CSS Arkansas (1862-1862)CSS Arkansas , an ironclad ram, was built at Memphis, Tennessee, in 1861-62. Incomplete when Union forces closed in on Memphis in May 1862, she was towed up the Yazoo River to Yazoo City, Mississippi, and finished as far as circumstances allowed. On 15 July 1862, her enterprising commanding officer, Lieutenant Isaac Newton Brown , CSN, took Arkansas down the Yazoo, where she encountered the U.S. gunboats Carondelet and Tyler and the ram Queen of the West , leaving the first two badly damaged. Continuing out into the Mississippi River, she boldly fought her way through the assembled Federal fleet and came to rest under the protection of the Confederate fortress at Vicksburg. While at Vicksburg on 22 July, Arkansas was attacked by the Queen of the West and ironclad Essex , but was not severely damaged. Though badly in need of repairs, she was next ordered to steam down the river to assist Confederate forces in an attack on Baton Rouge, Louisiana. While carrying out this mission on 6 August 1862, CSS Arkansas suffered a severe machinery breakdown during an engagement with the Essex , drifted ashore and was burned to prevent capture. Sepia wash drawing by R.G. Skerrett, 1904. 19th Century photograph of a sketch by S. Milliken, CSN Line engraving after a drawing by J.O. Davidson, published in "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War", Volume III, page 573, depicting the ship fitting out off Yazoo City, Mississippi, in June-July 1862. Assisting in the work is the CSS Capitol . |
 Duel on the Roanoke - The True Story of the CSS Albemarle A 158-foot Confederate ironclad ship built in a cornfield 90 miles up North Carolina's Roanoke River, under the direction of an 18-year-old boy, and the deadly cat-and-mouse game between the two opposing captains.  Wolf of the Deep: Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama In July 1862, the Confederate captain Raphael Semmes received orders to report to Liverpool, where he would take command of a secret new British-built steam warship.  Confederate Ironclad 1861-65 Every aspect of Confederate ironclads is covered: design, construction, armor, armament, life on board, strategy, tactics, and actual combat actions.  Ironclad Down: USS Merrimack-CSS Virginia from Design to Destruction A treasure trove of detailed information about one of history s most famous vessels. Describing Stephen Russell Mallory, John Mercer Brooke, John Luke Porter, et al.--who conceived, designed and built one of the world's first ironclads |
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 Confederate Ironclad Merrimac, c.1862 24 in. x 18 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed Mounted |
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 Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack The first ironclad ships to fight each other, the Monitor and the Virginia (Merrimack), were the unique products of American design genius  Naval Strategies of the Civil War: Confederate Innovations and Federal Opportunism Compare and contrast the strategies of the Southern Secretary of the Navy, Mallory, against his rival in the North, Welles. Mallory used technological innovation and the skill of individuals to bolster the South's seapower against the Union Navy's superior numbers |
The Arkansas ran the Gauntlet of the Whole Fleet |
 Confederate Submarines and Torpedo Vessels 1861-65 Interesting information and many excellent illustrations. It addresses the CSA David class torpedo boats and the Hunley (and its predecessors), as well as Union examples such as the Alligator and the Spuyten Duyvil |
 Ironclad of the Roanoke: Gilbert Elliott's Albemarle The story of a Confederate Ironcald that was a powerful force until sunk by a Union Torpedo Boat after its brief stormy life. Ironic in the fact it was built in a Cornfield. Confederate Ingenunity at it finest! |
 Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine For more than a century the fate of the Hunley remained one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Civil War. Then, on August 8, 2000, with thousands of spectators crowding Charleston Harbor, the Hunley was raised from the bottom of the sea and towed ashore. |
 Confederate Blockade Runner 1861-65 The blockade runners of the Civil War usually began life as regular fast steam-powered merchant ships. They were adapted for the high-speed dashes through the Union blockade which closed off all the major Southern ports, and for much of the war they brought much-needed food, clothing and weaponry to the Confederacy |
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