author discusses the fall of the confederate navy. at the start of the year, the confederates were at the peak of their seapower. but the loss of two important ships in the union victory at mobile bay crippled the fleet. it was part of the symposium hosted by the emerging civil war blog. >> our next speaker is a good fellow polish boy. a lot of man love between the two of us, let me tell you. it's a good thing. a lot of people have been coming up and, i love your. -- your book. once upon a time chris worked here at the spotsylvania national military park but has since gone on to do amazing things.

some of his career highlights, he served as supervisor out of parryville battlefield, the state park in connecticut -- kentucky, excuse me. currently he is now with the general macarthur memorial in norfolk. he spends most of his days thinking about the pacific theater of world war ii but his heart will always remain back in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864. marrying his two loves, talking about the navy. [applause] >> thank you. that is certainly one of the more entertaining introductions i have ever had. i also note that i go second, which is a great thought but also carries the caveat that you now have had your coffee, you

have woken up, chris has warmed you up but since i am the one guy talking about the navy, this is insurance i don't put you to sleep. what can i say? there will be an open discussion after this. both the union and confederacy knew that 1864 would be the decisive year in the civil war. regardless of how the fighting went on land and sea, by the end of the year the future course of the civil war would he decided. for the confederacy, every effort on land and sea bent towards the cause of victory. the confederate navy this year achieved its peak strength and was certainly expected to do its part. what i want to talk about today is the result of those efforts. before we do that, i want to talk about the strategic setting for the war in 1864, the strategic setting for the confederate navy. the confederate navy has three main missions during the war.

the first is to support land operations. they also want to break the blockade or at minimum, prevent it from tightening. and they want to destroy union commerce. they want to wage economic warfare on the north. the u.s. navy has the opposite missions, support land operations, tighten the blockade, maintain and tighten the blockade, and protect united states commerce. there are five theaters in early 1864, 5 fronts, where the united states and confederate navies stand eyeball to eyeball. james river, north carolina sounds, charleston, south carolina, the gulf of mexico, and the atlantic. three of these theaters will see decisive action during the year. charleston and the james were remain effectively

stalemated all through the year. there will be some skirmishing for local superiority, but charleston and the james remains stalemated. it is part of that stalemate that prevents the confederate navy from interfering with grant's crossing of the james from cold arbor to petersburg in june of 1864. one cannot talk about the confederate navy in 1864 without mentioning the submarine hundley and the sinking of the uss housatonic off charleston harbor of february 1864. this was a technical achievement, not a strategic one. the statement i just made in no way takes away from the bravery and skill of lieutenant dixon and his crew and their success. the hundley was really like the wright flyer. it demonstrated the possibilities of new technology, but needed further development and refinement to truly fulfill the potential.

the next warship sunk by submarine was not until 1914, when the british destroyer was sunk on september 5, 1914. naval warfare and naval history is a complex subject. it involves the intersection of technology, strategy, politics, and a host of other factors. in the end, the great sea stories turn on the human factor. that should never be forgotten. i want you to remember that as we talk about sea fights in 1864. let us begin in the spring of 1864. let us begin in the sounds of north carolina. the confederates for the last 18 months in a cornfield on the roanoke river have been building themselves an ironclad, which in the spring of 1864 after 18 months of construction is

finally ready for service and is commissioned as the css album more. she is designed as the same man who designed the css virginia. he basically build a smaller river going version of the css virginia. the captain is a man named cook and he is anxious to go after the union. the union in 1862 had captured the sounds of north carolina. they recognize the outer banks in north carolina and the sounds behind there would be outstanding holes in the union blockade, outstanding opportunities for confederate lock eight runners to go back and forth. that is why they went after them, one of the first amphibious assaults the union army makes in the entire war in 1862. what they have done is they have managed to plug all of the rivers that lead into the sounds on the coast of north carolina.

