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"Whatever Happened To Confederate Ironclads?" Topic


11 Posts

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2,049 hits since 7 Aug 2013
©1994-2024 Bill Armintrout
Comments or corrections?

Tango0107 Aug 2013 10:37 p.m. PST

And Union ones too.
Quite interesting link here.

link

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

Texas Jack08 Aug 2013 3:58 a.m. PST

Thatīs really interesting, nice find Armand!

Florida Tory08 Aug 2013 4:35 a.m. PST

The parent website

link

Is a go-to resource for Civil War naval gamers. I use it frequently for its encyclopedic information about the ships I'm both navies.

Armand is doing a service to call it to the attention of those who haven't discovered it yet.

Rick

Personal logo Rebel Minis Sponsoring Member of TMP08 Aug 2013 5:44 a.m. PST

Wow! Thanks for that Armand!

Rdfraf Supporting Member of TMP08 Aug 2013 6:39 a.m. PST

Did any ironclad ever get sunk by actual cannon fire during the ACW?

doc mcb08 Aug 2013 7:25 a.m. PST

Keokuk at Charleston.

Maybe one of the Cairo-class to plunging fire, iirc?

The FAQ on the linked site answers that, I believe.

2. How many ironclads were sunk in action?

Very few. The normal fate for a Southern ironclad was to be destroyed to prevent her capture. On the coast, the USS Keokuk, a bizarre little non-monitor design, was sunk as a result of gunfire from the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1863; the only other ironclad to be sunk by gunfire was the USS Cincinnati, a riverine gunboat, by fire from Vicksburg, but she was raised and put back into action shortly afterward. A much more deadly threat was the naval mine ("torpedo" in the terms of the time); the USS Cairo, a sister of the Cincinnati, became the first warship in the world to be sunk by a mine on 12 December 1862. The Union monitors Patapsco, Tecumseh, Osage, and Milwaukee were all sunk by mines, as well as the Baron de Kalb (ex-St. Louis), and the Confederate Albemarle was sunk by a spar torpedo mounted on a steam launch.

Ramming was also quite effective, especially in the constricted Western rivers; Southern rams claimed the Indianola, Mound City, and the often-unfortunate Cincinnati, though the latter two were raised and put back into action. So, of a total of sixty-six ironclads on both sides combined, eleven were sunk in action (as noted, the Cincinnati was sunk twice).

Doc adds: ironclads almost always sank in rivers or coastal waters and could be raised. The Confederates raised the guns from the KEOKUK and added them to their defenses at Charleston.

Dynaman878908 Aug 2013 9:17 a.m. PST

I thought there was one "sunk" at Vicksburg, might have just been pounded to scrap or stuck on a sandbar though. The water was shallow enough that the guns could have been salvaged.

Personal logo ColCampbell Supporting Member of TMP08 Aug 2013 9:58 a.m. PST

Dyna,

You are probably thinking of the USS Mississippi which was sunk trying to run the Confederate batteries at Port Hudson, Louisiana, on the Mississippi River (her namesake).

link

The other major Union warship to be permanently sunk during the Vicksburg campaign was the aforementioned USS Cairo, one of the City-class ironclads. She was finally raised in 1964 and is on exhibit at the Vicksburg National Military Park.

link

Jim

Tango0108 Aug 2013 11:01 a.m. PST

Happy you enjoyed the link my friends!. (smile).

Amicalement
Armand

Florida Tory08 Aug 2013 1:18 p.m. PST

Tim,

The site has a reasonably extensive bibliography, but I haven't found footnotes or a cross-listing of individual ship entries to sources used for that ship.

Rick

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