C.S.S. Stonewall (1865)
The Stonewall was another foreign-built ironclad which joined the Confederate service toward the end of the Civil War. Named for Lee's inspiring general, Stonewall Jackson, the ship was built at Bordeaux, France by Arman Brothers, ostensibly for the Egyptian navy; her given name was Sphinx. Like the Scorpion and Wivern, she was the object of intense Union pressure, and it was only with much legerdemain that Stonewall was delivered to the Confederates and commissioned in October 1864.
She was one of a pair of identical sister ships; completing after the end of the conflict in America, the sister (code name Cheops) was sold to the Prussian Navy as Prinz Adalbert, named for the brother of Wilhelm I and great patron of the nascent German fleet. Nicknamed "The Lame," the shoddily-constructed sister ship survived until 1871 without achieving any notable service record. With a partially rotted hull, the six-year-old Adalbert was decommissioned in that year and scrapped seven years later.
A 1390-ton ram, Stonewall was of composite wood-and-iron construction, with iron some frames and wooden planking. The armoring extended a full 5 feet below the waterline (1.5 m). Her hull was copper-sheathed and sported a wicked-looking plough ram, highly visible in all our photos. This exaggerated proboscis was a style much in vogue in the French fleet in the 1860s and later. It was noted to induce the vessel to handle clumsily and ship much water when traveling at speed. Aft, the two four-bladed, 12-foot screws protruded from large skegs; the ship was also equipped with twin rudders and steered to perfection, with a very tight turning radius.
Topside, she boasted twin armored mountings in the waist of the ship, somewhat as in the Union's Keokuk: rather than revolving turrets, these were round-faced, armored gunhouses containing muzzle-loading pivot guns that could be pointed out of any of several gunports. The bow gunhouse was roughly circular on the aft end, extended to the peak of the bow forward, and contained the single 10" 300-pounder. The aft gunhouse was oval in shape and contained two 6.4" guns, one per side; there was only a vestigial poop, and folding bulwarks enabled the gunners to aim over a wide arc over the quarters, beam, and forward. Lastly, to augment her engines and conserve fuel, Stonewall carried a full brig rig and retractable bowsprit.
Specifications of the Stonewall:
Dimensions: 187' (OA) x 32'9" x 14'4" Displacement: 1,390 tons. Armament: (1) 10" 300-pdr Garnard RML; (2) Armstrong 6.4" 70-pdr RML. Armor: 5"/3.5" belt; 4.75" gunhouses. Propulsion: (4) coal-fired boilers, trunked 2 and 2; (2) 2-cyl Mazeline horizontal direct-acting engines developing 1,200 IHP, shafted to twin screw. Sail rig: Brig - 2,428 sf of sail. Steering: Twin rudders hinged to skegs. Maximum speed: 10 kts. Crew: 135.
Metric specs:
Dimensions: 57m (OA) x 9.98m x 4.34m Displacement: 1,390 tons. Armament: (1) 254 mm 300-pdr Garnard RML; (2) Armstrong 162 mm 70-pdr RML. Armor: 124/89mm belt; 124mm gunhouses. Propulsion: (4) coal-fired boilers, trunked 2 and 2; (2) 2-cyl Mazeline horizontal direct-acting engines developing 895 kW, shafted to twin screw. Steering: Twin rudders hinged to skegs. Sail rig: Brig - 740 square meters of sail. Maximum speed: 18.5 km/hr. Crew: 135.
In early 1865, after stuffing her holds with supplies for the Confederacy, Stonewall departed from Lisbon (below) to attempt the Atlantic crossing, only to be driven back into port at Ferrol, Spain by a fierce gale. She was quite the sensation while in port, especially as two Union screw sloops showed up and hovered offshore. Was another Alabama battle in the offing? In the event, when Stonewall poked her belligerent bow out of port, the Union vessels gave her a wide berth. The reason was clear: Stonewall, with her impregnable armor and new engines, was a match for anything in the Union Navy. Also, the war was nearly over, and the Union could afford to win by running down the clock.
Which is exactly what happened. Packed with supplies and ordered to harass Union shipping and attack Union men'o'war, Stonewall sailed for the Americas; below, the ship departs from Ferrol, as seen in Harper's. She arrived in Havana in May 1865, weeks after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. The Spanish authorities promptly began negotiations to turn her over to the U.S. government. Thus, the deadliest vessel in the Confederate navy surrendered without ever firing a shot in anger.
The Stonewall's military career was only beginning in 1865, however. She spent some months anchored in the Potomac and being fussed over by Yankees who wondered what might have been had she got loose sooner. In 1868 she was sold to the Shogunate of Japan, then in its waning days of power--indeed, fighting to retain that power against the forces of the Meiji Emperor. With the outbreak of the Boshin War (the Japanese Civil War of 1868-71), shipments to the Bakufu (Shogunate) were placed on hold, including the Stonewall, though $30,000 US had already been paid for the ship. When the Mikado's forces prevailed in 1869, she was delivered to his government on payment of the remaining $10,000 installment.
Immediately on arrival in Japan, the ship was renamed Kotetsu. She now was the effective flagship of the Mikado's navy, as its best protected and most heavily armed unit. Together with a fleet of modern steamers and transport craft, she was sent to rout the remaining Bakufu forces, who were making a last stand in Japan's northernmost island, Hokkaido. Indeed, the feudalists were attempting to form an independent republic of their own there. In Hokkaido waters, Kotetsu repulsed a boarding attack at Miyako, with her Gatling guns seeing extensive use. She then led the fleet on to victory at the Naval Battle of Hakodate (June 1869), seen above. Renamed Azuma in 1871, she remained an important unit of the Japanese fleet until 1888, when she was decommissioned and turned to harbor duties. She was scrapped around 1900, having led one of the most momentous lives of any Civil War ship, though the key moments happened in East Asian waters rather than the Americas.
Another view across the bow shows the ship's hull shape and vast plough ram. Both these drydock photos were taken at Port Royal, S.C. after the ship's surrender.
Stonewall/Kotetsu's historic significance may have been in founding the tradition of ironclad ships and their tactics in the Japanese Navy. The Japanese showed an especial aptitude for modern naval warfare, and the mystique of the invincible battleship took deep root in Japanese soil. Above is the 1878 ironclad Fuso, built in Britain and a perfect small copy of British central battery ships of the time. She closely resembled HMS Iron Duke of 1871, the British flagship at Hong Kong, with which the Japanese were quite familiar, day in day out; she made numerous visits to Japan. At 3,717 tons, Fuso was typical of the next generation of armored warships after Kotetsu in the IJN. These were the oldest of the ships that fought in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5. Although much more powerful units than Kotetsu, they bore an unmistakable family resemblance to her. Combining the belief in the perfection of the warrior spirit and the fascination with the latest western technology, the cult of the ironclad introduced by Kotetsu took root and flourished in Japan. By the time Kotetsu moved into coast defense work in 1888, Japanese financiers were already scheduling the payments for an ambitious fleet of pre-dreadnought battleships to be built in Britain for Japan's navy; although the full flush of fleet building would await the deposit of indemnity payments from China following Japan's 1895 victory. Kotetsu's mission was accomplished. Furthermore, Japan's close collaboration with British yards and fraternal relationship to the Royal Navy over a period of 25 years led directly to Great Britain's first overseas dalliance in nearly a century, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902.
