This is a list of ships of the Confederate States Navy (CSN), used by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865. Included are some types of civilian vessels, such as blockade runners, steamboats, and privateers which contributed to the war efforts by the CSN. Also included are special types of floating batteries and harbor defense craft.

CSN warships The secretary of the CS Navy, Stephen Mallory, was very aggressive on a limited budget in a land-focused war, and developed a two-pronged warship strategy of building ironclad warships for coastal and national defense, and commerce raiding cruisers, supplemented with exploratory use of special weapons such as torpedo boats and torpedoes.

Batteries Based upon the successful employment of ironclad warships, particularly batteries, at the Battle of Kinburn, Britain and France decided to focus on armor-plated warships, starting with coastal battery designs. Initial ocean going ironclad cruisers, such as the French and the British were only just emerging in 1859 and 1860, and were beyond the budget and timeline necessary for rapid force deployment that the CS Navy needed for immediate coastal defenses in 1861.

Therefore, the Confederate Congress voted $2 million in May 1861 to buy ironclads from overseas, and in July and August started work on construction and converting wooden ships locally. On 12 October 1861, the became the first ironclad to enter battle when she fought Union warships on the Mississippi. In February 1862, the even larger joined the Confederate Navy, having been built at Norfolk. The Confederacy built a number of ships designed as versions of the Virginia, of which several saw action. In the failed attack on Charleston on April 7, 1863, two small ironclads, and participated in the successful defense of the harbor. For the later attack at Mobile Bay, the Union faced the .

Ironclad steam-powered batteries

The CS Navy ironclad steamer batteries were all designed for national coastal defense.

, twin-screw steamer, ironclad ram, sunk: October 28, 1864 , twin-screw steamer, ironclad ram, destroyed: August 5, 1862 , triple-screw steamer, ironclad ram, captured: June 17, 1863 , side-wheel steamer, cotton-clad and ironclad ram, surrendered: May 10, 1865 , ironclad steam sloop, destroyed: February 18, 1865 , steamer, ironclad ram, destroyed: February 18, 1865 , single-screw steamer, ironclad ram, captured: April 26, 1865 , side-wheel steamer, ironclad gunboat, captured incomplete: February 8, 1862 , twin-screw steamer, ironclad ram, destroyed: April 4, 1865 , ironclad steam floating battery, scuttled: April 12, 1865 , twin screw and double center-wheel steamer, ironclad, destroyed: April 28, 1862 , screw steamer, ironclad ram, sunk: April 24, 1862 , steamer, ironclad, burned incomplete: December 21, 1864 , triple-screw steamer, ironclad, burned: April 25, 1862 , center-wheel steam sloop, ironclad ram, surrendered: June 3, 1865 , screw steamer, ironclad, burned before launching: May 21, 1863 , twin-screw with center-wheel steamer, ironclad, burned: April 17, 1865 , side-wheel steamer, ironclad ram, surrendered: May 10, 1865 , twin-screw steam sloop, ironclad ram, destroyed: March 14, 1865 , steam sloop, ironclad, accidentally sank: September 27, 1864 , sloop, ironclad ram, destroyed: 18 February 1865 , steam sloop, ironclad, wrecked: May 7, 1864 , screw steamer, ironclad ram, scuttled: April 3, 1865 , steam sloop, ironclad, burned: December 21, 1864 , twin-screw steamer, ironclad ram, destroyed before launching: June 5, 1862 , single-screw steamer, ironclad ram, captured: August 5, 1864 , twin-screw steamer, ironclad ram, never completed, captured: April 4, 1865 , ironclad steam floating battery, scuttled: April 12, 1865 , screw steamer, ironclad ram, destroyed: May 11, 1862 , steam sloop, ironclad, destroyed: April 4, 1865 , twin-screw steamer, ironclad gunboat, destroyed before completion: January 1865

Ironclad floating batteries CS Navy ironclad floating batteries lacked steam engines for propulsion and were towed into firing positions.

