I.    M O N I T O R S

Name

Builders

Date
Comm.

Propulsion/
Plan

Armament

Action

Fate

Monitor

Ericsson

1862

Ericsson DA,
single screw

(2) 11" SB

Hampton Rds 3/9/62

Sunk in Storm
7/62

Passaic, Montauk, Catskill, Patapsco, Lehigh, Sangamus, Weehawken, Comanche, Nantucket, Nahant
Improved single-turret Ericsson monitor. Independent pilothouse on top of turret. 10 ships.

Ericsson

1862

Ericsson DA,
single screw

(2) 11" SB

Charleston 1863-4
Mobile Bay
8/5/64

Canonicus, Catawba, Mahopac, Manyunk, Manhattan, Oneota, Saugus, Tippecanoe, Tecumseh
Last improved Ericsson design. 9 ships.

Canonicus Class

NY Shipbuilding

1862

3 screw

(2) 11"SB

Tec. sunk @
Mobile Bay 8/64
Catawba, Oneota
Sold to Perú

Puritan, Dictator
Poorly designed seagoing monitors, slow, deep draft. Dictator Single turret design. Puritan had two.

Boston, MA

1863

1 screw

(2) 15" SB

--

Dict. scrapped 1870s
Puritan scrapped 1874
Namesake blt. 1891-5

Onondaga

Continental IW

1864

1 screw

(2) 150 pdr,
(2) 15" SB

Trent's Reach
9/64, 1/23/65

Sold to France
BU 1903

Winnebago, Chickasaw, Milwaukee, Kickapoo
Eads' twin-turret design, light draft, some of the best monitors made. Turtledecked. Mixed Eads and Ericsson turrets.

Winnebago Class

Eads

1864

2 screws

1 Eads,
1 Ericsson turret

Mobile Bay
8/5/64

Milw., Winn.
Sunk 8/64
@ Mobile
Chickasaw CONV.
Sidewheel ferry, 1874

Miantonomah, Monadnock, Tonawanda, Agamenticus
A true oceangoing design, 280', the last word at war's end; voyaged around Horn, to Europe.

NY Shipbuilding

1865

2 screw

2 - 150 pdr
2 - 15" SB

Postwar voyages
to Europe

New York Navy Yard

1863

1 screw

6 rifles
3 turrets

Hampton Roads
3/8-9/62

Conv. Frigate
DC 1865
BU 1872

Casco, Chimo, Tunxis - 20 laid down
An adventure in corrupt procurement, botched engineering. Boats barely floated; 5 completed as TBs w/ unprotected pivot guns. $14M rape of the taxpayer.

Casco Class

Widespread Largesse
(Chief Engr. Stimer)

1863

1 screw

1 9" SB
Pivot Gun

--

Procurement
Fiasco

Kalamazoo, Passaconaway, Quinsigamond, Shakamaxon
Work stopped at war's end. Two turret, seagoing, 280'. Deteriorated wooden hulls scrapped in the slip - 1870s.

Various

INC.

2 screw

(2) twin turrets

--

Work halted
BU on the ways

II.    C O N V E N T I O N A L    I R O N C L A D S

Galena

Bushnell
Mystic, CT

1862

Single screw

8 rifles

Drewry's Bluff 7/62
Mobile Bay,
8/5/64

Dec. 1865

New Ironsides

NY Shipbuilding

1862

Single screw

14 rifles

Charleston
Bombardments 1863-65
Wilmington
1865

Acc. burned
1866

N.Y.

1862

2 screws

2 11" SB

Charleston
4/13/63

Sunk 3/63

Dunderberg

New York

1865

2 screws

16 rifles

--

Sold to France

III.    R I V E R I N E    I R O N C L A D S

Cairo, Carondelet, Cincinatti, Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburgh, St. Louis
Converted river steamers, partially armored forward. Core of the Union Mississippi squadron.

City Class

Eads
St. Louis

1861

Center Wheel

3 rifles
9 SB

Memphis
Is. No. 10
Vicksburg

Cairo, St. Louis
mined & sunk

Benton

Eads

1861

Center wheel

4 rifles

Conv.
Snag Boat

--

Essex

Eads

1861

Center wheel

10 rifles

Conv.
Snag Boat

Vs. Arkansas
6/62

Choctaw, Lafayette
Monster ironclads des. by Cmdr. Wm. Porter. Gutta percha armor on Lafayette a failure.

Choctaw Class

Eads

1862

Side wheel

14 rifles

Conv.

Vicksburg

Indianola, Chillicothe, Tuscumbia
Smallish, rushed river steamer conversions, inferior to Eads boats as proven in combat.

Indianola Class

Joseph Brown
Cincinnati

1863

Side wheel

5-8 SB

Poorly Done
Conv.

Ind. capt.
BTPC 2/25/63

Captured Confed.
Construction 3/62

8/1862

Side wheel

2-7", 4-6.4" rifles

Red River
3/1864

BTPC

Osage, Neosho
Strange composite type with turret far forward, turtle deck, armored sternwheel. Drew only 3 feet as built.

Eads

4/1862

Sternwheel Monitors

1 turret
(2) 11" SB

Cumberland
12/6/64

--

Eads

2/1864

Single screw

1 turret
(1) 10" rifle
(1) 12-pdr pivot
(3) 9" SB

--

Sold
11/65

Sandusky, Marietta
Similar to OSAGE with turret far forward, turtle deck, 4-screw propulsion. Prolonged & problematic wartime gestation; INC. at war's end.

Marietta Class

Pittsburgh

12/1865

Quad screw
2 engines
(4) 6'6" props

1 turret
(2) 11" SB

--

Sold
for Scrap
1873

TOTAL:

• 49 monitors completed by 12/1865.
  
  
• Four "conventional" seagoing ironclads commissioned.
  
  
• 15 paddle-driven casement river ironclads; TOTAL: (68) ironclads.
  
  Augmented by (60) tinclads patrolling the tributary rivers.
  
  
• 21 monitors laid down but not completed by war's end.

KEY: STAC = Sunk to avoid capture; BTPC = Burnt to prevent capture; Unkn. = Unknown; Conv. = Converted or Conversion; Surr. = Surrendered; INC. = Never completed; DC = Decommissioned; BU = Broken Up.