There was a great thread in the Civil War Talk Naval Page about this ship under "Aye Candy: CSS Wilmington." This is where I got the picture of how it probably would have looked had it been launched. As it was, it was fairly close to completion when the city fell in February 1865.
It was built to replace the two essentially failed ironclads at the port: The CSS North Carolina and CSS Raleigh.
Of interest was that it was not built to be fitted with a ram and would rely entirely on firepower to do its damage, like the Union monitors. And, with its construction, it more closely resembled a monitor than previous casemated Confederate ironclads like the CSS Virginia. However, it did not have a revolving turret, but used pivot guns instead.
The ship was not to have much freeboard above the water and had a very low profile, even lower than the Union monitors. Evidently, Confederate engineers were learning from the monitors.
The twin casemates were very low and had extremely steep sides, better for shell deflection. Plus, these ships used less iron which made them lighter for use in rivers, plus easier to propel.
I Sure Would Have Liked to have Seen This Ship in Action. --Old B-Runner
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