In the 1850s, Stephen R. Mallory was Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Naval Affairs. When his state of Florida left the Union in early 1861, he joined the Confederacy and was appointed Secretary of the Navy. Because no one else cared that much about naval policy, Mallory was able to shape naval doctrine. After viewing the disparity between the shipbuilding and other manufacturing facilities of the Confederacy and those of the Union, he set forth a fourfold naval plan:

·         Send out commerce raiders to destroy the enemy’s mercantile marine.

·        Build ironclad vessels in Southern shipyards for defensive purposes.

·        Obtain by purchase or construction abroad armored ships capable of fighting on the seas.

·        Employ new weapons and techniques of warfare.

The talk focuses on Mallory’s three most successful commerce raiders: the CSS Florida, Alabama and Shenandoah.