awoke to the reality that it was inferior even to many South American Navies. It was in that year that the Navy department brought to Congress’s attention the Empire Of Brazil’s purchase of the Rescunion. A British built battleship that was capable of single handedly sinking the entire Confederate Navy. Further intelligence suggested other Latin American powers were interested in purchase similar warships. With the news of loss of Naval dominance in the Caribbean to a Latin American power Congress Finally reacted. In 1885 Congress authorized the purchase from Britain of a modern ironclad battleship more powerful than any other warship in the Western Hemisphere. Which then would be licensed to be built similar at home. However this set off a controversy at home by Naval officers and Congressmen from districts with Steel Works who wished to block the purchase and produce a completely homegrown steel fleet. Eventually it was agreed to purchase the warship and plans to strength Confederate British naval ties and because the Confederacy did not have the naval engineering expertise to complete a ship on its own. However These arguments meant the battleship was not delivered until 1889 and was by then woefully outdated by newer steel warships.
The Confederacy remained unserious about naval preparedness all throughout the 1880’s. As the US began its breakneck naval buildup the Confederacy felt the need to modernize its fleet. However unlike the U.S. where the Presidency was occupied by former naval officers who guided naval strategy and construction, the Confederate Grey House was again dominated by Ex-Confederate Generals. As a result in this period it was the Confederate Congress that drove Naval Strategy and procurement. With the support of the growing Confederate steel industry and Gulf Coast Imperialists, the Confederate Navy began a program to construct six homemade protected armoured cruisers in 1890. With a plan to have the first delivered by 1892. The first ship was not delivered until 1894 and the six ordered ships were not completed by 1900.
Virginia Class (1893)
*Downgraded to semi-battleships in 1898
- BB-1 CSS Viriginia (1896)
- BB-2 CSS Mississippi (1897)
- BB-3 CSS Alabama (1898)
- BB-4 CSS Texas (1898)
- BB-5 CSS Georgia (1899)
- BB-6 CSS Florida (1900)
In response to the Anglo- German- US Naval arms race, in 1893 the Confederate Congress authorized the construction of six new steel Battleships as large and as powerful as the top of the line British Majestic class battleship. Unfortunately thanks to production delays none of these ships were ready for the 1896 Haitian Crises and only two were ready for the 1897 Nicaraguan Crises. During this period the Confederate naval strategy was predicated on working with the British Navy to deter US aggression or fight alongside Britain in case of all out war. Britain’s decision not to intervene in the Nicaraguan Crises forced the Navy and Congress to completely re-evaluate its naval policy. After President Gist’s backing down for a second time in the face of overwhelming Navy superiority and the passage of the Two Ocean Navy Bill in the US. The Whig party led by presidential candidate Hogg, campaigned on a building a new steel Navy to fight Yankee Gunboat diplomacy in the Caribbean. As a result in 1899 Congress authorized the construction of eight Battleships. The designs of which would be purchased in Britain. As a part of the bill the ships were required to be as large and as powerful as the top of the line British vessels. As a result by 1910 the Confederacy had constructed seven pre-Dreadnought battleships and three semi dreadnoughts. The three delivered after the launch of the HMS Dreadnought, were redesigned increasing three numbers of heavy guns, but they still carried many secondary guns and lacked the speed of Dreadnought. This led them to be classified as semi-dreadnoughts.
Southern Cross (1900)
- BB-7 CSS Southern Cross (1903)
- BB-8 CSS Dixie (1904)
- BB-9 CSS Confederate (1905)
Stonewall Class (1904)
- BB-10 CSS Stonewall (1907)
- BB-11 CSS Robert E. Lee (1908)
- BB-12 CSS J.E.B. Stuart (1909)
The late 1890’s and early 1900’s would see the dominance of naval affairs by two Senators Stephen Mallory Jr and Gabriel Semmes. Stephen Mallory Jr was the son of The Confederacy’s first Secretary of the Navy and the Senator of from Florida. Mallory Jr representing Florida was a major proponent of Confederate Imperialism in the Caribbean. He supported the attempted seizure of Santo Domingo and the construction of a Nicaraguan canal. He was one of the first Senators to ring the alarm bells of the growing power of South America. Navies. The passage of the 1899 naval bill was largely his work. Though a proponent of battleships He also understood the need for naval innovation and subterfuge to offset the overwhelming power of the US Navy. As a result it was he who sponsored the purchase of sixteen torpedo boats from Britain in 1894. In this idea he found a protege in the young Congressman Gabriel Semmes. Semmes the grandson of the famed Confederate Admiral Raphael Semmes.
