CSS STONEWALL
24 MARCH 1865
CSS STONEWALL
In the early years of the Civil War Confederate agents engaged British shipbuilding firms in laying warships for the Confederacy. One such warship, Stonewall, was designed to be an able challenger to Union blockaders. In her bow was an 11-inch rifle that fired a massive 300# shell, and two 70# cannon pierced an aft turret. She was overlain with 4-inches of iron plating and mounted a heavily plated ram beneath her cutwater. Powered by both sails and steam, she was capable of open ocean cruising. Union and rebel planners alike envisioned her breaking the blockade, disrupting commercial shipping, and even bombarding New England towns. The Union Navy anticipated great problems countering her, such that rumors of the formidable Stonewall paralyzed war planners. But the fortunes of the South changed after the battle of Gettysburg, and spurred by a Lincoln administration protest, the British government canceled the partially completed Stonewall. Confederate agents arranged for the ironclad to be completed in France, but again Lincoln protested. French emperor Napoleon III was colonizing Mexico at the time and wished not to provoke the ire of the US. He sold the nearly finished ironclad to the Danish for use in their war with Prussia. That war ended abruptly however, and Confederate agents secretly negotiated a re-purchase of the ironclad from Denmark.
But as CAPT Thomas J. Page, CSN, sailed STONEWALL from Copenhagen early in the new year of 1865, a violent storm forced him into Ferrol, Spain. Union Navy CAPT Thomas T. Craven was dispatched in the wooden screw steamers USS NIAGARA and SACRAMENTO to Coruna, nine miles up the Spanish coast, with orders to intercept her. Learning of the nearby Union presence, Page steamed out this day in a bold challenge. Craven was wary of STONEWALL’s thick armor and powerful guns and chose to keep the ram under observation from afar. STONEWALL reached Bermuda unmolested on 6 May 1865 only to learn there of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.
Craven was greeted on his return with a court martial. Though his assessment of the relative strength of STONEWALL was probably quite correct, his apparent timidity in dealing with the enemy became the topic of the day. Presiding at his court martial was the unflinching VADM David Farragut. CAPT John A. Winslow, who had boldly defeated the dreaded CSS ALABAMA in a ship-to-ship duel off France in 1864, was a panel member. Neither was Craven’s case aided by a letter from Confederate agent in Europe James D. Bulloch expressing incredulity that two heavily armed warships showed any fear of STONEWALL. Craven was convicted and suspended from the active duty roster for two years, though shortly thereafter he was restored to duty by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 30-31 MAR 26
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865. Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, pp. V-65, VI-304.
Love, Robert W. History of the US Navy, Vol 1 1775-1941. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 268-69.
Munson, Robert W. “Stonewall: The Confederate that Went to Japan.” Sea Classics, Vol 50 (2), February 2017, pp. 38-41, 52-53.
Silverstone, Paul H. Warships of the Civil War Navies. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 200-01.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2nd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, p. 90.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Welles restoration of Craven was not exactly for magnanimous reasons. Craven had been sentenced to a two-year suspension from duty on leave pay. But the ever-pragmatic Welles was unable to stomach a convicted coward receiving what he termed a “paid vacation” at government expense. The conviction apparently did not hinder Craven’s career. Following restoration to active duty he was appointed to command the Navy Yard at Mare Island, near San Francisco. He was promoted to RADM in 1866 and retired from the Navy in 1868.
Three US Navy warships have borne the name CRAVEN (TB-10, DD-70 and DD-382). However, these all remember Thomas Craven’s brother, CDR Tunis Augustus Craven, who died commanding the monitor Tecumseh at the battle of Mobile Bay.
Despite her portentous reputation, Stonewall never fired a shot in anger. After learning of Lee’s surrender, Page shaped a course for Cuba, where he sold his warship to pay off her crew. Cuba later returned STONEWALL to the US government, who sold her to the Japanese in 1871. She served their navy for decades under the name AZUMA until being broken up for scrap in 1908.