they have created a series about posts. they captured the cities, the ports at the mouths of the various rivers that feed into the carolina coast and pen the confederates up in the river. elizabeth city, plymouth, newburn -- to form this outpost line. there is one major vulnerability in the federal disposition in the sounds of north carolina, and that is that no oceangoing ironclad can get in. they all have too deep a draft. they cannot get over and through the barrier islands. what is left in the union navy to guard the sounds of north carolina and plug up the confederates? they called them double enders. side paddlewheel steamers. robert e lee's army draws a lot

of its supplies from eastern north carolina. any force in eastern north carolina threatens that line of communication. they want to launch a counter offensive in the spring before the main fighting starts, which is expected to start in may. robert houck coordinates and offensive with the albermarle. in mid-april, houck with about 10,000 men is going to go towards plymouth and attacked. meanwhile, the albermarle will come out. she will announce her presence with authority. the two union steamers are going to engage. the albemarle almost sinks herself in the process.

the miami is going to withdraw. two days later, plymouth falls, surrendered in a combined army-navy attack by the confederates. all of a sudden the roanoke river is back open to confederate traffic. a few weeks later after consolidating their gains, the albemarle and union navy will go at it on the roanoke river just downstream of plymouth. as the albemarle gets the better of the fight going after these union double enders is going to explode one of them's boilers, force the others to retreat as one of the commodores there said at the time, if she had disabled one or two more of our steamers we would have lost control of the north carolina sounds. the blockade had loosened. the confederates came within a stone's throw up breaking it and ripping a hole in it in the north carolina sounds.

but note the date of the action i just mentioned. may 5, 1864. what is going on in the war? this is the day ben butler leaves for munro and moves towards bermuda hunter. houck's commanded north carolina has to be withdrawn to reinforce the confederates in virginia. the north carolina sounds settle into uneasy, bloody stalemate at this point. the blockade is loosened. it has not been broken. the confederates certainly start the year off on a good note next to the css albemarle. as the calendar begins to turn for may into june, the naval focus for both sides shifts. it shifts eastward to the atlantic theater. the confederates in 1862 and as early as 1861 had developed a strategy the french term as war against the economy.

war against commerce. they want to outfit raiders, build them under assumed names in london, in liverpool, in england, various shipyards -- mostly in liverpool. put them to sea. they meet a tender who has a confederate crew, has guns, all the implements of war. raise the confederate naval, and capture ships. most of these raiders have confederate southern offices. most of their men come from the captured ships or many of them are europeans that sign on with the promise of sharing in the prizes they are going to capture, the money that is thereby attained. eight major raiders. three of them achieve a marked

success, set world records for commerce raiding. the css alabama, 64 union merchant ships and one union gunboat off the coast of texas, 65, which sets a world record. the css shenandoah with 37. until the 20th century, those records will stand. among americans, u.s. and confederate sailors, those records stand even today because the top scoring american submarine ace sank 24 ships. these records still stand among the american and confederate navies. this success panics the north. drives up insurance prices, drives up the cost of shipping, pressures the northern war effort but not to the extent that the confederate navy would

like, but it certainly has an effect. one of the easy things that most of the union merchant men do, they sell their ships, trade their papers to a neutral country. we may have all-american crew, all guys who talk with a boston accent -- that is a british flag we are flying. we are registered in london. you can't touch us. that works only to a certain extent. the alabama, the most successful under the command of raphael sims, the alabama operates in the north atlantic and the caribbean and the south atlantic, around the horn of africa into the indian ocean and even as far as the southwest pacific, where she takes a couple of ships in and around singapore and indonesia as we know it today. 64 american merchant ships she takes over the course of her career. by early 1864, the alabama is

starting to fray at the edges, in a literal and figurative sense, much like a car where you drive and you don't maintain it. the alabama has not seen a drydock. it is not seen a significant refit period in over two years. the seams in her timbers are starting to break. the sails are getting worn. the ropes are getting worn. the men are exhausted. they need a refit. they need a rest. sims decides the best place to go is france, because napoleon the third has traditionally been very supportive of the confederacy. and so he heads for the port of cherbourg. 70 years ago in june and early july, it was the scene of

