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{{Infobox Biography
| subject_name =Stephen Russell Mallory
| children =
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'''Stephen Russell Mallory''' ([[1813]] – [[November 9]], [[1873]]) was a United States politician and the Confederate Secretary of the Navy during the American Civil War. Mallory was considered one of President Jefferson Davis's ablest Cabinet officers. He was the father of [[Stephen Mallory II]], a U.S. Representative and Senator from Florida.
[[Image:ConfederateCabinet.jpg|thumb|right|330px|The original Confederate Cabinet. L-R: Judah P. Benjamin, Stephen Mallory, Christopher Memminger, Alexander Stephens, LeRoy Pope Walker, Jefferson Davis, John H. Reagan and Robert Toombs.]]
At the start of the war, though, the Confederacy barely owned fifteen warships and very few naval officers had seceded. Also, the Confederate War Department did not cooperate very efficiently, and naval funding was very limited. However, Mallory was somewhat effective in finding some European ships, mainly from Great Britain. Arguably his most important British acquisition was the C.S.S. ''Alabama'', which was captained by Raphael Semmes, and was arguably the most famous Confederate raider. These raiders would mainly be used to attack merchant shipping, possibly diverting some blockade ships and ruining the Union blockade (which was slowly choking the South). Also, his vision of creating many ironclad warships to destroy the mainly wooden warships of the Union blockades was not fulfilled, mainly because of the main Southern disadvantage: a lack of funds and [[materiel]]. In a related sense, his most important "failure" was not being able to persuade the other government officials to allot enough funding toward the navy.
Also, Mallory was extremely innovative. Even though the Southern industrial plants did not even rival the Northern plants, and added by the loss of Nashville, New Orleans, Memphis, and Norfolk in the early war (these being important plants and ports), the C.S. Navy was able to produce 22 ironclads during the war, an ingenious accomplishment. Also, experimental weapons and tactics were explored, including torpedoes, submarines, and secret amphibious raids, although these were generally ineffective.