Semmes a former naval officer was preaching about developing technology alternatives to US dominance since the Second Mexican War. Thanks to their leadership the CS continued on its course of Battleship construction. While at the same time the Confederacy purchased new turbine engine torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers. It also began the domestic construction of light cruisers powered by oil and not coal. This allowed them to operate longer and farther.
Like their predecessors both President Hogg and President Clark deferred naval policy development and spending to Congress. This changed however with the election of President Woodrow Wilson and his selection of Gabriel Semmes as his running mate. Though Wilson selected Richmond P. Hobson as his Secretary of the Navy, Wilson allowed Semmes to direct Naval policy. Wilson want to curb military spending, knowing the political power of the Army, it was easier to curb naval spending. After the completion of the final Confederate pre-Dreadnought in 1909, Wilson wanted to halt constructing battleships. Semmes strategy of constructing asymmetrical weapons to negate the US’s battleship preponderance gave Wilson the cover with Naval hawks in Congress to end the Naval build up. This brief naval construction reprieve only lasted two years.
Wilson’s hopes that Confederacy could limit naval construction were hung on the success of the Philadelphia naval conference. It’s failure led the Confederacy to facing a stark naval landscape. With the launch of the HMS Dreadnought all of its vessels were outdated and the Royal Navy power in the Western Hemisphere was retrenching. Until the. CS Navy strategy was to maintain dominance in the Caribbean and building a force large enough to prevent US from close blockading its coast and wait until the Royal Navy arrived in force to crush the US Navy together. This strategy was no longer tenable. Thanks to Admiral Fisher’s plan to focus the Royal Navy in Home waters and Churchill’s desire to cut naval costs, it was clear that there was not going to be any British Dreadnoughts stationed in North American waters. President Wilson tapped Vice President Semmes to develop a new naval strategy.
With the establishment of the US- German alliance it was becoming increasingly clear that any war would span both Europe and the Americas. Any strategy would have to be apart of a comprehensive alliance wide strategy. With British Royal Navy removing its fleet from Canada and Bermuda, Britain was looking for its allies to shoulder more of the burden. With it clear that keeping the sea links between the Confederacy and its European allies opened, Vice President Semmes agreed to the British proposal that the Confederacy focus its naval construction on Battlecruisers. At first Wilson rejected British proposals, believing it would interfere with his desire for more domestic spending. However understanding that the CSA- Great Britain alliance was of primary importance, the President agreed on the new Battlecruiser proposal. Though the army’s allies in Congress attempted to block it, the lighter and cheaper nature of the battleships ensure its passage. In 1910 Congress authorizes the construction of four Battlecruisers, to be constructed entirely in the CSA but based off British Lion Class battlecruiser. With the election of Theodore Roosevelt in 1913, Congress authorized the construction of a further three battleships slated to be finished by 1917.
Manassas Class (1910)- First Dreadnought Battlecruiser Class
- BC-13 CSS Manassas (1913)
- BC-14 CSS Corinth (1913)
- BC-15 CSS Camp Hill (1914)
- BC-16 CSS Louisville (1914)
- BC-17 CSS Santa Fe (Never completed)
- BC-18 CSS Winchester (Never completed)
- BC-19 CSS New Orleans (Never completed)
Royal and Dominion Navies
In the wake of the Napoleonic wars Britain became the dominant naval power on the planet. During this period, naval warfare underwent a comprehensive transformation, brought about by steam propulsion, metal ship construction, and explosive munitions. Despite having to completely replace its war fleet, the Navy managed to maintain its overwhelming advantage over all potential rivals. Due to British leadership in the Industrial Revolution, the country enjoyed unparalleled shipbuilding capacity and financial resources, which ensured that no rival could take advantage of these revolutionary changes to negate the British advantage in ship numbers.
