Finding Ancestors in the Confederate Navy

Today’s blog will discuss the history of the Confederate Navy and provide resources to identify and learn more about your Confederate Navy ancestors and their service.

As the southern states seceded from the Union, they made efforts to provide for a navy, and conferred rank upon its officers. A few revenue cutters and merchant steamers were seized and converted into men-of-war. Thus, at the beginning, each state had its own navy.

The Confederate States Navy was established by an act of the Confederate States Congress on February 21, 1861. The navy department was organized with Stephen R. Mallory, secretary of the navy: Commodore Samuel Barron, chief of the bureau of orders and detail; Commander George Minor, chief of ordnance and hydrography; Paymaster John DeBree, chief of provisions and clothing; Surgeon W. A. W. Spotswood, bureau of medicine and surgery; Edward M. Tidball, chief clerk. The Confederate government conferred commissions and warrants upon officers in accordance with their relative rank in the US Navy.

Sixteen captains, thirty-four commanders, and seventy-six lieutenants, together with 111 regular and acting mid-shipmen, resigned from the US Navy. To make provision for these officers, Confederate service was increased by the Amendatory Act of April 21, 1862, and consisted of four admirals, ten captains, eighty-one commanders, one hundred first lieutenants, 180 second lieutenants, twenty masters, in line of promotion; twelve paymasters, forty assistant paymasters, twenty-two surgeons, fifteen passed assistant surgeons, thirty assistant surgeons, one engineer-in-chief, and twelve engineers.

Commodore Lawrence Rousseau was put in command of the naval forces at New Orleans; Commodores Josiah Tattnall at Savannah; French Forrest at Norfolk; Duncan N. Ingraham at Charleston, and Captain Victor Randolph at Mobile. Commodores Rousseau, Forrest, and Tattnall were veterans of the War of 1812, and Ingraham and Randolph served with distinction in Mexican War.

The Secretary of the Navy immediately began building the navy. He made innumerable contracts, and gunboats were built on the Pamunkey, York, Tombigbee, Pee Dee, and other rivers; but these boats were mostly burned before completion.

In November 1861 the navy consisted of the Sumter, the McRae, the Patrick Henry, the Jamestown, the Resolute, the Calhoun, the Ivy, the Lady Davis, the Jackson, the Tuscarora, the Virginia, the Manassas, and some twenty privateers. The loss of official documents prevents a correct list from being given. Of Confederate naval vessels, ironclad gunboats were the most numerous. Others were wooden gunboats, torpedo launches, cruisers, commerce raiders (built or bought abroad), and steel or iron-hulled sidewheel blockade runners built abroad.

When Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina seceded, officers who resigned from the US Navy reported in large numbers at the Navy Department, but no ships were ready at the time. They were sent to different batteries on the York, James, Potomac, and Rappahannock Rivers in Virginia, and to many other batteries on the Mississippi and other rivers. As a rule, officers were first detailed to do service in their home states.

The most vexing problem for the Confederate Secretary of the Navy was that the South did not own a vessel capable of being fitted out as a ship of war. Only one manufacturer in the South could construct an engine of sufficient power properly to propel a serviceable gunboat; iron was scarce; and no factories were equipped to roll the two-and-one-half-inch plate necessary to armor ironclads replacing wooden ships. Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia was the only industry that could supply large-caliber guns. Additionally, European countries issued neutrality proclamations almost immediately after the first gun had been fired at Ft. Sumter.

Officers’ pay was based on a sliding scale, regulated by length of service and officer’s occupation as in the federal service, but the pay was greater.

• Admiral: $6000 a year
• Captain commanding squadron: $5000; on any other duty at sea, $4200; on other duty, $3600; on leave or awaiting orders, $3000
• Pay of other officers regulated by length of service, but first increase in pay was to come after five years’ service, so no officers benefited
• Commander on duty at sea: $2825 a year for first five years after date of commission; on other duty, $2662
• Commanders on leave or awaiting orders: $2250
• Lieutenants commanding at sea: $2550
• First lieutenants on duty at sea: $1500; when on other duty, on leave, or awaiting orders: $1200
• Second lieutenants when on duty at sea: $1200 a year; when on leave or other duty, $1000
• Surgeons on duty at sea: $2200; on other duty, $2000

The Civil War at sea was an unconventional and frequently chaotic naval conflict. It featured greater concentrations of violence and a wider array of ships and weaponry than any earlier, prolonged maritime engagement. The struggle on the water was pursued with as much intensity and determination as the battles on land, yet it was marked by an even higher degree of improvisation.

A Sailor’s Life

Throughout the Civil War, navies of both sides faced persistent manpower shortages. Army demands were so great that there were never enough sailors, especially those with experience, to fully staff all ships in service. This problem was particularly acute in the South, where the available pool of seamen was always limited. Although the Secretary of the Navy claimed that hundreds of men volunteered, military commanders often refused to release them for naval service. As a result, it was sometimes necessary to assign soldiers to naval duty, an arrangement they did not generally relish. Some of them became disciplinary issues or deserted, but others adapted and performed admirably.

