The American Civil War was the birthplace of many firsts. Rifles such as the lever action repeater were used in limited numbers and would go on to be one of the most iconic guns in America's late 19th century westward expansion...the "Old West" and everything legend entails...commonly known as the Winchester rifle. Rudimentary machine guns made their debut, both in the North and the South, as did the foundations of what would become trench warfare, so profound 50 years later in the First World War. Instant coffee made its debut as a powder that included both the sugar and the cream...just add hot water. Then there was the submarine...
It wasn't a new idea. Man had been travelling in craft that could sink beneath the surface since the early 1600s, and the idea itself was being pondered since the Middle Ages, but an effective submarine actually sinking an enemy warship didn't come to fruition until 1864.
Nations with smaller navies than their opponents often turn to devices or machines that equal out the battlefield. the Confederate States of America needed a navy that could push back against the United States who's naval strength was vast in comparison. From the very first months of the Civil War, the U.S. Navy set up an encircling blockade stretching from Virginia all the way across and down to Brownsville Texas, as well as snaking its way down the Mississippi River. It was called the Anaconda Plan, a way to cut of the rebelling states from the rest of the World, and starve them into submission. Ultimately it worked, but it took years to achieve the goal. The Southern states came up with some inventive devices to combat against this blockade, one of which was the lowly submarine. It was not the only naval innovation to come out of the War, but it was certainly the most desperate.
Since 1861, private citizens of the Confederacy were thinking up and building various "infernal machines" (19th century lingo for a submarine...which was seen as most un-gentlemanly). Some of the earliest examples come from Louisiana, in and around New Orleans (incidentally, the first Confederate ironclad warship was built around New Orleans as well). No one really knows who built it, but it was constructed before 1862 before New Orleans fell to Union forces. Abandoned in Bayou St. John, the "mystery submarine" was rediscovered in 1878, rescued and put on display in various locations around New Orleans. She has been restored and now sits in the State museum in Baton Rouge. We know it was manufactured This Confederate Civil War submarine still remains mysterious...
Perhaps the best known submarine created and used by the South during the war was the H.L. Hunley. This submarine is credited as being the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship. She herself was lost, along with her entire crew as well. Two men principally responsible for its creation, James McClintock and Horace Hunley, the man who financed the project. The entire H.L. Hunley submarine odyssey was preceded by two other test submersibles, beginning in New Orleans in the first months of the Civil War. After New Orleans was no longer under Confederate control, they moved to Mobile, Alabama where experiments and trials continued. Mobile and the Bay became the cradle of Confederate submarine design and operations (aside from the Hunley's success off Charleston, South Carolina) for the remainder of the War.
Officially, the first successful use of a submarine in warfare was on the night of February 1864 when H.L. Hunley sunk the U.S.S. Housatonic off Charleston. The submarine was also sunk, but it was able to ram its explosive charge into the warship, the explosion likely damaging the submarine in the process and leading to both sinking. There may have been another...
Federal forces launched the attack on Mobile Bay on August 5th, 1864. It was led by Admiral David Farragut. The whole operation stretched from August 2nd to August 24th, and effectively closed Mobile as a viable port for Confederate use. No longer could the Confederate States receive material and goods through this port of entry, economic strangulation making Confederate defeat inevitable but a few short months later in April of 1865. The Battle of Mobile Bay was a joint operation of the U.S. Army and Navy, with the combined objective of capturing fortifications around the bay, and crushing Confederate naval assists within the bay itself. One of the most famous sayings in American history came from Admiral Farragut as the U.S. Navy's sizable force of warships steamed into the harbor, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" in reference to one of his ironclad warships being struck and sunk, the U.S.S. Tecumseh. She went down fast after something had blown a hole in her side, sinking in roughly 30 seconds and taking 94 of her crew down with her. History writes that a Confederate torpedo was to blame, but not a torpedo in the way we know them. Submarine launched "torpedoes" that speed out from a submerged vessel under their own power and slam into a ship with an explosive warhead didn't exist during the American Civil War.
