CSS Texas was the third and last (or according to some sources) casemate ironclad built for the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. Not begun until 1864 and intended to become part of the James River Squadron, she saw no action before being captured by Union forces while still fitting out. CSS Texas was reputed to have been one of the very best-constructed Confederate ironclads, second only to .

History

Designed by John L. Porter, the Confederacy's chief naval designer, CSS Texas belonged to an 1863/64 class of three ironclads, with (also referred to as the CSS Tennessee II) and , all three slated to be sister ships. Of the three, only Tennessee was completed and commissioned, proving her mettle in the Battle of Mobile Bay. Columbia was launched but incapacitated while being completed, never seeing operational duty in the Civil War, despite later being captured, repaired, and appraised by the Union Navy.

The keel for CSS Texas was laid down at Rocketts Naval Yard, just outside Richmond, Virginia. She was launched in mid-January 1865, almost at exactly the same time as her unfinished sister ironclad Columbia was crippled beyond salvation. At the time of Robert E. Lee's evacuation of Richmond on 3 April 1865, she was left unfinished but still intact at the Richmond Navy Yard. She was one of only two vessels (the other being the small iron-hulled gunboat ) which escaped destruction by retreating Confederate forces, because attempts to set her ablaze proved unsuccessful. Captured when Richmond fell the following day, both ironclad and gunboat were appropriated "for use in the Navy", as per Union Admiral David D. Porter (not related to the Texas designer). She was eventually laid up at the Norfolk yard until 15 October 1867, when she was sold at auction for scrapping to J. N. Leonard & Co. of New Haven, Connecticut, having originally cost $218,068 to construct.

References

Sources

  • – concerns the only known historical and contemporary representation of CSS Texas exterior