From Encyclopedia of North Carolina. Bought this huge book at Books-A-Million in Goldsboro, NC, for $5, a great deal. This is an interesting book, well worth just paging through it and finding all sorts of interesting information.
"Ironclads were warships designed to be impervious to enemy shot and shell by virtue of their iron-armored wooden hulls."
By June 1861, the Confederacy had decided to go with this as the ships they needed to fight the Union's naval superiority. The first Confederate ironclad was the CSS Virginia, built from the hull of the Union steam frigate USS Merrimack'
Construction of a dozen or more ironclads was scheduled in North Carolina, though most were not completed because of the early fall of many coastal towns. The complete number is unkown due to lack of Confederate records, but four are known to have been completed and commissiond: The CSS Raleigh and North Carolina at Wilmington, the Neuse built on the Neuse River at Whitehall and completed at Kinston, and the Albemarle, built at Edwards Ferry and completed atHalifax on the Roanoke River.
North Carolina had a definite lack of maritime industry so the completion of these ships was remarkable. The Neuse was referred to as the ironclad built in a cornfield.
An Amazing Feat. --Old B-Runner
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