The American Civil War in Liverpool

The Confederate States Navy

Rank in the Confederate States Navy was as follows: midshipman, master, lieutenant, commander, captain and admiral.

The South was at a distinct disadvantage compared to the industrialised North. Not only did the South lack a navy, it lacked the facilities to build and maintain one. It had no mills to roll plate, it had only one shop capable of producing a first class marine engine. It had only two shipyards, Norfolk, Virginia and Pensacola, Florida both were blockaded by federal forts and ships. The Norfolk shipyard had been burnt by Federal troops before it was taken by the Confederacy. 

The South did try to build its own battleships. The CSS Mississippi was built by Nelson and Asa Tift in a new shipyard near Jefferson City. Construction started in October 1861 and was still ongoing by April 1862. She was launched on the 19th of April 1862 but not completed. Five days later on the 24th there was a Union attack on New Orleans. Attempts were made to tow the Mississippi but they failed and its crew burnt her to prevent it falling into enemy hands.

The South also tried to convert the Fingal  into an armed gunboat CSS Atlanta but inexperience lead to failure.

The answer to the South's demand for a modern well built navy lay over the Atlantic Ocean in Europe. 

Liverpool's Ship Builders

The American Civil War was a time of good business and innovation for the shipbuilders on the Mersey. In 1864 there were 33 ships being built on the Mersey or 25,00 tons. In Liverpool there were Jones Quiggin, WC Miller & Sons, WH Potter, at Birkenhead there was Lairds and at Seacombe there was Bowdler Chaffer. 

Fawcett Preston Engineering Co., Ltd., Arms & Engine Builders

Founded by George Perry in 1758 as the Liverpool branch of the Coalbrookdale Foundry at Ironbridge, Fawcett, Preston Engineering became internationally famous for its engineering. The company provided machinery for the sugar plantations in the Caribbean, benefiting indirectly from the slave trade. In the 19th century the company was noted for supplying ship engines and making guns. Its engines included those of the first steam ferry on the Mersey and the President the worlds largest ship in 1840. 

The company's Phoenix Foundry at 177 Lydia Ann Street, Liverpool produced Blakely guns, a rifled gun patented by Theophilus Alexander Blakely. Many of the civil war cannon bear the makers mark of Fawcett, Preston & Company, Liverpool. 

Image courtesy of www.cwartillery.org

W. C. Miller & Sons

Parliament Street
William Miller lived here in the 1860's

William C. Miller was originally from Plymouth he moved to Liverpool in 1836 with his sons William and Thomas. They set up business building wooden sailing ships in a company which became Miller & Sons. William Miller and his son Thomas Miller kept their offices off Sefton Street, Liverpool, near to Brunswick and Toxteth Docks. Nearby was the engineering company Fawcett, Preston & Co. with whom they were to do business for the Confederacy. 
William C Miller was a supporter of the Liberal Party and was elected as councilor for South Toxteth in 1863. As a Liberal he did not support the South  in the Civil War, but he was a businessman and was willing to build ships for James Bulloch when approached. 
The shipyard of Miller & Sons was near Brunswick and Toxteth docks. It had a slipway direct into the Mersey, gravings docks at the end of Brunswick Dock and the smaller Toxteth Dock, near Harrington Town Quay was used for fitting out ships. 

The company successfully built the hull and fittings of the Oreto, a commercial raider, but after the attention the company received for building the Alexandra Miller and Sons built merchant vessels for blockade running. It was on one of these blockade runners that Thomas Miller, the heir to the company, died in a storm at the mouth of the Mersey. Without Thomas Miller the company did not last long and soon went out of business. 

The site of the Miller and Sons dockyards is near to the present day Liverpool Marina.  

Liverpool Marina
near to the Miller Shipyard in Toxteth Dock

Lairds 

Lairds Shipyard

World famous shipbuilders from Birkenhead built the Alabama and the "Laird Rams"

Liverpool's Commerce Raiders

The Confederacy could not build a navy to compete with the US Navy, so they built ships to combat the US merchant fleet. It was a tactic studied by the German military and one which would be seen again with the u-boat packs in WW1 and WW2. The Confederate ships were designed and built to be at sea for long periods of time. The laws of neutrality restricted the time they could spend in foreign ports and the supplies they could get so the ships had to be self-sufficient. 

C.S.S. Florida

CSS Florida by Samuel Walters
Courtesy of National Museums Liverpool

The first ship ordered by Bulloch within days of his arrival in Liverpool would become the CSS Florida. Constructed by Miller & Company, with engines by Fawcett, Preston & Company the Florida was planned by Bulloch and Miller based on existing plans of one of Her Majesty's gunboats. The plans were modified to make the ship faster and have a greater capacity. This meant the ship could spend longer at sea avoiding the restrictions that wartime imposed on British ports. The contract was between Bulloch and the shipbuilders, at no time was the end use discussed, but it would have been obvious that the ship would see service in the Confederate Navy. To hide the identity of the ship it was given the name Oreto and later Manassas. 

Laid down in June 1861, the Confederacy's first foreign-built commerce raider departed Liverpool on March 22, 1862. The Florida can be distinguished from the Alabama by its twin funnels and her rakish masts. 

