Other Innovations Some people associated with the Navy during the 19th century were interested in the air above the ocean. The USS  George Washington Parke Custis  of the Civil War days might be labeled as the Navy’s first “aircraft carrier.” Actually, it was a balloon boat used to launch observation balloons over enemy installations. It was 122 feet long, and its total cost was 0. Other Civil War Actions Capture of Vicksburg. On the Mississippi River, the capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi, by the combined naval forces of Rear Admiral David G. Farragut, Acting Rear Admiral David D. Porter, and the commander of the Army in the West, General Ulysses S. Grant gave the North  control  of  the  entire  river.  The  capture  of Vicksburg cut off important Confederate supplies of food and clothing coming from Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas. Battle of Mobile Bay. On August 5, 1864, David Farragut, the Navy’s first admiral, gave his famous order “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” (Torpedo was the name used at the time for mines.) Farragut’s order won the Battle of Mobile Bay (fig. 5-5). This victory closed  the  South’s  most  important  port  (since  New Orleans had already fallen) and tightened the Union blockade. The Civil War produced many men whose names are still famous in the Navy: Andrew Foote, whose gunboats helped General Grant capture the Mississippi River fortresses John  Dahlgren,  the  father  of  modern  naval ordnance (fig. 5-6) David D. Porter (son of the captain of the Essex), who  commanded  the  mortar  flotilla  in  the capture of New Orleans POST CIVIL WAR NAVY Alfred T. Mahan (fig. 5-7) was one of the first instructors at the Naval War College, and he influenced naval strategy. In 1890, the first of his many books and articles on sea power was published. One of his books (The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660 - 1783) stressed that without control of the seas, a nation at war could not expect victory. He defined sea power; showed the  importance  of  understanding  naval  needs;  and advocated  a  large,  powerful  Navy  capable  of assembling  an  overwhelming  force  to  defeat  the enemy’s Navy. His books on sea power became the “bible”  of  many  navies,  and  for  many  years,  they influenced the thinking of naval strategists. Part of our Navy’s readiness for the war with Spain was a result of the influence of his works. Surface Ships Steam power was the major development in ship propulsion during the first half of the 19th century. Iron construction of ships was the outstanding development of the second half. The two developments went hand in hand—all  the  navies  of  the  world  recognized  the advantages of steam power, and iron warships needed large steam engines to power them. The engines, in turn, called for bigger ships to accommodate them. Shipbuilders used iron first as framing and then as a material  for  the  entire  ship.  Iron  was  first  used  as framing to reinforce ships so that they could be used to ram their opponents as well as fire on them. It was several years before an economical way to process iron strong  enough  for  the  entire  construction  could  be found.  (Wooden  ships  had  the  advantage  of  being cheaper to build than iron ships.) After the Civil War, the Navy began a drawdown period. A year and a half after the war, the total number of Navy ships was 236, with only 56 in active service. World conditions made our Country aware that the Navy was small. Therefore, in 1882 and 1883, Congress authorized the construction of the “protected cruisers” USS  Atlanta, USS  Boston, and USS  Chicago  and the dispatch boat USS  Dolphin, which had both masts for sails and stacks for smoke. They were steel hulled and signaled the end of the ironclads introduced only 40 years earlier. These new cruisers were in the 13- to 14-knot class. They sported new guns, new types of turrets, and armor. Once more, the Navy began to rebuild its strength. Continued changes were made as the new steel Navy took on new shapes. Still clinging to the past, the USS 5-11 Student Notes: