From the March 8, 2011, Ft. Lauderdale (Fl) Examiner, by Timothy Lunney.
In March 1861, newly appointed Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Mallory was tasked with the job of creating a functioning navy out of next to nothing. Not only did he have to build one, but it was to be immediately pitted against a pre-existing and much more powerful US Navy.
As if that was not bad enough, nearly all ships, shipyards, ship chandlers (provide supplies for ships), steel mills, foundries and armories were in the north.
However, the ambitious, small-in-stature, Irish-American from Key West proved to be remarkably up to the task.
Before the war he had served as Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Naval Affairs and was the US Senator from Florida from 1851 to his resignation January 21, 1861, when the state seceded.
His wife, Angela Sylvania Moreno, was from Pensacola, Florida. She and her husband spent most of the war apart while she stayed with her children in Pensacola with her extended family.
More to Come. --Old B-R'er
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