CSS Virginia was a magnificent ship. The armour was on wrong, the engine was awful, it wasn't quite finished by the time it rocked up to Hampton Roads, and despite the fact that it maneuvered like a toddler in a rushing river, Dixie thought a ram would be a good idea.
Even with how stupid it was though, it still inflicted the worst loss on the US Navy until WW2, because iron is cool... but that wasn't the end of its reign of terror.
The RAM infected many, many other nation's naval strategy, particularly France's, as it seemed quite successful. Unfortunately, ramming is a wee bit completely moronic in full scale ocean battles.
With other navies focusing on using the ram so much, and as a result trading out other capabilities and spending money on it, do you think it's possible that the CSS Virginia did more damage to the rest of the world's navies than it did to the US's?
>taking lessons from Americans
>taking lessons from moronic Confederate Americans
>taking lessons from moronic Confederate Americans who fricking lost the war
They deserved what they got
The moronic Confederate Americans didn't lose the war because of the CSS Virginia.
>Basically laid the groundwork for submarine warfare to begin.
>Fielding Ironside ships.
>Doing both while struggling under a military blockade, and fighting an army far larger using scorched earth tactics against the civilians because they couldn't take on the soldiers.
They weren't moronic, they were outnumbered, and still almost managed a victory to the point that union bootlickers seethe 150+ years later.
>almost
Yeah that’s the problem huh
Their ironclads where little more than floating batteries something that the French had been using in the crimean war nothing realy new came out if the American civil war as both sides where equivalent to well regulated militias compared to European armies
>muh crimean war
Go away
Cope harder
The if any European army fought against either side in the ACW they would have moped the floor with them.
For example the brittish musket drill had them shooting at about 3 times the range and at a higher rate of fire.
Also the thread is about what "lessons" were learnt by the deployment of ironclads during the civil war. Which is none, because ironclads were already deployed plenty and the ramming obsession came from the battle of Lima when the Austro-Hungarian navy sank 2 ships by ramming.
>nothing realy new came out if the American civil war
The Monitor was the first turreted naval vessel built (though others had been planned before).
Lincoln split the command structure between administrative and operational, which would become the modern way of running a military. The first to copy that was Prussia, when Bismarck made von Moltke chief of operations.
The confederate submarine, Hunley, is the first submarine to sink an enemy ship (the Housatonic) during warfare.
> brittish musket drill had them shooting at about 3 times the range and at a higher rate of fire.
The low rate of fire during the American Civil War had a lot to do with the constant digging of entrenchments. The main example would be the battle of Spotsylvania.
>pick a fight they can't win
Sounds moronic to me.
No
The battle of Lisa (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lissa_(1866)) did more to create the Ram craze than Hampton roads. And fir a brief period of time before actual AP ammunition was developed the ram was actualy one of the more efective ways of bringing down a ship despite how moronic that sounds. Because roundshot canons only way of defeating armour was cracking it and that requires hitting the same place on the ship multiple times with hardend shells.
In the CSS Virginia's case, the ram was utterly useless. They walloped one ship with it, and nearly got sunk because they couldn't pull it out. What saved them was the ram fricking ripping off.
True that. The ship was a glorified floating battery so the ram realy didn't have anny business being on there
>and nearly got sunk because they couldn't pull it out
Story of my life.
>.m
go back
Imagine being a yankee in a wooden boat, seeing a giant ass jerry rigged redneck iron boat attacking you, and knowing you’re absolutely fricked.
>Try to ram enemy
>Miss
>Unable to turn the ship to retry
>Captain comes out onto deck to yell at his enemies
>Gets shot by a Yankee on shore
>Retreat, the whole crew having tinnitus
The captain was shot when he got out on top and tried to snipe shore batteries, because they shot at them while they were taking on survivors from a ship they sunk.
They really did have zero regard for their own men
Huh? The Union? Because the captain went there of his own accord, his regard for his men didn't really factor in.
The American "Civil War" was a hoax/psyop which led to the decline of European power and eventually American led hegemony.
And I'm tired of pretending it wasn't.
What a fricking moron lol
the civil war was funded by the french monarchy to weaken the british monarchy
I think you're getting your history very, very confused.
the american revolution was supported by the french monarchies against the british. by the time of the civil war, the british had no influence in the US.
>no influence
I know what you mean but I wouldn't put it like that, both nations have influenced one another since the creation of the US, obviously entirely diplomatic since 1812 and by the mid 19th century almost entirely cordially
The American Civil war was a shooting fight between two armed mobs with minimal training.
>The RAM infected many, many other nation's naval strategy, particularly France's
Other way around actually. CS ironclads were French in either design or manufacture. The French were the ones pushing the ram idea.
The Merrimack was prettier.
the Merrimack wouldn't have been prettier after getting walloped by cannonballs for like 8 hours.
True. https://youtu.be/pg_Bb1xFhY4