ABSTRACT
The infant Confederate government quickly established a naval organization. Jefferson Davis chose Stephen Mallory as Secretary of the Navy. Despite the Confederacy's handicaps in creating a navy, its embryonic fleet came tantalizingly close to upsetting the Federal navy's superiority in March and April of 1862. Confederate naval construction would have produced better results if left unmolested; the Union forces, primarily through the blockade and the capture of key ports, denied the South the time it needed to build a strong navy. In early 1862, North reported to George Mallory that "anything can be done for money," but he continued to be slothful in obtaining warships. In addition, Mallory knew as early as May 1861 that the Confederacy would have difficulty producing them. The imported iron plates would have enabled the Confederacy to quicken the pace of shipbuilding, while conserving the scarce iron held in the Confederacy.