Britain's commitment to Naval dominance was codified in the Two Navy Law which required the Royal to maintain parody to the two largest rival Naval power. Which Britain maintained throughout this period. Between 1815 and 1914 , the Navy saw little serious action or challenge to its dominance, owing to the absence of any opponent strong enough to challenge its dominance. The only exception was the Second Mexican War. The global reach of U.S. commerce raiders and the harsh requirements of operating continually in the North Atlantic showed the limits of 1880’s naval engineering and steam transports. As a results Parliament passed a series of laws promoting the construction of the first modern battleships.
By 1892 was the absolute master of battleship construction, out pacing its traditional rivals France and Russia by head and shoulders. All of this changed under naval mania of Germany’s Wilhelm II and the naval resurgents of U.S. Presidents Reed and Mahan. Britain remained committed to naval supremacy ushering in the age of the dreadnought in 1906. This was a gamble why it created the most powerful ship on the planet giving Britain a head start on a new no holds bar naval race. It effectively reset the navals race. Despite the ascension of Liberal Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman in 1908 and his promulgation of a people’s budget. Britain remained committed to the construction of at least five dreadnoughts a year until the outbreak of the war.
This commitment however placed an incredible strain on finances and domestic politics. In October 1911, Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and continued in the post into the First Great War. While serving in this position, he put strong emphasis on modernisation He ordered the construction of submersibles and a program to replace coal powered vessels with oil power.
Like his predecessors Churchill prioritized the concentration of the Royal Navy’s dreadnought’s in the North Sea, believing Germany’s High Seas Fleet to be Britain's primary threat. On the advice of Admiral Fisher Churchill resisted calls to place squadrons of dreadnought battleships at Bermuda and the Sandwich Islands to contain the United States. Instead he authorized the construction of concrete Battleships to defend their harbor entrances, the station of Battlecruisers to raid U.S. harbors and forcing allies to contribute dreadnoughts. Under This retrenchment policy, the Britain encouraged its allies to share more of the costs of naval defense. With the Royal Navy coordinating its strategy and deployments with French in the Mediterranean, the Japanese in the Pacific and Confederacy in the West Atlantic. It also devolved greyer responsibilities to it Dominions. The Colonial office successfully lobbied, Australia and New Zealand to construct or pay for dreadnoughts to contribute to the “freedom of the seas.” By the outbreak of the Great War the C.S.A built four dreadnought battlecruisers, Australia built two dreadnought battleships and New Zealand built one. The exception in this regard being Canada, which was allowed to devote what naval construction resources it had to the Great Lakes Fleet.
By the outbreak of the War Britain met the challenge of naval construction laid down by Germany and Britain. By 1914 Britain had constructed 45 Dreadnoughts, 32 Battleships and 13 battlecruisers. With vast bulk stationed in at home ports in Britain. The Royal Navy established the Home Fleet based out of Scapa Flow, the Atlantic Fleet based out of Gibraltar, Mediterranean Fleet based out of Malta, The The East Indies Squadron based out of Trincomalee, The China Station based in Hong Kong and the Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor in the Sandwich Islands.
Global Dreadnought Race
Dreadnoughts were developed as a move in an international battleship arms-race which had begun in the 1890s. The British Royal Navy had a big lead in the number of pre-dreadnought battleships, but a lead of only one dreadnought. This has led to criticism that the British, by launching HMS Dreadnought, threw away a strategic advantage. Most of the United Kingdom's naval rivals were themselves contemplating or even building warships that featured a uniform battery of heavy guns. Both the Japanese Navy and the US Navy ordered "all-big-gun" ships in 1904–05, with the Satsuma and New York class ships, respectively. Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II had advocated a fast warship armed only with heavy guns since the 1890s, Germany’s first dreadnought was the Nassau class constructed in 1907. By securing a head start in dreadnought construction, the United Kingdom ensured that its dominance of the seas continued.
