Arkansas-class ironclad

The C. S. S. Arkansas by R. G. Skerrett
Class overview
Name	Arkansas-class ironclad
Builders	John T. Shirley, Memphis, Tennessee
Operators	Confederate States Navy
Built	1861–1862
In service	1862
Planned	2
Completed	1
Lost	2
General characteristics
Type	Casemate ironclad
Length	165 ft (50.3 m)
Beam	35 ft (10.7 m)
Draft	11 ft 6 in (3.51 m)
Installed power	2 propellers
Propulsion	2 Steam engines
Speed	7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph)
Complement	200 officers and enlisted men
Armament	Designed for 6–8 guns

The Arkansas-class ironclads were a class of two casemate ironclads ordered by the Confederate States Navy in 1861 to operate in the Western and Trans-Mississippi theaters of the American Civil War. ^[1] Both were later destroyed to prevent Union capture.

Ships

Construction data

Ship name	Builder [1]	Laid down [1]	Launched [1]	Commissioned [1]	Fate [1]
CSS Arkansas	John T. Shirley, Memphis, Tennessee	October 1861	22 April 1862	26 May 1862	Destroyed to prevent capture, 6 August 1862
CSS Tennessee			—		Burned to prevent capture, 5 June 1862

Notes

1.  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .

References

1. Silverstone, pp. 150–151

Bibliography

• Bisbee, Saxon T. (2018). Engines of Rebellion: Confederate Ironclads and Steam Engineering in the American Civil War. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. ISBN   978-0-81731-986-1.
• Canney, Donald L. (2015). The Confederate Steam Navy 1861-1865. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing. ISBN   978-0-7643-4824-2.
• Silverstone, Paul H. (2006). Civil War Navies 1855–1883. The U.S. Navy Warship Series. New York: Routledge. ISBN   0-415-97870-X.
• Still, William N. Jr. (1985) [1971]. Iron Afloat: The Story of the Confederate Armorclads. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN   0-87249-454-3.