Alternate Civil War Naval Battles

OldReliable1862

First Sergeant
Joined
Jul 2, 2017
Location
Georgia
Inspired by Jeff Brooks' thread for alternate match-ups, I decided to make a thread for naval battles that never were.

I'll get it started with an alternate Battle of Mobile Bay. Historically, the Tennessee was the only rebel ironclad present. Another ironclad, the Nashville, was still fitting out, so couldn't participate. Two other ironclads, the Tuscaloosa and the Huntsville were not present at the battle, not sure why. Let's say the three ironclads are able to be at the battle. Farragut now has to face off against four ironclads and three wooden gunboats with his fleet of twelve frigates, two gunboats, and four monitors. It seems the result may be in doubt now.
 
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Another interesting scenario would be at New Orleans in 1862, had the Confederates managed to finish the Mississippi and the Louisiana. This pits Farragut against two large ironclads with his fleet.
 
Good point, the same also applies to an alternate Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip.
It is why what ifs are so slippery. Change one variable and all sorts of stuff changes until a few iterations down the road, it is unrecognizable.
Butterfly effect - Wikipedia​

In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.​
What Ifs are useful historical inquiries, just not simple.
 
It is why what ifs are so slippery. Change one variable and all sorts of stuff changes until a few iterations down the road, it is unrecognizable.
Butterfly effect - Wikipedia​

In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.​
What Ifs are useful historical inquiries, just not simple.

Very true. Especially since things that look initially favourable to one group can frequently be counter-productive.
 
What if.....the Captain of the Virginia decided that after a couple of hours of banging back and forth with the Monitor, the duel wasn't going anywhere, he could have continued sinking the rest of the Union fleet?
 
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