The battleship race soon accelerated once more, placing a great burden on the finances of the governments which engaged in it. The first dreadnoughts were not much more expensive than the last pre-dreadnoughts, but the cost per ship continued to grow thereafter. Modern battleships were the crucial element of naval power in spite of their price. Each battleship was a signal of national power and prestige. Germany, France, United States, Confederate States, Russia, Italy, Japan and Austria all began dreadnought programmes, and second-rank powers including the Ottoman Empire, Greece, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile commissioned dreadnoughts to be built in British, French, German, and American yards.
The crushing expenses made all parties receptive to a treaty limiting battleship construction. As a result all sides agreed to attend the Philadelphia Conference, held by President Aldrich. The British (fully aware that Aldrich did not want to fund a large fleet of dreadnoughts) took a hard line in the proceedings right from the start, insisting that the dreadnought ratio between the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany would have to be 2:1:1. Aldrich himself was willing to consider that ratio, but Germany (with the Kaiser perhaps still smarting from Aldrich’s refusal to support him in the Morocco Crisis two years earlier) flatly refused to consider such an unfavorable ratio, and Senator Lodge likewise warned Aldrich that the U.S. Senate would never ratify any treaty with a ratio below 4:3:3. Aldrich would attempt to compromise with a 3:2:2 ratio, but that proved unacceptable to both the British and Germans. Aldrich would finally propose an agreement where the British could build up to 24 dreadnoughts, the United States would build up to 12, and Germany could build up to 18. (He also hinted that the United States might lower its tariff levels if the British and Germans would agree to the treaty.) The British though still refused to consider any treaty that would leave the United States and Germany with more dreadnoughts than they had, and so the conference broke up in failure.
With the failure of the Philadelphia conference, the battleship race restarted in earnest. Germany and the United States maintained their pre-conference construction. Britain passed a Naval Law which committed them to match US- German construction. Britain convinced its allies to help balance these new threats with the Confederate States agreeing to construct four battlecruisers. South American nations also entered the race during this period, with Argentina, Brazil and Chile agreeing to build three battleships.
By the outbreak of the war the global dreadnought tally stood at 117 dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers. 90 of which were distributed between Britain, Germany and the United States, Britain completing 45 and Germany and Britain completing 45 together. This delicate balance was upset by the election of Theodore Roosevelt and the United States commitment to build 4 battleships a year for the next four years.
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Thanks to bguy, TTITUP, Sierra and Tiro for all the help and advice.
Bguy calaculates the Dreadnought numbers, Sierra, Tiro and TTITUP came up with the Confederate battleship names.
I’m not committed to these Battleship/ Battlecruiser names. Let me know if they don’t make sense or you have better ones and these should be changed.
Bguy calaculates the Dreadnought numbers, Sierra, Tiro and TTITUP came up with the Confederate battleship names.
I’m not committed to these Battleship/ Battlecruiser names. Let me know if they don’t make sense or you have better ones and these should be changed.
Your Excellency, it has been a pleasure to have been of help and a pleasure more than doubled to have read the first of your much-anticipated articles!
In fact your article is so good that the only quibble one would like to advance is the suggestion that USS Tecumseh seems an unusual name to give a Northern Battleship in the wake of the War of 1881, given that Tecumseh was a British ally and a most effective one; while memory of his efforts might have faded to admiration at the time of the US Civil War, one would suspect that in the Remembrance Era old injuries would have reopened and been resented (especially given that the Great Lakes would be regarded as a region in contention during any future War).
If one might suggest a plausible alternative, why not launch USS Pontiac in place of Tecumseh? If one remembers correctly the old Ottawa only ever fought agains the British Colonial Administration and seriously contested much the same Great Lakes region that would be fought over again & again during the course of the Anglo-American Rivalry during Timeline-191. I've done a little research and there have been a number of US Navy vessels called Pontiac (including a side wheel gunboat during the American Civil War, which I believe was also the case for Tecumseh).
In every other case your names appear to make Perfect sense - I especially like Santa Fe, which works as a reference to Past Glories and a fairly pointed threat to the United States of America (given Santa Fe sits in US Territory "For now" as the more optimistic Southern Fire-eaters might have concluded).
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I'm not sure that Professor Turtledove would have had the patience to work all this out.
