CSS Arkansas was the lead ship of her class of two casemate ironclads built for the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Completed in 1862, she saw combat in the Western Theater when she steamed through a United States Navy fleet at Vicksburg in July. Arkansas was set on fire and destroyed by her crew after her engines broke down several weeks later. Her remains lie under a levee above Baton Rouge, Louisiana at .

Design and description

thumb|left|Building the Arkansas

At the outset of the American Civil War, the Confederate States of America had a lack of warships. Seeking to offset the Union's advantage in numbers through technology, Stephen R. Mallory, the Confederate States Secretary of the Navy, decided to build ironclad warships. An experienced steamboat man from Memphis, Tennessee, named John T. Shirley visited Mallory in mid-August 1861 and offered to build a pair of such ships to defend the middle portion of the Mississippi River. Acutely aware of the lack of Confederate naval facilities in the region able to build ironclads, Mallory and Shirley signed a contract for two ships, Arkansas and her sister ship CSS Tennessee, at $76,920 each on August 24. Neither Shirley nor his master builder Primus Emerson owned a facility suitable for building a ship, and none were available for use in Memphis. The pair ultimately settled on a riverfront site below the bluff on which Fort Pickering sat on the southern edge of Memphis where Arkansas was laid down in October 1861.

Shirley consulted with naval architect John L. Porter and gun designer John M. Brooke during his trip and their views greatly influenced the design. Unlike virtually every other Confederate ironclad, the Arkansas-class ships were built with a traditional keeled-hull design with vertical sides to their casemates, probably to improve their seakeeping abilities in the Gulf of Mexico. The ships measured between perpendiculars, had a beam of , and a depth of hold of . As designed they would have displaced about and had a draft of . They were equipped with a pair of horizontal, direct-acting steam engines, each driving one propeller using steam provided by four coal-burning, high-pressure boilers, although two additional boilers were added to Arkansas while she was under construction. The ship had a maximum speed of in still water, but mechanical problems reduced that speed considerably in service. The boiler combustion gases exhausted through a single funnel in diameter made from thin iron plates. Although the amount of coal storage aboard the ships is unknown, Arkansas demonstrated a range in excess of during her brief career.

The Arkansas-class ships were equipped with a pointed cast-iron ram that was bolted to their bows at or just below the waterline. They were designed to mount four guns, two on each broadside, but Arkansas was modified while under construction to accommodate 10 guns, three on each broadside and two each on the fore and aft faces of the casemate. Sources differ as to the exact numbers of each type, but the ship was armed with two 64-pounder Columbiads in the front face of the casemate and a pair of 32-pounder smoothbore guns converted to be rifled cannons in the aft face while the broadside armament consisted of two Dahlgren guns and four 32-pounders of which at least two had been rifled, according to naval historian Myron J. Smith. The side gun ports allowed the guns there to traverse somewhat, but the oval gun ports on the fore and aft faces of the casemate were very narrow which badly restricted those guns' ability to traverse and severely limited the ability of the gun crews to see their targets.

The vertical sides of the sisters' casemates were constructed from oak logs thick while the fore and aft faces of the casemate sloped at a 35° angle from the horizontal and were built from oak squares to which were nailed oak planks inches thick. Behind the sides of the casemate was a layer of compressed cotton, possibly deep, backed by a wooden bulkhead between each gun port. Arkansas was intended to be armored with rolled iron plates, but the only delivery of such plates was diverted to the ironclad which was much further along in construction. Instead Arkansas used railroad T-shaped-rails, possibly deep, alternating top and bottom to present a relatively smooth surface. The pilothouse protruded above the top of the casemate and was protected by two layers of bar iron. The visibility of the pilot was badly restricted by the narrow slits cut in the sides of the pilothouse. The casemate roof was minimally protected by of wrought iron boiler plate and the deck fore and aft of the casemate was unarmored. A shortage of rails meant that the stern face of the casemate was only protected by boiler plates. The broadside gun ports were protected by hinged iron shutters divided into upper and lower halves, but the fore and aft gun ports were fitted with iron collars into which the gun fit when firing. Captain William F. Lynch, commander of Confederate naval forces in the region, described Arkansas as inferior to the ironclad and criticized the quality and construction of the ship's armor and smokestack. About 25 of the Arkansas crew had been killed or wounded during the battle.

To Vicksburg

thumb|Arkansas running through the Federal fleet above Vicksburg, Mississippi, on 15 July 1862

In order to reach Vicksburg, Arkansas needed to force her way through the Union fleet. The crews of Farragut's and Davis' ships had thought that the sound of the guns firing up the Yazoo were from a land engagement and the Queen of the Wests captain failed to alert the fleet upon his return. The Confederates had made some repairs to the boiler exhausts and Arkansas able to generate a moderate head of steam by burning oily material by the time she pursued Tyler into the Mississippi at 08:30. Only the ironclad had her boilers lit as there was a shortage of coal at that time, but the continued gunfire between Arkansas and Tyler caused the Union ships prepare for action by attempting to raise steam and manning their guns. For his part Brown initially decided to close all his gun ports and to keep his ship close to the Federal vessels, in order to prevent Union rams from getting much momentum on any ramming attack. The gunboat opened the fight which prompted Brown to return fire, badly damaging the Union ship. Arkansas was continuously fired upon from all directions with all of her guns replying as they saw targets at a range of about . Brown remained on the casemate roof as his ship approached Farragut's largest ships, the wooden sloops and . Before the Arkansas could reach them, the ram passed by the ironclad in an attempt to ram her, but was disabled by a shot through the steam drum.

The next day, July 16, saw Union ships begin firing at Arkansas with mortars, necessitating the frequent moving of the ship to keep the Union ships from getting the ironclad's range. The Missourians had only joined the ship's crew for duration of the run to Vicksburg, and returned to their commands on July 16. This left Arkansas with a serious crew shortage.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

  • Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series I: 27 volumes. Series II: 3 volumes. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1894–1922. See particularly Series I, volume 19, pp. 3–75.

Further reading

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  • CSS Arkansas (Vicksburg, Mississippi) at the Historical Marker Database
  • CSS Arkansas (Yazoo City, Mississippi) at the Historical Marker Database
  • The Sinking of the CSS Arkansas at LSU Libraries

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