, ironclad floating battery, scuttled: 24 December 1864 , ironclad floating battery, scuttled: December 21, 1864 , ironclad floating battery, destroyed: 1865

Wooden floating batteries

CS Navy wooden floating batteries were towed into firing positions, and as in the case at Charleston Harbor, used for makeshift defense.

, floating battery , floating battery , floating battery, scuttled: April 7, 1862 Floating Battery of Charleston Harbor

Cruisers CS Navy cruisers were ocean-going ships designed primarily for the Confederate Navy's strategy of guerre de course. Confederate States Navy cruisers were typically lightly armed, with a couple of large guns or a pivot gun, and often very fast. The Navy planned to add ironclad cruisers to their fleet, successfully procuring one, but too late to be of benefit for the war.

Wooden cruisers , screw steamer, sloop-of-war, built in Birkenhead, England by John Laird Sons and Company, sunk: June 19, 1864 , screw steamer, bark-rigged, built in Liverpool, England, seized before delivery: April 5, 1863 CSS America, racing yacht, scuttled: 1862 , schooner, captured: June 28, 1863 , revenue cutter, burned: June 28, 1863 , screw steamer, burned , brig, burned: June 12, 1863 , screw steamer, sloop, captured: October 7, 1864 , screw steamer, iron, sold: June 1, 1864 , steamer, destroyed: After leaving port on March 20, 1863, the steamer is destroyed on March 22, 1863 , bark, burned: June 20, 1863 , side-wheel steamer, brig rigged, sold and used as privateer Rattlesnake and sunk, February 28, 1862 , screw steamer, sloop-of-war, turned over at war's end , screw steamer, full rigged, iron-framed, turned over to British Government , screw steamer, sloop, sold: December 19, 1862 , bark, burned: June 25, 1863 , twin-screw steamer, sloop, seized: April 9, 1865 by British Government , bark, seized: December 29, 1863 CSS United States, frigate, sail, harbor defense use only, scuttled

Ironclad cruisers But the CS Navy attempts to procure ironclad cruisers from overseas were frustrated as European nations confiscated ships being built for the Confederacy. Only the Stonewall was completed and successfully delivered, and she arrived in American waters just in time for the end of the war.

CSS North Carolina I, seized October 1863 and commissioned as CSS Mississippi II, seized October 1863 and commissioned as , twin-screw steamer, brig rigged, ironclad, surrendered in Cuba at end of war, returned to US, sold to Japan and renamed CSS Cheops, sister to Stonewall, built in France and sold to Prussia, October 29, 1865, and named CSS Georgia screw corvette 2017 tons [1,150 tons BOM].Page 77, Clowes, William Laird, Four Modern Naval Campaigns, pub Unit Library, 1902, reprinted Cormarket Press, Sold to Peru after the French government stopped its sale to the Confederacy. Taken into service as BAP Unión 1864. Scuttled January 1881 to avoid capture.More old Peruvian ships, page 1, American and French made shipsSee also Spanish Wikipedia article on BAP Union. CSS Texas, screw corvette and sister ship of BAP Union. Sold to Peru after the French government stopped its sale to the Confederacy. Taken into service as BAP America. Lost during the Arica tsunami on 13 August 1868. Ironclad Frigate No. 61, arranged by Captain James H. North, CSN, sold to Denmark, commissioned as

Gunboats

, dispatch boat, run aground 1 November 1862; seized and placed in service by the Union , side-wheel steamer, burned or captured April 1862 , tugboat, burned February 10, 1862 , schooner , surrendered to U.S. Navy 1865; sold 1866 , screw steamer, captured by U.S. Navy April 3, 1865 , side-wheel steamer, destroyed incomplete April 1862 , schooner, burned February 10, 1862 , steamer, captured: May 5, 1864 CSS Calhoun, sidewheel gunboat, captured: January 23, 1862 , sidewheel steamer, destroyed April 1862 , twin-screw steamer, scuttled: December, 1864 CSS Clifton, side-wheel gunboat, Texas Marine Department, scuttled March 1864 , side-wheel river steamer, sunk: February 7, 1862 CSS De Soto, side-wheel steamer, captured: September 30, 1862 , river steamer, destroyed: April 28, 1862 , steamer, which twice changed hands, managed to survive the Civil War and was presumably decommissioned , steamer, tender, destroyed: January 24, 1865 , steamer, tugboat, captured: February 10, 1862 , steamer, burned: 1865 , screw steamer, iron hull, burned: February 10, 1862 , schooner , steamer, tugboat, burned: February 10, 1862