another american drama during the normandy campaign. he puts into cherbourg june 11, 1864. he made a bit of a mistake. he has chosen the wrong port. it is a french navy port. all the shipyards there, all the places he could go our french navy. their government's. the laws allow neutral ports private shipyards to service belligerent ships. but government shipyards are completely different. it requires a telegraph to the emperor himself for permission to dock the alabama and refit her, permission which is not forthcoming. but the telegraph also sends news via another chain as well, that is the chain of united states councils. united states counsel in cherbourg telegraphs the embassy and the embassy telegraphs western belgium, because up

there is an american frigate. the alabama is here. winslow sets sail and on the 14th of june arrives off cherbourg. the union navy after hunting for the alabama for many months has now found her. winslow comes in, get some provisions, figures out it is the alabama, goes out the on the international limits, now we come to the moment where the human element begins to play into this story. the human element is rafael sims. raphael sims is a man of great pride and passion, but he is also a lightning rod for north and south. he is an unquestioned southern naval hero. he is also one of the greatest villains in the north. they have denounced him as a pirate. he has threatened to be hanged. any number of things have been

hurled against rafael sims. his actions carry great political weight north and south and in this election year which he is very well aware, he understands the political implications of his actions and what he might choose to do at this point. sims also has a great sense of personal honor and he understands the reputation of a ship and he's very protective of his own reputation and the reputation of his ship. there's another thing as well. the alabama is good. you can do very well when you have eight guns against zero. you can do fine. sims is determined to block that stain off his perceived record. he sends a message via the confederate agent in cherbourg.

it says, don't go anywhere. i want to come out and i want to fight you. i will be out there in 48 hours. it ends up being four days. john winslow, when he gets this message, basically writes back and says, fine. i'm not going anywhere. come and get me. it's one of the last great medieval style chivalrous duels where the two champions will go forth and engage in single combat. on the morning of 90 june, 1864, at 9:00 in the morning, the css alabama weighs anchor and begins to set sail. she has a lot of eyes on her. word of this dual has reached paris and there have been trains chartered from paris. 15,000 frenchmen are on the bluffs overlooking cherbourg harbor. those bluffs now have the

remains of german bunkers on them. among them, the painter edward manet. as soon as -- the french escort her to the three-mile limit of french waters. the french ship turns around and heads back as fast as she can. all of a sudden john winslow turns and starts towards the confederate. these two ships are extremely evenly matched. alabama has nine guns. kearsarge has eight. alabama 149 men. kearsarge 163 men. there is one advantage that some debate as to how much sims knew about this at the time. he got a real nasty education in

the next few minutes. john winslow had taken anchor chain and put it on the side of his wooden hulled ship uncovered that chain with wooden planking. at a distance, it looks normal, but it has a makeshift iron armor on it. as the kearsarge comes in, showing her starboard side, the alabama turns and shows her starboard side and bubbles start is the steed of ships going around and around, chasing each other in concentric circles. the alabama opens fire and one of the trends of the fight will be the alabama will fire more often, but their shots will be wilder. the kearsarge will fire more directly, more slowly, but also more surely. the alabama aimed at the top of the ship, the rigging, the deck. john winslow ordered his gunners, aim at the water line of the confederates.

aim low, boys, aim low. they go around once. alabama fires three before kearsarge fires her first. they go around a third time. during this third revolution, the kearsarge shutters. they later find a confederate shell has struck the stern post. two years of storage in varying climates has withered confederate powder. the shell doesn't explode. had it exploded, that would've been the day for the kearsarge. they go around a fourth time. sims has realized, our shells are bouncing off the enemy. switch to solid shot. they go around a fifth time, a sixth time. it's now getting on for noon.

sims starts to notice his ship is getting sluggish. she's filling with water. federal fire is telling. as they go around the seventh time, he turns to his second in command, john. when our bow points towards france, execute a turn and let's try to get to french waters. they got five miles to go. they go around the seventh time and they and the seventh circuit. the alabama heels over to port. i think that turn was too hard and did some damage to the ship. winslow gives chase. runs her down. sims quickly realizes he's not getting away. shortly before about 12:15 or so, rafael sims strikes the alabama's colors.

