As Lincoln himself put it: ‘If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union … nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage.’īut if warships were few, sailors and merchantmen were in plentiful supply, and most were Northerners.

The issue was not defence against foreign invaders, but the suppression of internal rebellion. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.’ On this subject Lincoln had said: ‘All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

Why was the US lagging behind? Perhaps because the ragtag fleets assembled during the American Revolution, and again during the War of 1812, had given rise to a feeling of invincibility based on the size of the country. When Lincoln was inaugurated as president on 4 March 1861, US naval resources were hopelessly unequal to the crisis of secession and civil war, comprising only around 90 warships – half of them were sailing vessels, half were steampowered, and all were wooden-walled.Īcross the North Atlantic, Great Britain, France and Germany were fast developing warships that were superior in every way to the American ships, for two great transformations in naval affairs were under way: the transition from sail to steam, and that from wood to iron. So said Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s greatest presidents, and he might well have been speaking about the creation of the modern US Navy during the crisis years 1861 to 1865.Ī giant of American politics, the man of iron will who completed his country’s unfinished revolution by fighting its bloodiest war to smash the Southern slave system, he should also be remembered for his signal role in the history and development of American naval power. ‘Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I shall spend the first four sharpening the axe.’

Patrick Boniface analyses the expansion and transformation of the US Navy during the American Civil War.

The Union Navy during the Civil War.