One part of the Confederate Navy had no difficulty in attracting men: the ships Alabama, Florida, Shenandoah, and other famous commerce raiders. Confederates paid high wages and in gold. Those factors and the prospect of being a prisoner made a crucial difference, but the result was that a high percentage of the crews of these famous ships were foreigners.

In the South, no one under the age of fourteen was allowed to enlist. Height requirements for the Confederate Navy were at least four feet eight inches. An inexperienced man with a trade could join if he was twenty-five to thirty-five years old. Inexperienced men without trades were shipped as landsmen or coal heavers. Free blacks could enlist if they had special permission of the Navy Department or local squadron commander. Slaves could enlist with their owners’ consent; some of them served as officers’ servants as well as coal heavers and pilots.

Upon arrival at a receiving ship, new recruits were introduced to the basics of naval life. Due to the constant need for personnel, their stay could last anywhere from a few days to several weeks. Any skills not acquired during this initial period had to be picked up while on active duty. From time to time, the commander of the receiving ship would be instructed to transfer a specified number of men to a vessel about to embark on active service, or to replace crew members lost to death, illness, or desertion.

Anything not learned on the receiving ship was thoroughly learned on a ship in regular service. In the Confederacy, whenever the needs of war made it necessary to transfer from one ship to another, men had to have additional training because no two ships had the same engines or guns.

Once a man reported to a ship in the regular service, he was assigned to various stations at the guns, on deck, in the tops, in a boat, at a mess, and a hammock. Until all assignments became second nature to him, a recruit might forget his numbers and have to refresh his memory by consulting the station bill, where everyone’s position was recorded.

Warship crews were comprised of a diverse mix of individuals. Some were seasoned veterans, older men hardened by years at sea, while others were as young as eighteen or even younger, experiencing life away from home for the first time. The ranks included foreigners, some of whom were recent immigrants from Europe, as well as free Black sailors, and occasionally a North American Indian or a Pacific Islander. In contrast, crews of Confederate gunboats and other vessels defending Southern harbors, inlets, and rivers tended to be more uniform in composition, particularly in the early stages of the war.

Crews of Confederate cruisers usually ate well because they captured merchant vessels, but for the rest of the navy, cheese, butter, and raisins – technically a part of the ration – were never available. One and one-quarter pounds of salted beef, pork, or bacon was issued daily to each man. Tea and coffee could be obtained from blockade runners at great cost. Even so, the Confederate Navy usually ate better than the army.

The CSS Shenandoah fired the last shot of the Civil War in June 1865 and surrendered in Liverpool, England on November 6, 1865.

Confederate Navy Records

Confederate records are probably the most difficult military records in the National Archives to use. Comparatively few Confederate records survived the war, and those that did were generally in poor condition. The US government tried to preserve Confederate records during the late 19^th century. This effort resulted in the War Department’s Collection of Confederate Records (Record Group 109) and the Navy Department’s Subject File of the Confederate States Navy, 1861-1865 (Record Group 1091), which contain several microfilmed series useful in researching Confederate Navy service. These include:

M260, Records Relating to Confederate Naval and Marine Personnel. FamilySearch; browseable with free setup of login and password

M909, Papers Pertaining to Vessels of or Involved with the Confederate States of America: “Vessel Papers”. FamilySearch; browseable with free setup of login/password

M598, Selected Records of the War Department Relating to Confederate Prisoners of War, 1861–1865. FamilySearch, Internet Archive, Ancestry

M918, Register of Confederate Soldiers, Sailors, and Citizens who Died in Federal Prisons and Military Hospitals in the North, 1861-1865. FamilySearch; browseable with free setup of login/password

  Pay Rates for Confederate Enlisted Sailors, CSS Alabama, November 1862

On November 29, 1862, Captain Raphael Semmes authorized a pay increase for enlisted men aboard the CSS Alabama. This pay rise had been agreed upon by all concerned. Following are the rates as copied from the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol. 1, p. 808, with the exchange rate in Confederate and British currency:

Following are monthly pay rates for some positions in 1863 dollars adjusted for inflation in today’s (2025) dollars:

For More Information

Here are some additional resources to help you learn more about your Confederate Navy ancestors:

Fold3 (accessible in Genealogy and remotely via TexShare databases with library card): Look under “US Civil War (Confederacy)”

FamilySearch Research Wiki: Confederate Navy and Marine Service Records

Wikipedia: Confederate States Navy

Archive.org: The Confederate Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organization, 1861-65

Library of Congress: History of the Confederate States Navy from its Organization to the Surrender of its Last Vessel

Trevor K. Plante. ”Researching Confederate Marines in the Civil War.”

FamilySearch: Confederate States Navy Research Guide: Confederate Naval Imprints Described and Annotated, Chronology of Naval Operation and Administration, Marine Corps and Naval Officer Biographies, Description and Service of Vessels, Subject Bibliography. Set up free login and password to view.