winslow begins to take survivors. there's an english yacht in the area that has been watching the fight. their owner of the yacht had polled his family, should we go out the next day and watch the fight from the yacht? guess who won? the children outpolled the parents. they were out there. winslow says, go save the survivors. help me rescue the man. this yacht saves sims and about 60% of his crew with virtually all the officers and takes him to england so they survive to fight another day. 12:30, with her head held high, css alabama sinks by the stern 8 miles of the coast of cherbourg. 21 men were either killed during the battle or drowned in the process.

confederates -- union, three wounded in action the entire battle. if you go to cherbourg today, they have raised one of the blakely guns from the deck of alabama and it sits in the lobby of the museum right downtown. if you go up into the city cemetery, all you have got to do is ask for the tomb of the alabama. two of the men who died in this fight are buried on a bluff overlooking the harbor. cherbourg remembers. cherbourg knows about the american civil war. as for the battle's impact, when winslow reports and when the confederates and observers report the defeat of the alabama -- when stephen mallory sums it up well, he says, the loss of the alabama was announced in the federal papers with all the manifestations of joy which

usually usher the news of great national victories, showing the calculating enemy fully understood and appreciated the importance of her distruction. this has just as much impact on the north political situation as any major land victory will over the course of that year. the north will win a couple other victories as well. the css florida in the atlantic front will be captured in brazil in early october of 1864. a violation of brazilian neutrality by an overzealous union officer, that nonetheless removed the most successful commerce raider and the second most successful commerce raider have been wiped off the chessboard. there is one more piece that will be put on the chessboard before the end of the war, css shenandoah.

i think her orders probably sum up well the strategic situation at that point. there's no more targets for you in the atlantic. go to the bering sea and take out the new england whaling fleet, and then, judging by what the news is, govern yourself accordingly. if you have to put into a neutral port, sell the ship, pay off the men, and disappear. the war is not going well. you may have to use your own discretion in 1865. rafael sims in 1862 did not get orders like that. in 1864, james waddell of the shenandoah will. the shenandoah and her crews -- it really starts in late 1864 -- is really beyond the scope of our discussion here today. june turns into july. our focus shifts. our focus shift west and southward to the gulf coast of

mexico, specifically the eastern gulf coast and specifically mobile, alabama in mobile bay. why is this place important? if you capture mobile, you can use the rivers that flow into mobile and mobile bay to go right into the heartland of the confederacy. right into the heartland of alabama, and cut them from the south, cut them from the underbelly. he proposed this as part of his initial campaign planned for 1864. because of insufficient resources, the expedition has been postponed until late july, early august of 1864. this sets up one of the iconic naval battles of the entire civil war.

the human factor here is really paramount. i want to discuss specifically how the human factor manifests itself. it manifests itself in the two protagonists we will meet at mobile bay. i'm referring to david g farragut and confederate admiral franklin buck buchanan. these two men are yin and yang. these two figures are titans, not just of the navy and the civil war, but of the prewar united states navy also. david g farragut from tennessee and will remain loyal to the union. farragut had been at sea since he took a midshipman's commission at age 12. at age 14, he had commanded a prize crew in 1814 serving with

his adopted uncle on the uss essex. at age 14, he is truly one of the great sailors this country has ever produced. farragut is hispanic. he has spanish ancestry on his mother's side. buck buchanan, first superintendent of the naval academy of annapolis. he also was one of the captains of the ship commodore perry took to tokyo bay. farragut, calm, professional, good sense of what needs to be done and how to do it. plan, execute an operation. buchanan is more of a fiery, passionate aggressive officer. a driver. buck buchanan starting in 1861

allowed that passion and aggression to override his judgment from time to time. there have been twice by 1864 where this has happened and it has cost him. in 1861, buck buchanan resigns his commission. when maryland does not succeed, he writes to the navy department asking to be reinstated. the navy department response to the effective, we don't want any sunshine patriots. thank you very much for your service. have a nice day. that is how buck buchanan ends up in the confederate navy.

