The CSS Wilmington: Not Your Standard Confederate Ironclad-- Part 1

From the Encyclopedia of North Carolina.

I knew about this ironclad, but not much beyond the fact that it was destroyed while incomplete when the Federals captured its namesake city in February 1865.  I came across the name of the ship in the NC Encyclopedia, looked it up in Yahoo! and came across a discussion about it ion the Civil War Talk site under Naval War.  This was quite a different-looking Confederate ironclad than what you normally expect to see.

The CSS Wilmington was the last of three Confederate ironclads constructed at Wilmington during the war.  The first two were begun in the spring of 1862 and proved unsatisfactory.  The CSS Raleigh ran aground in the Cape Fear River in May 1864 and was a total loss.  The CSS North Carolina leaked badly anf became a floating battery, sinking at her moorings in September 1864.

In late May 1864, Confederate Sceretary of the Navy, Stephen Mallory sent naval shipbuilder John L.Porter to Wilmington to build a new ironclad.  That was the CSS Wilmington.

New Boat, New Name.  --Old B-Runner