C.S.S. Manassas (1861)
The Manassas was the result of the conversion of a river tug to an ironclad ram. She began life as the screw tugboat/icebreaker Enoch Train, built in the heart of Yankee-land at Medford, Massachusetts in 1855. At the beginning of the War Between the States, she was purchased by a New Orleans speculator and converted to an ironclad ram. In this new guise, she was intended as a privateer to attack Union merchant shipping. Her upper works and hull were cut away and a rounded, egg-shaped shell of 1.5" iron plating substituted; there were several hatches and ventilation pipes in the shell, but the smokestacks were essentially the only feature that projected much above the 6-foot maximum freeboard. Below water, the Manassas was equipped with a sharp metal ram; above it, under a tentlike aperture, her single 64-pounder gun poked forth. The ship's mode of attack was to charge at her enemy and ram it, attempting to mortally wound it by puncturing it below the waterline, at the same time firing a round from her single cannon.
Though she began life as a privateer, Manassas was soon commandeered by the Confederate officer in charge of defending the approaches to New Orleans, Adm. G.N. Rollins. On October 12, 1861, in conjunction with a number of other ironclad vessels, Manassas launched a sneak attack on the Union blockading fleet at the Head of Passes on the Mississippi. The little ram made her first run at the Union sloop USS Richmond, piercing her below the waterline, but failing to sink her, and damaging her own bow in the process. During the attack, Union projectiles ricocheted off Manassas's armored surfaces. By year's end the Confederate government purchased the vessel outright and she henceforth flew the ensign of the CSN.
Four months later, Adm. David Glasgow Farragut forced the passage of the Mississippi just below New Orleans at Forts Jackson and St. Philip in the encounter known as the Battle of the Passes. After 8 days of relentless bombardment, the federal fleet ran the fiery gauntlet of the two great masonry forts (above) on the night of April 24, 1862. (Click here for an awesome enlarged view of this classic Currier & Ives chromolithograph.) In this action Manassas fought to a fiery death. Dashing out from beneath the forts, she attempted to ram, in succession, the Pensacola, the paddle frigate Mississippi, and the Brooklyn. Her only success came with the latter, which she holed, but did not sink. During the process she was subjected to a withering fire from the entire Union line.
Nothing daunted, the little ironclad followed the Yankee fleet upriver, but as she began to sneak up on the Union ships, the mighty Mississippi turned around to attack her. In avoiding the onrushing hull, Manassas stranded on a sandbank, where the Union gunners vented their wrath in several heavy salvos. Manassas' crew abandoned ship. Manassas later floated off the sandbank and drifted downriver, enveloped in flames, past the mortar boats of Adm. David Dixon Porter, bringing up the Union rear. According to the DANFS, "Porter . . . tried to save her as an engineering curiosity, but Manassas exploded and immediately plunged under water." Remains believed to be those of the Manassas have been charted in the river bed, but salvage has not been attempted at this writing. Below, a rendering of Manassas' profile by Joe Hinds.
Plan and Specifications
Approximate specifications for the Manassas:
Dimensions: 143' x 33' x 17' Displacement: 387 tons. Armament: (1) 64-pdr Dahlgren; 30-foot underwater ram. Armor: 1.5" deck. Propulsion: Steam engines, twin screw. Speed: Unknown. Freeboard: Approximately 6'. Crew: 36.
Metric specs: 43.6m x 10m x 5.18m. Displacement: 387 tons. Armament: (1) 64-pdr Dahlgren; 9.2-meter underwater ram. Armor: 38 mm deck. Propulsion: Steam engines, twin screw. Speed: Unknown. Freeboard: Approximately 1.83m. Crew: 36.
The Manassas was a unique American improvisation fully deserving the Yankee aspersion of a "hellish machine." She relied on surprise, but proved too under-powered to actually sink her prey by ramming and too under-gunned to destroy them by any other means. Her armor proved surprisingly effective; and her crew showed great courage in challenging towering, ocean-going cruisers with their iron cockleshell.
Another conception of Manassas shows her with corrugated contours; modern watercolor.
Our direct knowledge of how this pioneer ship looked is limited; there are no known photographs and only a few eyewitness drawings. Presumably one of the most reliable of these is the sketch above, made by J.A. Chalaron in 1861. He visited the ship as she was being converted in Algiers, Louisiana. This drawing contains actual measurements but lacks fine detail; the gun mounting is not shown, for instance. Still, it is the best we've got. It has formed the basis for the fertile imaginings of many artists and engineers, as seen above. Adapted from a blueprint in the U.S. Naval Historical Center archive.
