Built in a cornfield in Plymouth Landing, North Carolina, within a few feet of the Roanoke River, the Albemarle personified the grass-roots resistance of the South and the make-do that made the Confederate States Navy run. Local planters got personally involved, scouring the countryside for iron and parts, inventing equipment that cut laborious hand work down sufficiently to make the ship's completion possible. Even so the ship's construction took over a year. And all the activity had been noticed by Yankee intelligence. The Plymouth Albemarle was armed with captured Yankee guns: two 8-inch Parrot rifles, mounted on traverses at either end so they could pivot to fire either straight ahead/astern or on either broadside. This homemade ironclad packed quite a punch.
The ship was built to a standard design by John L. Dixon, issued across the South by Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory. Richmond signed a contract with one Gilbert Eliot, a 19-year-old living on Albemarle Sound, allowing him liberty to choose his own building site. Eliot selected the famous cornfield at Edwards Ferry, where the waters were too shoal for the Union gunboats which patrolled and controlled the eastern N.C. sounds, and named the ironclad for the body of water she would briefly control. Albemarle was to be the 160-foot "compact" version Dixon casemate ironclad (left). Armor for the ship largely consisted of scrap iron laboriously re-poured in the cornfield forge, hand-hammered and slowly assembled into the casemate panels, which fitted over heavy oak timbers. Home-made or not, the armored hull and casemate proved almost impregnable to cannonfire. Like all home-built Confederate craft Albemarle was cursed with temperamental engines driving her twin props; with her shallow 8' draft and low superstructure, the ironclad handled poorly under power, especially when traveling downriver. It was eventually determined she steered best downstream heading stern-first with a drogue of heavy chains dragging from her bow!Albemarle's specifications: Length: 158' Beam: 35' Draft: 8' Armor: 4" handmade armor (two laminated 2" thicknesses), casemate; 2" hull. Armament: Two 8" Parrot RML; bronze ram. Propulsion: (2) 200-HP direct-acting steam engines; twin screw. Speed: 4 kts. Crew: 150
As soon as she was commissioned in April 1864, Albemarle was put to the task she had been designed for: forcing the Yankee blockaders back out of the Sounds. She is thought to have appeared as in the illustration above by Civil War buff Daniel Dowdy; as always, our thanks to the artist for the opportunity to display his fine work. The ironclad's first assignment was to clear the Yanks out of the Roanoke River, where they had held the key positions through 3 years of war. She pulled safely past the fire of the Union batteries and past the obstructions placed in the river, which was at flood; but below Boyle's Mill she met 2 Union paddle-wheelers. The Union boats' game was to pass one on each side of Albemarle and trap her by means of chains and cables passed between their 2 hulls. Capt. Cooke of the Albemarle outflanked the Southfield to starboard, running dangerously close to the riverbank, then pivoted and savagely rammed the Southfield. The Miami came across to assist, loosing a shot which caromed off Albemarle's sloped casemate at point-blank range right back into Miami, killing Capt. Charles W. Flusser. Albemarle proved invulnerable to everything the Yanks had that day, and they withdrew downriver in Miami after the Southfield sank, releasing the ironclad in the process. On land, the Confederate thrust, of which Albemarle was but a part, succeeded. After 2 years of Union occupation, Gen. Hokes took Plymouth and the nearby forts on the river.
That was only the ship's baptism of fire, however. On May 5, she met a squadron of Yankee steamers while convoying two sidewheelers packed with troops, the CSS Cotton Plant and Bombshell. Here again was the Miami, along with 2 more "double-enders," Mattabesett and Sassacus, and 2 smaller steamers. The Yanks concentrated their fire on Bombshell which despite her martial name soon struck her colours. But the combat was only beginning.
Lt. James Ward Cushing, USN had a score to settle. Capt. Flusser of the Miami had been a close friend. Moreover, Cushing's brother had been taken prisoner at Shiloh while fighting in the Army of the Potomac. Cushing had just received word of his brother's death in a Confederate prison camp before being posted to the Carolina Sounds. Cushing had been studying torpedo tactics and went to his command with a plan to eliminate the Albemarle. Command gave him the nod, and soon two 28' steam picket-boats were on their way from New York. These boats had been converted by the Union's torpedo school to carry an iron spar with torpedo attached at the bow. Only one boat was delivered, but in it Cushing and his crew repeatedly practiced their moves. The Confederates were not unprepared for such an attack, as Cushing found. Albemarle lay at anchor surrounded by booms of logs when he arrived to attack on the night of Oct. 27/28, 1864. The logs proved to be partially waterlogged and well-grown with algae after several months in the river. The Confederates sighted Cushing's launch when he was on his approach, and loosed a heavy but ineffectual curtain of fire. But Cushing got his boat running fast and its momentum skipped across the tops of the well-slimed logs and allowed him to plant his charge into the ironclad's side at the waterline and ignite it while pulling off. The resulting explosion blew "a hole large enough for a coach-and-four to drive through" in the Albemarle's side. The blast swamped and sank Cushing's boat, though he himself swam away and avoided capture (11 of his crew were made prisoner, 2 drowned, 1 other escaped). By morning the Albemarle was sitting on the bottom in 8 feet of muddy water.