he becomes the first admiral in the confederate navy. farragut becomes the first admiral of the united states amy. buchanan is placed close to norfolk. he takes command of the uss merrimack. in 1862, he takes the virginia out against the navy in hampton roads. he deals them one of the greatest defeats the navy has ever suffered, the greatest defeat they will ever suffer until world war ii. late in the day, as the uss congress is thinking before the css virginia, the ironclad starts to take incoming fire from the infantrymen onshore at newport news point. buck buchanan decides the best thing for him to do as commander of this great ironclad is to go on deck with a rifle and start shooting back. sustains a very serious leg wound and is carried below. he fears for his life and they end up having to go into norfolk that night and he is evacuated off the ship.

he plays no role in the fight with the monitor the next day. i pose the question, was that the appropriate response and appropriate reaction for a commanding officer? i leave it to you to decide . after recovery, he is sent to mobile, to superintend the construction of one of the most modern and powerful confederate ironclads, the css tennessee. it takes in 16 months and he does a lot of railroading and driving to get the css tennessee into commission by the spring of 1864. he has with him to defend mobile the css tennessee, and three smaller gunboats. farragut is going to go into mobile bay with 18 ships. four ironclads, seven frigates, and seven smaller gunboats, one of which is the uss galena.

this is the fleet composition here. you need to understand -- to understand what is about to happen, you have to understand the geography of mobile bay. mobile bay is big. mobile sits at the very top. imagine a half inflated balloon which is real narrow at the stem and then it stands out as a semicircle-oval-shaped trade that is mobile bay. at the south end of mobile bay, there is a mile and a half wide channel. at the book end are two stone forts that were built in the 1830's. fort gaines and fort morgan. across that channel, the

confederates have put mines. torpedoes in 1864 parlance. they have left a small channel for blockade runners to run in and out of mobile bay. farragut -- here's the plan. the u.s. army is going to land on delphian island. farragut on the fourth of august. the next day on the morning of the fifth, farragut is going to take his fleet and then with the support of farragut from the mobile bay side, a combined army-navy advance will reduce fort gaines and pinch off mobile bay. to do this, they also have to defeat the css tennessee at some point. he knows it will be a running fight. he also knows because of the emphasis on speed and the fact that he is running under the guns at fort morgan, those gunboats ain't going to survive.

he lashes them all to the left side, the port side of each of the seven frigates so they can all get through faster and safer, less time under the confederate guns. 5:30 in the morning august 5, 1864, farragut's fleet turns north and begins to head towards the entrance of mobile bay. the four ironclads are outside or to the outboard. they are leading. and then, the lines of frigates and gunboats. farragut, at the advice of his captains -- sir, we don't want you to go first. uss brooklyn is in front. run through the guns as fast as you can but stay clear of the mines. the leading ironclad is the uss tecumseh under t.m. craven. as craven approaches the navigation buoys, he steers too far to one side of the channel. at 6:47 in the morning, hits a mine. it explodes.

two minutes, uss tecumseh with 93 of 114 men are at the bottom of mobile bay where they sleep today. craven and the randomness of death at sea -- craven, as he's trying to get to the escape ladder, his pilot and he arrived at the foot of the ladder at the same time. after you, pilot, captain craven says. the pilot gets out. captain craven is at the bottom of mobile bay today. watching the destruction of the tecumseh in front of the entire fleet -- the captain of the brooklyn, james alden, immediately realizes if there is a mine there, there might be a mine here. instead of continuing. he stops and begins to reverse. the entire federal fleet, like

a traffic back up, begins to back up under the guns of four morgan. when i say under the guns of fort morgan, if we are the federal fleet, fort morgan is the spotsylvania court house it is that close. with those heavy naval guns, that is point-blank range. the gunners begin to flay into these federal ships. this is the moment where the human factor and leadership on the federal side makes a difference. farragut, who is in the rigging of his ship and has been lashed to it for his safety, sees what is about to happen and can see the disaster not five minutes away. he calls down to the captain of the hartford, turn left, go around the ironclads. go around the brooklyn. get into mobile bay. signal the rest of the fleet to follow. but sir, the torpedoes! here is the immortal word.

