"A Civil War Song, #2." (Harmonica by Paul.) - 3-D capable.

The Song "Give Me a Navy of Iron"(ironclads, beginning of modern navies), lyrics by Sterett, music by M. Frank, gave an "implied" reason for the war; the "real" reason was to get the natural resources of the South (and subsequently those of the Native Americans under Sheridan).  That probably at least partially explains McClellan's reticence (who later ran against Lincoln on the Democratic ticket).  The music implies the war was forced upon them by the rebels.  It was really the war of the partisan congressmen.  Perhaps merely the first.



The ironclads, forerunner of the modern navies, gave the North the trump card in the war, by denying the Confederacies to the west of the Mississippi access to the battle.  The Monitor was subsequently lost at sea off The Outer Banks, North Carolina, as it attempted to sail from Norfolk to the Mississippi.  So low in the water, she was perhaps easily swamped, but another phenomenon is prevalent in that area that caused many shipwrecks: in a "perfect storm" scenario, if the swell of the sea is 1/7th the height of the sea to the bottom, the swell will break like a wave on the beach forming a 60 to 80 foot high "rogue wave" easily capsizing almost any small or large ship.  It is that shallow in the barrier region as well as the Sargasso Sea and some parts of the Atlantic and Caribbean.  Especially vulnerable are the parts of the Outer Banks subject to the frequent "Nor'Wester" storms that travel north along the Gulf Stream current.



Navy of Iron words:



"Oh! Give Us a Navy of Iron"

A Popular Naval Ballad (1862)





[19th Century American Popular Music]



Words by D. Brainerd Williamson, music by James W. Porter

Dedicated to Capt. John Ericson, inventor of the Monitor.

Verse One



O give us a Navy of Iron,

And to man it our Yankee Lads;

And we'll conquer the world's broad oceans,

With our Navy of Iron clads;

Then adieu to _Britannia's_ power,

We'll crush it when ever we please;

The _Lion_ shall yield to the _Eagle_,

And _Columbia_ shall rule the sea's.

CHORUS



O give us a Navy of Iron,

And to man it our Yankee Lads;

And we'll conquer the world's broad oceans,

With our Navy of Iron clads.





Verse two



Old England the foe of our fathers,

The foe of their children today,

Is gloating in hopes that our Union

In darkness is passing away.

But Treason shall die in its ashes,

And stronger than ever before;

We'll turn on the jealous old tyrant,

And punish John Bull at the door.

CHORUS



O give us a Navy of Iron,

And to man it our Yankee Lads;

And we'll conquer the world's broad oceans,

With our Navy of Iron clads.





Verse Three



And where in the wide world a nation,

That could cope with our Iron Jacks?

We would sweep all their seas and harbors,

Of their Warriors and Merrimacs.

Then prove to the despots of Europe,

That freedom must reign on the seas.





CHORUS



O give us a Navy of Iron,

And to man it our Yankee Lads;

And we'll conquer the world's broad oceans,

With our Navy of Iron clads.