What Farragut was referring to were what we know as mines. In addition to developing effective manned submarines, the Confederates were also creating effective underwater mines. Its not a new invention, a keg filled with gunpowder with a trigger device either floating on the surface or just under it, had been in use since the American Revolution, but the South took the idea to new levels. What they developed were true ship killers. They were referred to as a torpedo, named for a particularly nasty ray, a fish that used natural electricity to defend itself, much like an electric eel. For all intents and purposes, Farragut believed the Tecumseh had hit a Confederate "torpedo", but had she...
Tecumseh was close to Fort Morgan, roughly 300 yards when she sank, and she was close to C.S.S. Tennessee, a formidable Confederate ironclad warship, roughly 600 yards away. Both were firing on Tecumseh. A large Confederate underwater mine, or torpedo, could have been set off within Fort Morgan as the Tecumseh passed. Confederate mine technology did allow for remote detonation via a wire from the explosive itself and into the fort, using electricity. This might have been the case, except for one man floating in the water and pulled out by a passing U.S. warship...a Confederate Captain by the name of Pierce.
He claimed that he had captained a submersible, or perhaps semi-submersible vessel armed with a spar torpedo. Essentially a explosive mounted to the end of a long pole, this was the device favored in the fledgling art of underwater warfare. Mounted at the front of the submarine, it would be driven into the hull of a ship where it would explode, tearing a hole in the side and sending the ship to the bottom of the sea. It worked, as demonstrated by the Hunley's success, but it also put the submarine at risk of being sunk by the blast as well...a fate that befell the Hunley as well. Captain Pierce, claiming to command a submersible named for him, the C.S.S. Captain Pierce, said that he and his vessel did indeed successfully attack the U.S.S. Tecumseh, but he lost his boat, along with his crew in the explosion after ramming his spar torpedo into the side of the monitor. The lone survivor wasn't even sure he had sunk the Tecumseh. If what he related was true, he had.
It's an amazing story, and an unlikely one. There is a bit of tantalizing evidence, albeit thin as newsprint. Harper's Weekly ran a story in September or 1864 claiming that Farragut's forces did indeed capture a Confederate submarine in Mobile Bay...
Along with a picture of the craft, it goes on to say that Admiral Farragut was aware that these infernal machines were in the harbor, and that one of these craft made an attempt to attack the Federal fleet outside of the harbor prior to the battle. It is possible. The Confederates did have semi-submersible craft armed with a spar torpedo...these were known as "davids", aptly named for the bible story, the Confederates viewing the United States Navy as Goliath.
They were not true submarines, only sinking down into the water, never completely submerging, concealing most of the vessel. When you look at the Harper's weekly drawing of what was captured and read the story, it certainly looks like one of these innovative craft. Was the Captain Pierce a David? Maybe. "Davids" were known to be troublesome creatures. They were powered by an exposed steam boiler, which given the temperamental nature of steam engines, and the material stresses put on the Confederacy by 1864, it could have led to Pierce's boat malfunctioning during the attack on Tecumseh and possibly leading to the boiler in his craft exploding, sinking and killing all aboard the "david"...save him.
Again, it's a great story, but unlikely. If there was a C.S.S. Captain Pierce, why would this little fragile craft steam out into a battle where mines had already been placed? These were likely contact mines, so brushing up against one with your boat might lead to destruction. It was morning, and there was daylight. "Davids" were effective at night, and being small and vulnerable craft, even if an attack was successful, other enemy ships could effectively shoot you out of the water. It makes very little sense that Captain Pierce would take on Tecumseh given the situation. On top of all of that, the historical record says nothing to back any of this story up, save for a contemporary newspaper article that only talks about capturing a Confederate torpedo boat, a "david"...
Harper's Weekly, September 24th 1864
If Pierce existed, if his torpedo boat existed, all might be proved by looking around or directly under the wreck of the Tecumseh. The solution to this mystery might lie there.
In the end it was probably a Confederate underwater mine that took down the ironclad monitor Tecumseh. While they were highly unreliable, prone to leakage that would make them ineffective, and at this stage of development more useful as a psychological deterrent, when they worked, they worked...Tecumseh was gone in 30 seconds.