you all know what is coming. torpedoes! he turns to the captain of the ship. full speed! these two ships, acting in concert, their propellers lash the water and move forward with great speed. the rest of the fleet follows them. they go through the mine field and into mobile bay. as the man underneath in the bowels of the ships, as they pass through the mines they hear pop, pop, pop, pop. those are the detonators of the mines going off. the mines have been there 18 months and they are waterlogged. none explode. farragut pushes into the mobile bay and at that point gets into a running fight with the css tennessee as buck buchanan comes out from behind four morgan.

it ultimately will result in the three gunboats with the tennessee either being sunk, driven off, or captured. both sides disengage, farragut to the north, buck buchanan back to the guns at fort morgan. farragut anchors, fully expecting to have a few minutes to assess damage and plot his next move. buck buchanan at this moment under the guns of fort morgan has all of the advantages. he can steam west and block farragut's retreat of mobile bay. he can stay under the guns and force very get to go after him, both engaging the fort and ironclad at the same time at great advantage to the confederacy, or he can just sit there and wait for farragut to do something and act as necessary. either way, he has the advantage. for the third time in the civil war, buck buchanan allows his passion and his aggression to override the judgment.

he puts the tennessee's helm northward and goes after farragut's fleet. one ship against 17. farragut can't believe it. he goes after him. it's a running melee. buchanan started a fight he could not win and after an hour and a half worth of melee, bombarding, pounding the tennessee, disabling her steering, blocking most of her gun ports, injuring buchanan with a broken leg at 10:00 in the morning the css tennessee strikes her colors. the battle of mobile bay is over, and the united states has been handed a great victory. what are the effects of this fighting, this less than four hours worth of fighting in and around the city of mobile? both forts fall to the union.

the last viable port for the confederacy east of the mississippi river on the gulf coast is now closed off and will remain closed off for the rest of the war. but there's another effect of this as well. a fredericksburg native is the commander of the post of mobile and he and 10,000 men are forced to sit in mobile for the rest of the war, almost completely the rest of the war until they are forced out in the spring of 1865, guarding against any possible federal incursion northward into the heart of the confederacy. these troops sit here. they are badly missed and badly needed on other battlefronts. all of these effects are a direct or indirect result of the fact that took buchanan could not keep his head when he was under the guns of fort morgan

and put the helm of the tennessee northward against farragut's fleet. the human factor making the difference. let us come back and conclude with where we started, the sounds of north carolina. i have not talked about a human element yet for the sounds of north carolina. lieutenant william b cushing. his older brother is alonso. you may remember him from the battle of gettysburg. the stalemate has continued because of lack of resources and ground troops. the confederates have proposed a attacks into the sounds of north carolina. the federals want to do something about this. it is a latent threat. it is tying up federal resources that could be used elsewhere.

i will put a long spar with an explosive at the end. i will run up against her and blow her up. go for it. he takes a force of 20 men on the night of 27 october 1864 and goes upstream. gets past the confederate pickets. he is very close to doing plan b. if he gets that far and is not detected, he's going to try to land on the dock, take a ship and sail away. at the last moment, he gets challenged. he greets with gunfire, which is answered by gunfire. at this moment, cushing sees something he did not count on.

there have been log berms that have been placed to prevent such an attack around the albemarle. there is space between the side of the ship and the log. cushing goes back out in the stream. at this point, most officers would say try again some other time. not cushing. cushing gambles and says, those logs have probably been there several months. he puts on full speed and goes to the logs, up the logs, over and in and bumps up again the -- against the side of the albemarle. very calmly standing at the prowl, put underneath the armor and pulls the explosive. the explosion blew a hole big enough to drive a wagon into.