No, the Tecumseh was one of the third batch of coastal Monitors after the success of the Monitor. In OTL, the Tecumseh was sunk by a torpedo during the Battle of Mobile Bay.
Dutch, love the posts. Only quibble with last one (Henry Teller) is its been established in this thread that Nelson Aldrich succeeded Mahan as president serving two terms. Would recommend you edit that one! Otherwise outstanding job.
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It's my assumption these are Dutch's creations and not bound by the thread's facts.
Craigo did a nice little intro to Mr. Hay earlier on in this thread if you are curious (page 20, post #399).
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/tl-191-filling-the-gaps.148857/page-20#post-4612506
To:- Cousin Jonathan, USA
HAPPY TREASON DAY TRAITORS!
We the undersigned do cordially invite you to CELEBRATE AND BE DAM'D! for a thicket of Ingrate, Treacherous, Inhospitable, Devious, Inconstant, Deplorable, Irreconcilable, Degenerate, Illegal, Deplorable, Outrageous, Despicable, Sly, Surly, French-Loving, Spanish-Tickling, Mollycoddled, Welching and Treasonable Traitors, Rebels, Rakehells, Assassins, Back-Stabbers, Reprobates, Betrayers, Hucksters, Charlatans, Mutineers, Crooks, Cut-Throats, Vandals, Philistines and Caitiff Francophiles!
Sign'd North, Rockingham, Tho. Gage, H. Clinton, J. Burgoyne, Cornwallis, B. Arnold, Tarleton, Wm. Tavington, John Bull of England, Jack Tar, Tommy Atkins X (His Mark).
GOD SAVE GREAT GEORGE OUR KING!
HAPPY TREASON DAY TRAITORS!
We the undersigned do cordially invite you to CELEBRATE AND BE DAM'D! for a thicket of Ingrate, Treacherous, Inhospitable, Devious, Inconstant, Deplorable, Irreconcilable, Degenerate, Illegal, Deplorable, Outrageous, Despicable, Sly, Surly, French-Loving, Spanish-Tickling, Mollycoddled, Welching and Treasonable Traitors, Rebels, Rakehells, Assassins, Back-Stabbers, Reprobates, Betrayers, Hucksters, Charlatans, Mutineers, Crooks, Cut-Throats, Vandals, Philistines and Caitiff Francophiles!
Sign'd North, Rockingham, Tho. Gage, H. Clinton, J. Burgoyne, Cornwallis, B. Arnold, Tarleton, Wm. Tavington, John Bull of England, Jack Tar, Tommy Atkins X (His Mark).
GOD SAVE GREAT GEORGE OUR KING!
On a more serious note, please allow me to wish Our American Cousins a very happy Fireworks Day, health and Prosperity because we on the Right Bank of the Atlantic still love you, even if you DO turn us into the Evil Empire every 4th of July! (and you know it wouldn't kill you to try being a little more like Canada - CANADA CANADA CANADA - who knows how to treat her old Mother Country right and tidies her outback without being asked ... ).
Hmmm ... I thought this was going to be a MORE Serious note! In any case I do hope you Enjoy and have Enjoyed a lovely day - a far better day than Burton Mitchel, ex-President of the Confederate States, who departed this world eighty-two years ago today in a Timeline that ceased to be Our Own in 1862 (patient to the last, right up to the point where his murders failed to kill him on cue - "Lord have mercy on Dixie" indeed).
https://www.deviantart.com/libra1010/art/1875-1936-BURTON-MITCHEL-752930608
^^You can see more of the late President Mitchel at the other end of this link.^^
Hmmm ... I thought this was going to be a MORE Serious note! In any case I do hope you Enjoy and have Enjoyed a lovely day - a far better day than Burton Mitchel, ex-President of the Confederate States, who departed this world eighty-two years ago today in a Timeline that ceased to be Our Own in 1862 (patient to the last, right up to the point where his murders failed to kill him on cue - "Lord have mercy on Dixie" indeed).
https://www.deviantart.com/libra1010/art/1875-1936-BURTON-MITCHEL-752930608
^^You can see more of the late President Mitchel at the other end of this link.^^