7-inch Blakely Pivot Gun
Fawcett, Preston & Co.
Washington Navy yard
Image courtesy of  www.csnavy.org

CSS Alabama 290 Enrica

The CSS Alabama was the most successful commerce raider in the war and remains probably the most famous ship built on Merseyside. The second ship ordered to be built by James Bulloch was number 290 at the Lairds shipyards on Birkenhead. The ship was designed and built as a commercial raider and throughout its construction was known by its number, 290. This number gave rise to conspiracy theories, one being that the ship was paid for by 290 of England's richest men. In July 1861 Bulloch signed the contract for the 290. 

290 was built under the cover of a shed, to hide her construction from the Union spies. Despite this the Union agents knew a lot about the ship and its construction. 

The cabins were fitted out by Blain's of Paradise Street, Liverpool. The magazines were fitted out and powder canisters were supplied by Messrs Sidderley & Co of William Street. The powder was manufactured and put into the cartridges by Messrs Curtiss and Harvey.  In total she cost £47,046.

July 20th 1862 the Enrica left Liverpool described as being "the finest cruiser of her class in the world" by Lairds.  Due to British law she was under the command of the British captain, Captain Matthew J. Butcher, a first officer on a Cunard liner. With John Low on board the Enrica sailed to Moelfre bay, Anglesey to await her crew and prepare for sea. the Enrica left Liverpool hurriedly due to reports that a USN ship, the Tuscarora was heading to the Mersey to destroy or capture her. This haste meant her crew was quickly rounded up from the brothels and pubs of Liverpool and put on a tug, the Hercules, complete with the sailors women (who acted as unofficial agents and expected a months wages in advance). With her crew onboard the Enrica entered the Irish Sea on the 31st July landing James Bulloch and the pilot, George Bond (who ended his career as master of Clarence Dock) at Giants Causeway. Bulloch made his way back to Liverpool via Fleetwood. The Enrica sailed to Terceira, in the Azores to meet her tender the Agrippina.  The Agrippina brought the cannons and war material.  

The SS Bahama brought the remaining crew members and the captain of the ship Captain  Raphael Semmes. Paymaster.  Clarence Yonge was sent to mingle with the crew and promote the Confederate cause and the new captain. Semmes took charge on the 13th August 1862 and gave a speech to the crew promising prize money to those who signed up to join the Confederate Navy.  The Enrica was renamed the CSS Alabama and commissioned into the Confederate States Navy on the 24th August. 

Between August 1862 and June 1864 the CSS Alabama captured and burnt 55 vessels worth $4,500,000 and bonded 10 worth $562,000. 

In one ironic moment the Alabama captured a Federal ship and liberated a black slave who joined the crew of the Alabama and was paid the same rate as the other crew. 

Captain  Raphael Semmes

The Alexandra in dock in Liverpool after being seized by the British authorities

Although James Bulloch was not involved in the building of this ship, he claimed that it was intended to be used merely to run the blockade to Charleston. Dudley's spies however had a different story. They claimed that the ship was being built with the intention of arming it and using it as a commerce destroyer. Dudley gathered his evidence from his agents and paid informers and presented it to the UK authorities.

After its launch in 7th March 1863 the Alexandra was seized under the Foreign Enlistment Act which forbade any company or individual from selling warships to the South. After a change of name the Mary of Liverpool left Liverpool only to be seized again this time at Nassau, 13 December 1864, and Mary was not released again until after war's end, 30 May 1865.

Banshee by Samuel Walters
Courtesy of National Museums Liverpool

The first steel ship to cross the Atlantic. Built by Jones, Quiggin & Co the paddle steamer Banshee ran the blockade 14 times before capture on the 21st November 1863. It was owned by the Anglo-Confederate Trading Company a company which included the Liverpool Mayor Edward Lawrence. 

Captain William Wilkes


the Emily St. Pierre (right)

Samuel Walters
1811 - 1882
Marine Artist

On 16th September 1835 Samuel married Betsy Staniland Pilley. The couple had 9 children, 3 died during infancy. George Stanfield Walters born 5th December 1837 became a marine painter himself. A painting by Samuel Walters shows the family watching the Congregational Church on the corner of Nelson street and great George's Street burning. The painting is titled "the Burning of Great George's Street Chapel, 19th February 1840".

In 1840 Samuel Walters lived at 56 Stanhope Street and had studios at Berry street and later Bold Street. After a time in London Samuel returned to Liverpool and in 1855 moved to rural Bootle to live at Falkner Terrace (now Byng Street), near Derby Road which had views across the Mersey to the Wirral and a nearby sandy beach. A few houses down the road lived Jesse Hartley (1780-1860) the great architect of the Liverpool docks. It was Jesse's docks which were to force the Walters to leave Falkner Terrace and move to 76 Merton Road, Bootle. 

Samuel Walters painted the CSS Florida, the CSS Alabama, the PS Banshee and Prioleau's yacht Ceres

Samuel Walters died on March 5th 1882 aged 70 a much respected marine painter.  He is buried with his wife in Anfield Cemetery, General Section 1 (Nonconformist) #390)