, side-wheel steamer , steamer, destroyed: April 24, 1862 , steamer, destroyed: June 26, 1862 , side-wheel river steamer, burned CSS Germantown sloop-of-war, sunk as blockship May 10, 1862 , side-wheel steamer, schooner rigged, destroyed: April 23, 1862. Also listed as a Cotton Clad ram (see below) since she had cotton as part of her armor. , screw steamer, burned: April 4, 1865 , steamer, tug , side-wheel steamer; Charleston harbor gunboat: sank March 10, 1864 , cutter, schooner rigged , side-wheel steamer , steamer, burned: December 21, 1864 , side-wheel river steamer, burned: 1863 , a side-wheel river steamer, burned: January 14, 1863 (See Bayou Teche and ). Sometimes called an ironclad since she had a small amount of railroad iron tacked onto her side. , side-wheel river steamer, tug, sunk , side-wheel steamer, sunk: May, 1862 , steamer, tug, dismantled: 1862 , schooner, scuttled , steamer tug, iron, machinery mounted in CSS Palmetto , steamer, captured: April, 1862 , steamer, destroyed: April 24, 1862 , side-wheel steamer, destroyed: June 26, 1862 , steamer , bark , side-wheel steamer, sunk: June, 1862 , screw steamer, sloop rigged, sunk: April 28, 1862 , side-wheel steamer, surrender: 1865 , cutter CSS Morning Light, sail, burned: January 23, 1863 , twin-screw gunboat, burned: April 3, 1865 CS Neptune, steamer, sunk: January 1, 1863 , steamer , steamer, scuttled: Apr, 1862 , side-wheel river steamer, burned: 1862 , side-wheel steamer, CSNA school ship, burned: April 4, 1865 , screw steamer, sunk: 1865 , sloop-of-war, burned: 1862 , side-wheel river steamer, burned: 1863 , steamer CSS Rappahannock, formerly St. Nicholas until seized and purchased in 1861, side-wheel steamer, burned: April, 1862 (Not to be confused with the steam sloop of war of the same name.) , cutter, schooner rigged , burned: April 24, 1862 , screw steamer, destroyed: April 4, 1865

, side-wheel river steamer , steamer, foundered: August 18, 1863 , formerly A.H. Schultz, until seized and purchased in 1861, side-wheel steamer, used as a flag of truce vessel, sunk: February 17, 1865 , side-wheel river steamer, sunk: February 10, 1862 , side-wheel river steamer, captured: August 5, 1864 , steam tug, sunk CSS St. Mary, side-wheel river steamer, burned , burned: 1865 , side-wheel steamer, sunk: 1863 , tug, captured: 1862

, screw steamer, tug/tender, iron, burned: April 4, 1865

, side-wheel steamer, burned CSS Velocity schooner, captured from the Union, CSS Washington schooner, Previously USRC Washington, scuttled April 25, 1862 , side-wheel steamer, burned: December 19, 1864 , side-wheel river steamer, wrecked , steamer, burned: 1865

Torpedo boats

, semi-submersible torpedo boat , larger version of David, captured incomplete: February, 1865 CSS Gunnison, screw steam spar torpedo boat , spar torpedo boat , steam torpedo boat , steam torpedo boat, captured: February, 1865 , spar torpedo boat , spar torpedo boat

CSS St. Patrick, semi-submersible torpedo boat or submarine , screw steamer spar torpedo boat , spar torpedo boat

CSN support ships

Government blockade runners

, side-wheel steamer, captured: September 10, 1864 , screw steamer , side-wheel steamer, captured

CSS Lady Stirling, side-wheel steamer, captured: October 28, 1864

CSS William G. Hewes, (later SS Ella and Annie), captured: November 9, 1863

, side-wheel steamer

Government steamers