in five minutes, the css albemarle was at the bottom of the roanoke river. most of his men are captured. after an epic escape of 36 hours, manages get back to the union fleet. 72 hours after the sinking of the albemarle, plymouth is back in federal hands. the federals attacked an army navy expedition and have taken plymouth and have retained the blockade and undone the confederate gains of the previous spring on the north carolina sounds. what does all this mean? i pose the following question to you. would the expedition at fort fisher in december 1864 and january 1865 have occurred, or would the movement of john scofield's army through the north carolina sounds have

occurred had the css albemarle been intact? in 150 days, june through october of 1864, defective -- confederate army has fought three decisive actions against the united states navy. north carolina sounds, and mobile bay. they have come out the loser on all three. by the end of 1864, the confederacy has been effectively defeated. no hope of recovery. the sailors knew it. the final word on 1864's impact goes to john mitchell. he wrote this on january 4, 1865. they have appeared in such overwhelming force as to render a successful resistance by us utterly out of the question.

as went the navy, so went the confederacy a few months later. folks, i would like to thank you for your attention. if you have any questions, i would be happy to answer them. thank you very much. [applause] >> for months i now know [indiscernible] we have time for just a couple questions. >> the first ship that went through mobile bay that was sunk was an ironclad? >> yes, uss tecumseh. >> the subsequent three went through -- they succeeded in getting through? >> the three other ironclads did. they were a decisive factor in taking on the tennessee. the tecumseh was the only ship that farragut lost. he lost considerable casualties

on his other ships. the only federal ships sunk during the battle of mobile bay was the uss tecumseh right up the start. >> thank you. >> other questions? other questions. >> a lot has been written about the soldiers on both sides. as the fortunes of the confederate navy began to deteriorate and you said the soldiers knew it, it seems like morale would be an even more pressing concern. here you are, not just on the losing side, but you are away from home in a physical way that other soldiers are not. you're not plugged into a larger support network. what must that be like for a navy person who realizes all hope is lost?

>> there are two different types of confederate sailors. the first type, the one you referenced about being away from home, that applies to the css shenandoah and the other commerce raiders. it was always the hope that no matter what happens, we are going to do our part is the sense i get from shenandoah and her officers. the other ones, the europeans are mostly there for a paycheck and to share in the profits of whatever prizes that they taken and whatever money they can collect from those prizes the officers tend to say, we're going to be in it for the cause and strike a blow at the yankees. when they find out the war is over, morale plummets. waddell, it is a neat leadership trick for him to get the shenandoah back from the pacific

and keep a mutiny from happening. the vast majority of confederate sailors are based in the confederacy. most of those guys are from virginia. they are based in and around richmond on the rivers. they are not that cut off. one of the best things that help sailor morale -- right up until the end, the navy has a far better ration system than the army does. one of the things that sustains the sailors, particularly the ones on the ironclads and the ones on the rivers, they are defending home, making a visible contribution, and these ironclads still remain a psychological advantage for the confederates. we are in an ironclad, we are in a new ship. the yanks are going to have trouble with us no matter what and we are going to cause trouble for them. that helps sustain morale as much is anything.

>> let me just remind folks, chris is the author of two fantastic books. just two brilliant, insightful books. he is one of several authors upstairs signing books. please take the opportunity to visit with folks upstairs. we will take a five minute break and then we will be back. thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] >> to watch more of our civil war programming any time, visit our website, www.c-span.org/history. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> this year c-span is touring cities across the country, exploring american history. next, a look at our recent visit to boulder, colorado. you're watching american history

tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> this was the building that was about to be demolished . it had been boarded up for over 20 years and because the building was boarded up for more than 40 years, people knew about the building and because it was so close to downtown. there aren't buildings in boulder that are boarded up. when we would tell people about the project and hannah barker they would say oh, that house. there is a mystery behind what this house was. >> hannah barker was an amazing woman who played an important role in the history of boulder, colorado. born in 1844 in ireland, you know, there is a lot about her