|
|
| Career
| 
|
| Launched:
| 1863
|
| Commissioned:
| September 15, 1864
|
| Decommissioned:
| May 10, 1865
|
| Fate:
| Surrendered to U.S. forces; sold November 22, 1867
|
| General Characteristics
|
| Displacement:
| approximately 1100 tons
|
| Length:
| 271 feet
|
| Beam:
| 62 feet 6 inches
|
| Draught:
| 13 feet
|
| Propulsion:
| Steam engine
|
| Speed:
|
|
| Complement:
|
|
| Armament:
| 3 7" Brooke rifled cannons, 1 24-pounder cannon
|
- For other ships named Nashville, see USS Nashville.
CSS Nashville was a large ironclad side-wheel steam sloop built by the Confederates at Montgomery, Alabama. Launched in mid-1863, Nashville was taken to Mobile, Alabama for completion in 1864. Her first commander was Lieutenant Charles Carroll Simms, CSN.
Still fitting out, she took no part in the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, but was one of the vessels formally surrendered by Commodore Ebenezer Farrand , CSN, at Nanna Hubba, Alabama on May 10, 1865.
Although never finished, she had been heavily armored with triple 2-inch plating forward and around her pilot house, only a single thickness aft and there had been some doubts expressed that her builders might have overestimated her structural strength. Rear Admiral Henry K. Thatcher, USN, wrote on June 30, 1865, after survey, "She was hogged when surrendered and is not strong enough to bear the weight of her full armor." He was certain "she could not live in a seaway."
Nashville was purchased by the Navy Department and sold at New Orleans, Louisiana on November 22, 1867, her iron sheathing having been removed for naval use.
