Confederate Navy Day

WHEREAS, the Confederate States Navy was established in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 21, 1861, by the act of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War; and

WHEREAS, the Confederate States Ship Tennessee was built in Selma, Alabama, commissioned on February 16, 1864, and served as a flagship of the Admiral Franklin Buchanan; and

WHEREAS, the Confederate States submarine H.L. Hunley was built at the water works in Mobile, Alabama, and launched in July 1863; on February 17, 1864, it sank the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor and became the first combat submarine in history to sink an enemy vessel; and

WHEREAS, the seven inch Brooke guns built at the Confederate States Naval Foundry at Selma under the command of Commander Gatesby ap R. Jones, advanced the field of Naval gunnery for years to come; and

WHEREAS, the Confederate States Ship Nashville was built in Montgomery, Alabama, and commissioned on September 15, 1864; and

WHEREAS, Admiral Raphael Semmes of Mobile commanded the famous commerce raider CSS Alabama across several oceans; and

WHEREAS, the valor of these men and their deeds on the waters of Alabama and the oceans of the world still hold forth as an example of courage and dedication to duty to the sons and daughters of the great state of Alabama:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert Bentley, Governor of the State of Alabama, do hereby proclaim February 21, 2014, as

Confederate Navy Day

in the State of the Alabama.