CSS Baltic was an ironclad warship that served in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. A towboat before the war, she was purchased by the state of Alabama in December 1861 for conversion into an ironclad. After being transferred to the Confederate Navy in May 1862 as an ironclad, she served on Mobile Bay off the Gulf of Mexico. Baltics condition in Confederate service was such that naval historian William N. Still Jr. has described her as "a nondescript vessel in many ways". Over the next two years, parts of the ship's wooden structure were affected by wood rot. Her armor was removed to be put onto the ironclad CSS Nashville in 1864. By that August, Baltic had been decommissioned. Near the end of the war, she was taken up the Tombigbee River, where she was captured by Union forces on May 10, 1865. An inspection of Baltic the next month found that her upper hull and deck were rotten and that her boilers were unsafe. She was sold on December 31, and was likely broken up in 1866.
Background and description
During the early 19th century, a large cultural divide had developed between the northern and southern regions of the United States primarily over slavery, which was mainly a southern institution. Northerner Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election, and due to his anti-slavery position a number of southern states seceded in late 1860 and early 1861, forming the Confederate States of America; by April 1861, the American Civil War had commenced.
From the beginning of the conflict, the Confederates were at a distinct disadvantage compared to the Union Navy due a lack of available ships, infrastructure, and manufacturing capabilities. Control of the Confederate coastline was important because the Union's Anaconda Plan intended to blockade the Confederacy to cut off trade, including imported armaments. After Union victories at the Battle of Forts Hatteras and Clark and the Battle of Port Royal in late 1861, both the Confederate government and the individual Confederate states became more concerned with coastal defense.
Baltic was built in 1860 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Little is known about her, and naval historian Saxon Bisbee describes her as "one of the most obscure Confederate ironclads" and states that "Confederate documents relating to the vessel are almost nonexistent". According to Bisbee, the vessel was taken to Mobile, Alabama, after her construction by Bragdon, but the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS) says that she was built for the Southern Steamship Company.