Iron Afloat: The Story of the Confederate Armorclads

Studies in Maritime History

by William N. Still Jr.

Everyone knows the story of the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack. But how many people know the story behind the Confederacy's attempt to build a fleet of armorclad vessels of war?

When the Civil War began, the South had virtually no navy, few seamen, and limited shipbuilding facilities. In order to defend its ports against a well-established Northern navy, the South had to resort to innovation, and the Confederate ironclad navy was born.

The Confederate government commissioned and put into operation twenty-two armorclad vessels of war. This is their story. From the inception of the program, through the problems of building the vessels, through the careers of the vessels themselves (including gripping battle descriptions), to their eventual destruction or surrender, it is all here. Iron Afloat is history that reads like a novel and will appeal to readers interested in the Civil War and Confederacy as well as to military and naval historians.

Genres: History, American Civil War, Naval History

262 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

William Norwood Still, Jr., was an American maritime historian, who was the first director of the program in maritime history at East Carolina University and a noted author of works on U.S. Civil War history and U.S. naval history.

Reviews

[Manray9 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. William N. Still, Jr’s Iron Afloat: The Story of the Confederate Armorclads presents the history of the Confederacy’s construction and operation of ironclad warships during the U. S. Civil War. During its brief existence, the Confederate States of America laid down fifty ironclad warships of which twenty-two became operational. Construction of ironclads was a matter of policy made at the cabinet level. The decision was taken as a means to overcome the dominance of the U.S. Navy in all waters and, hopefully, to break the crippling blockade of southern ports. The completion of twenty-two ironclad warships was a considerable accomplishment in view of the industrial backwardness of the South.

All the Confederate ironclads followed the design of an armored casemate built upon a wooden hull. This pattern was first used with the CSS VIRGINIA (ex-USS MERRIMACK). The Confederate Navy never built a turreted ironclad such as the U.S. Navy’s MONITORs. At the outset of the war, no rolling mill in the Confederacy was capable of producing two inch iron plate. By late 1862, only the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond and the Scofield & Markham Works in Atlanta could do so, therefore most subsequent Confederate ironclads were forced to use railroad T-rails as armor. The majority of operational vessels were completed despite an acute scarcity of all shipbuilding materials -- except for timber (most of which was green). Ordinary items, such as nails, were unavailable in the South by late 1862. Cotton was used as caulking due to the lack of oakum. The steam machinery produced in the Confederacy was so inefficient and unreliable as to constitute a crucial weakness in the operational effectiveness of all the ironclad vessels. The Confederate Navy ironclads were slow – often too slow to permit satisfactory steering or to make way against strong river currents or tides. The sluggish and deep-draft ironclads had little success against the U.S. Navy – although they sought battle on many occasions in valiant engagements such as CSS VIRGINIA at Hampton Roads, CSS ARKANSAS on the Mississippi and CSS TENNESSEE at Mobile Bay. All the vessels ended their short lives scuttled, burnt to the water line, or captured.

Still’s Iron Afloat: The Story of the Confederate Armorclads is not only well-researched and scholarly, but highly readable by the average Civil War history enthusiast. It concludes with an excellent bibliographic essay which provides information on primary and secondary sources on the Confederate Navy. I endorse it with Four Stars.

[Mattias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Iron Afloat är en gedigen genomgång av sydstaternas marina teknikutveckling under det amerikanska inbördeskriget, 1861-65. Boken berättar ifrån ett antal olika perspektiv en fantastisk berättelse om allt ifrån enskilda sjömäns liv, de entreprenörer och ingenjörer som lade grunden för industrin, samt beslutsfattande inom den politiska och militära ledningen. Allt genom hänvisningar till ett stort och väl genomgånget källmaterial i form av brev, dagböcker, och offentliga dokument.

Konfederationens konstruktion av en flotta av bepansrade fartyg, "Ironclads", var lika mycket ett mirakel i uppfinningsrikedom och ingenjörskonst som det var en faktiskt kapprustning mot nordstaterna, som bedrev motsvarande om än annorlunda utveckling. Då nordstaterna hade resurser för att bygga en riktig industri tvingades sydstaterna till en mycket större mängd kreativitet och oortodoxa lösningar, som skapade enastående och unika fartyg. Dessa var framförallt avsedda att strida och försvara kuster och floder, något som endast lyckades i begränsad omfattning. Den absoluta merparten av sydstaternas fartyg förstördes av den själva då hamnar, varv, och flodmynningar togs i beslag av fienden.

För den som är intresserad är det här en av de grundligaste böckerna som samtidigt täcker helheten. Det finns fler välskrivna böcker på temat, men inte utan att täcka helheten ifrån ett sydstatsperspektiv på detta sätt. Det är intressant, engagerande, och tekniskt noggrann.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book at a bookstore on Canal St. in New Orleans and read it while doing survey work around Vicksburg. We crossed the Yazoo River everyday on the way to work around where the C.S.S. Arkansas fought the U.S.S. Carondelet, Tyler and the Ellet Ram Queen of the West. It helped that the book is pretty good too.