Virginia State Navy

rdf:langString Virginia State Navy

rdf:langString A Virginia State Navy (or Virginia Navy) existed twice. During the American Revolutionary War, the provisional government of the Virginia Colony authorized the purchase, outfitting, and manning of armed vessels to protect the colony's waters from threats posed it by the Royal Navy. Early in the American Civil War, after the state of Virginia seceded from the Union on April 17, 1861, it briefly had naval forces of its own known as the Virginia State Navy, which existed in tandem to the Provisional Army of Virginia. Both of these forces had been absorbed by the Confederate States Navy and the Confederate Army by the end of 1861.