SubmarinesMark Feinberg

Background-Used by both the Confederate States of America and Also the Union-Union condemned submarine warfare-CSA is more famous for using submarines-Submarines were considered to be illegal, so there is little official information about them-Union Submarine program main objective: clear out harbors with confederate ships-Confederate Submarine program main objective: break the Union’s blockade

Different Submarines-First submarine during the Civil War was the CSS David-The David managed to damage a Union ironclad ship and a few other Union ships-First Union Submarine was the USS Alligator-The USS Alligator was designed by French immigrant Brutus de Villeroi-The Alligator was oar-propelled, and her first objective was to destroy a bridge and clear obstructions on the Appomattox and James Rivers-Both rivers were too shallow for the Alligator, so it returned to base-The Alligator’s next mission was to destroy the ironclad ship called the Virginia II, but the Alligator was too unwieldy and weak, so the attack was never carried out -Once the oars were replaced with a propeller, the Alligator was going to be used to capture Charleston, SC, but the ship towing the Alligator got caught in a storm, and the it had to be released-currently, the location of the USS Alligator is unknown

CSS Hunley-Considered to be the most famous submarine used in the Civil War-After completion in 1863, submarine went to Charleston, SC-When being tested in Charleston, dive lever was accidentally pulled -5 out of the 8 crewmen drowned-the Hunley was later salvaged and tested again-during this round of testing, the skipper incorrectly pulled out of a dive and crashed the sub-with high ocean pressure, the hatches couldn’t be opened, and the crew perished, along with the sub’s inventor, Horace Hunley -the Hunley was again salvaged and used in action on February, 17, 1864 against the USS Housatonic -The torpedo used to sink the Housatonic was attached to the end of the Hunley-After some distance, the explosive was detonated and the Housatonic sunk in 5 minutes-The Hunley never returned to base, and was not found until 1970

CSS Hunley Pictures

USS Alligator and CSS David Pictures

Bibliographyhttp://www.americancivilwarstory.com/civil-war-submarine.html http://americancivilwar.com/tcwn/civil_war/naval_submarine.html http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1862submarines.htm http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi381.htm

news.nationalgeographic.com http://historum.com/american-history/31600-sinking-h-l-hunley-what-caused.html http://shemcreeksc.com/blog/discover-shipwrecks-ocean-layer/ http://schnorkel.blogspot.com/2006/01/noaa-to-resume-search-for-uss.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_submarine_Alligator_(1862) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_David