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- Mar 31, 2012
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From the Official Navy Chronology for Feb 24, 1865: The intention of the Navy Department to reduce the size of the operating forces as the end of hostilities neared was indicated in Secretary Welles' instruction to Rear Admiral Thatcher, commanding the West Gulf Squadron, to "send North such purchased vessels as appear by surveys to require very extensive repairs . . . and all those no longer required. These will probably be sold or laid up. You will also send home any stores that are not required. Further requisition must be carefully examined before approval, and the commanders of squadrons are expected to use every possible exertion and care to reduce the expenses of their squadrons."
Secretary Welles similarly directed Rear Admiral Dahlgren to send north vessels under his command that were no longer required, especially the least efficient. "The Department is of opinion that the fall of Fort Fisher and Charleston will enable it to reduce the expenses of the maintenance of the Navy."
As rapidly as the U.S. Navy had expanded, the reduction began in earnest with the Confederate evacuation of Wilmington NC, as Welles began a round of belt-tightening that would continue into the fall; the number of vessels in Navy service fell from 545 to 165 by mid-September of 1865.
(From my own research, based on data from Silverstone's Warships of the Civil War Navies, ORN, and DANFS)
(Commissioned vessels only; vessels under construction, chartered private vessels, and Army craft other than the Western Gunboat Flotilla and Ram Fleet in 1862 are not included.)
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