Editing Cornelius Vanderbilt (section)

==American Civil War==
When the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] began in 1861, Vanderbilt attempted to donate his largest steamship, the ''[[USS Vanderbilt (1862)|Vanderbilt]],'' to the [[Union Navy]]. Secretary of the Navy [[Gideon Welles]] refused it, thinking its operation and maintenance too expensive for what he expected to be a short war. Vanderbilt had little choice but to lease it to the War Department, at prices set by ship brokers. When the [[Confederate States Navy|Confederate]] [[ironclad]] [[CSS Virginia|''Virginia'']] (popularly known in the North as the ''Merrimack'') wrought havoc with the Union blockading squadron at [[Hampton Roads, Virginia]], Secretary of War [[Edwin Stanton]] and President [[Abraham Lincoln]] called on Vanderbilt for help. This time he succeeded in donating the ''Vanderbilt'' to the Union Navy, equipping it with a ram and staffing it with handpicked officers. It helped bottle up the ''Virginia,'' after which Vanderbilt converted it into a [[cruiser]] to hunt for the Confederate commerce raider [[CSS Alabama|''Alabama'']], captained by [[Raphael Semmes]]. For donating the ''Vanderbilt,'' he was awarded a [[Congressional Gold Medal]].<ref>38th Congress, 13 Stat. 401</ref> Vanderbilt also paid to outfit a major expedition to [[New Orleans]]. He suffered a grievous loss when George Washington Vanderbilt II, his youngest and favorite son, and [[heir apparent]], a graduate of the [[United States Military Academy]], fell ill and died without ever seeing combat.<ref name="Stiles"/>{{rp|341–64}}