The South Used What It Had to Build A Navy
An effort to build two effective Confederate warships turned out to be a bust in Columbus, GA
An effort to build two effective Confederate warships turned out to be a bust in Columbus, GA
A symposium exploring the historical and environmental significance of Georgia’s waterways will feature a talk on how the production of two Confederate gunboats set the stage for new postwar industry in the Columbus area. Logan Barrett, director of history and collections at the National Civil War Naval Museum, on Friday afternoon (April 11) will present “The Chattahoochee River Squadron: Wartime Ending, New South Beginning” at the Georgia Archives in Morrow.
“I will be arguing that although these ships had almost no military success during the Civil War, their historical significance rests as precursors to New South industry,” Barrett (below) told the Picket in an email.
Popularized by Atlanta newspaper editor Henry Grady, the term “New South” signified the move from a largely agrarian society to one with more industry. Much of this occurred in the late 19th century following Reconstruction. But the economic modernization largely failed to benefit poor whites and blacks and kept intact the Jim Crow system. Columbus was a critically important industrial center for the Confederacy, making a wide range of weapons and equipment.
Today, the stars of the naval museum are the remains of the ironclad CSS Jackson and twin-screw wooden ship CSS Chattahoochee.
The Jackson (originally named the Muscogee) was designed to protect Columbus from…
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