JANUARY 12TH, 1865: The new and formidable Confederate ram Columbia, ready for service, grounded while coming out of her dock in Charleston. Extensive efforts to refloat her failed and she was abandoned when Charleston was evacuated in mid-February.
The Columbia was saved by Union forces after much effort and refloated on 26 April.
Rear Admiral Dahlgren described the ram: "She is 209 feet long (extreme), beam 49 feet, has a casemate 65 feet long, pierced for six guns, one on each side and one at each of the four corners, pivots to point ahead or astern and to the side.
"She has two engines, high pressure, and [is] plated on the casemates with six inches of iron in thickness, quite equal, it is believed, to the best of the kind built by the rebels."
--Old B-R'er
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