Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/118

108 12. The Tennessee, of 6 guns two 7-inch and four 6.4-inch Brooke rifles.

13. The Savannah, of 4 guns probably two Brooke rifles and two smooth-bores.

14. The Columbia, of 8 guns probably Brooke rifles and smooth-bores.

15. The Charleston, of 6 guns four Brooke rifles and two p-inch Dahlgren shell guns.

16. The North Carolina, of 4 guns probably two Brooke rifles and two smooth-bores.

17. The Raleigh, of 4 guns probably same as the North Carolina. 18. The Georgia, of 7 guns smooth-bores and rifles.

19. The Milledgeville probably same as the Savannah. (Not completed when burned to prevent capture.)

20. The Neuse—similar to the Albemarle, but burned to prevent capture.

21. The Mississippi burned to prevent capture. Pronounced by United States and Confederate States naval officers the most powerful vessel in the world at that time.

So much for the materiel. As for the personnel, Prof. J. R. Soley testifies: "The personnel of the Confederate navy was distinguished by enterprise, originality and resource, and to it were due some of the most gallant episodes of the war."

The wonderful feats of the Confederate army have so overshadowed the Confederate navy that the present generation may be surprised to read this tribute from the pen of an enemy; but if any reader is inclined to doubt the audacity, the skill, the enterprise, or the ingenuity of the Confederate naval officers, let him recall the following achievements:

1. Buchanan in the Merrimac, ramming the Cumberland; and again in the Tennessee attacking, single-handed, three monitors and a fleet of fourteen heavily-armed men-of-war. 2. The small gunboats at the battle of Hampton Roads. 3. Isaac N. Brown in the ram Arkansas. 4. J. W. Cooke in the little Albemarle. 5. J. Taylor Wood's capture of the Satellite, the Reli-