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| CSS Tennessee (1863) | |
|---|---|
| Ship name | CSS Tennessee |
| Ship namesake | Tennessee |
| Builder | John Hughes and Company (ironworks), Selma, Alabama (assembled at) |
| Laid down | 1862 |
| Launched | 1863 |
| Commissioned | 24 February 1864 |
| Fate | Captured 6 June 1864 at Battle of Mobile Bay, later commissioned as USS Tennessee (1865), sold 1897 |
| Displacement | 3,230 long tons (approx.) |
| Length | 221 ft (approx.) |
| Beam | 51 ft (approx.) |
| Draft | 18 ft (approx.) |
| Propulsion | Steam engine, screw propeller |
| Speed | 5–6 knots (estimated) |
| Complement | ~200 officers and enlisted |
CSS Tennessee (1863) CSS Tennessee (1863) was an ironclad casemate ram constructed for the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Built to defend the approaches to Mobile Bay, she became the flagship of the Confederate naval defense of Mobile, Alabama and fought in the Battle of Mobile Bay where she was captured by Union forces and later served briefly in the United States Navy. Her design, construction, combat actions, and capture illustrate Confederate industrial efforts, naval innovation, and the strategic contest over Gulf ports.
Designed as a casemate ironclad and ram, Tennessee combined heavy ironclad warship protection with a low freeboard and a single casemate mounting heavy guns. The vessel was begun at Selma, Alabama by facilities associated with John L. Porter-type Confederate naval architecture and fitted out with engines and boilers transported overland from Mound City, Illinois-built machinery or captured machinery sources. Construction was affected by shortages tied to the Union blockade enforced by squadrons under commanders such as David Farragut and logistical limits imposed by the fall of strategic rail junctions like Vicksburg, Mississippi. Workers drawn from regional foundries and shipyards including enterprises in Mobile, Alabama and Macon, Georgia completed the ironplate work amid the Confederate iron industry’s strains such as those experienced at Tredegar Iron Works and other Southern foundries.
Tennessee’s hull form reflected influences from earlier Confederate ironclads like CSS Virginia (ex-Merrimack) and contemporaries such as CSS Arkansas. Her propulsion machinery, coal bunkers, and steering arrangements were adapted to operate in shallow Gulf waters and the confined channels leading to Mobile Bay, with construction milestones delayed by shortages of iron, skilled labor, and components redirected to other vessels like CSS Atlanta and CSS Tennessee (1862) (unrelated designs).
Tennessee’s casemate mounted a battery of heavy rifled and smoothbore guns intended to engage Union wooden warships and fortifications such as Fort Morgan. Armament reportedly included Parrott rifles, Colt Navy revolver-class small arms for crew defense, and heavy smoothbore guns comparable to Dahlgren gun patterns used by Union vessels. The gun arrangement allowed overlapping fields of fire across the bow and beam, supporting ramming attacks against blockading squadrons commanded by officers like David Farragut and squadrons including ships such as USS Hartford (1858), USS Brooklyn (1858), and USS Lackawanna (1863).
Armor was composed of layered iron plates over timber backing in the Confederate style developed after experiences at engagements including the Battle of Hampton Roads; plating thickness varied to balance protection and displacement, influenced by the armor schemes of vessels like CSS Tennessee (1862), CSS Virginia (ex-Merrimack), and CSS Atlanta. The casemate’s sloped faces were intended to deflect shot from Union squadron batteries and shore forts such as Fort Gaines and Fort Morgan.
Upon commissioning in late winter 1864, Tennessee became the flagship of Admiral Franklin Buchanan and later of naval officers like James D. Johnston in the defense of Mobile Bay, coordinating with Confederate Army elements and coastal defenses. She performed patrols in Mobile Bay, deterrence sorties against blockading squadrons, and acted as a rallying point for ironclad and gunboat forces including units drawn from the Confederate States Navy’s Gulf Squadron.
In June 1864, Tennessee sortied to break the Union blockade during the Union assault led by David Farragut at the Battle of Mobile Bay, confronting a combined fleet including ships such as USS Hartford (1858), USS Brooklyn (1858), USS Lackawanna (1863), and monitors like USS Tecumseh (1863). The battle famed for Farragut’s command to "Damn the torpedoes" saw Tennessee fight through minefields laid in the bay (then called "torpedoes") and engage multiple Union ships in close quarters, damaging several before being isolated, boarded, or overwhelmed after sustained hits and ramming attempts.
After a fierce engagement on 5–6 June 1864, Tennessee was disabled and compelled to surrender to combined Union naval forces, with officers including David Farragut and ship captains from vessels such as USS Brooklyn (1858) overseeing the capture. She was towed to Mound City, Illinois or nearby Union naval facilities for repairs and taken into Union service as USS Tennessee (1865), commissioned into the United States Navy and used for a period in postwar operations and as a symbol of Union victory. Her capture was exploited in Northern propaganda and official reports issued by naval leaders and contributed to the eventual fall of Mobile, Alabama in 1865.
Post-capture assessments influenced studies by naval architects and ordnance officers in the U.S. Navy Bureau of Construction and Repair and by figures like Porter (naval architect) and John Ericsson observers, shaping later ironclad and monitor designs.
Tennessee’s action at Mobile Bay contributed to the decline of Confederate coastal resistance and the Union’s control of Gulf ports, affecting strategic outcomes linked to campaigns involving commanders such as Ulysses S. Grant and operations around New Orleans and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Surviving artifacts, period plans, and contemporary accounts are preserved in archives and institutions including the Naval History and Heritage Command, Library of Congress, and regional museums in Mobile, Alabama and Selma, Alabama. Academic and popular histories by scholars focusing on the American Civil War naval theater reference the vessel in discussions of ironclad development alongside ships like USS Monitor, USS Merrimack, and Confederate counterparts.
Physical preservation of Tennessee itself did not endure; after service with the United States Navy she was sold and eventually scrapped, but fragments, models, and contemporary illustrations remain in collections held by institutions like the Smithsonian Institution and maritime museums that document Civil War naval engineering, casualty reports, and battle narratives. The ship’s story is commemorated in battlefield studies, reenactments, and maritime archaeology projects that examine the wrecks and artifacts of the Battle of Mobile Bay.
Category:Ironclad warships of the Confederate States Navy Category:Ships built in Alabama Category:1863 ships