Assignment: Research Paper
The Story of the Confederate Ironclad "CSS Neuse"
At the beginning of the Civil War, in April 1861, the Confederates were faced with obvious lack of manpower, supplies, and facilities to coordinate an extensive war effort and resourcefulness became a key word in the Confederacy. Upon being appointed Secretary of the Confederate Navy in February 1861, Stephen R. Mallory began a shipbuilding program with ironclads with it centering of construction as quick as possible.
Confederate plans for building Ironclads
Confederate ironclads were designed and built to be "floating batteries", protected by armor plating. Available steamers were also converted into armored vessels, as was the case with the Navy Department's first ironclad, Merrimack (which was renamed the CSS Virginia). In the spring of 1861, Federal troops evacuated Virginia's Norfolk Navy Yard, leaving behind the best equipped navy yard in the South, as well as the burned-out Merrimack. Mallory and his advisers wasted little time in converting the 3,200-ton steamer into an ironclad.
The initial Confederate armored steamers were built near large ports such as New Orleans, Louisiana, or Mobile, Alabama. As Union forces took possession of these ports, builders were forced to construct their vessels inland. The "inland" shipyard was any area along a navigable stream or river in which a gunboat could be built. Ironclads built in these inland shipyards were usually shallow-draft, barge-like vessels mounting two to four heavy guns—and they defended the general areas where they were constructed.
After the spring of 1862, Mallory made a concentrated effort to step up the construction of iron plated warships. Unfortunately for the Confederate war effort, the South lacked sufficient quantities of iron—the crucial ingredient needed for construction. As a raw material, iron was not plentiful in the South after Tennessee and Kentucky fell into Union control during the early stages of the war. Iron was either not available for the ships or was delayed in transport to the various shipyards. Many pivotal naval engagements occurred in North Carolina waters during the early stages of the war, and it was important for the new warships to be put into service as quickly as possible. By the end of the first year of the war, Federal fleets had captured many vulnerable forts and ports along the state's coastline. To recapture and defend these port towns in eastern North Carolina, the Confederate Navy Department was banking on the construction and implementation of armored gunboats.
Within this environment, a construction contract was drawn for a new North Carolina armored steamer, soon to be named for the river on which it was built. Work on the CSS Neuse was begun shortly at White Hall, North Carolina (now Seven Springs), on the banks of the Neuse River.
Delays and More Delays
During construction of the ship, the most immediate challenge facing the Navy Department was an adequate defense of the construction site. Union troops had been making periodic raids into eastern North Carolina.
Work on the Neuse progressed steadily during the summer and fall of 1863, although there were the usual problems in getting enough iron to meet the schedule. As the year drew to a close, machinery while workers installed available iron plating and did interior carpentry work. It was very obvious that the Neuse was behind in its completion schedule.
General Lee asked for the two ironclads for the battle (first battle) for New Bern. The ironclads Lee mentioned were the Neuse and Albemarle. He was told that the ships would probably not be completed in time for the assault on New Bern. Neither was completed in time for the assault on New Bern, and when the expedition was carried out at the beginning of February, it failed.
Completion and No Troops
The gunboats were completed by 1864 with exception of waiting on the delivery of iron plating. The work upon these vessels has been delayed for months by the want of transportation, and now that they are very near completion I respectfully urge that no further delay on this account may be had, for unless completed at an early day the detention of the boat at Kinston by the fall of the Neuse River will be disastrous and may cause her destruction.
On April 22, 1864, the new warship at last seemed destined for action. The Neuse, under orders from the Navy Department, steamed out of its "cat hole" toward New Bern. The Neuse and Albemarle would plan to meet at New Bern in an attempt to recapture the port town. True to its luck, however, the Neuse had barely moved one-half mile down river when it grounded hard upon a sand bar.
The river rose again a month later and the Neuse was freed at last, however, the gunboat returned to its moorings in Kinston. During the period the ironclad had been grounded, the army was recalled to Virginia by General Lee to counter the massive buildup of troops posed by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Consequently, the Neuse remained idle at Kinston, unable to venture down river without ground support for the remainder of the war.
Battle of Wyse Fork and the demise of the CSS Neuse
With the New Year came the toppling of the last major strongholds of the Confederacy. By mid-January 1865, Fort Fisher on North Carolina's southeastern coast had fallen after a massive amphibious attack, and Union forces were preparing to march on the crucial port town of Wilmington. Consequently, as Confederate troops were rushed to the Cape Fear region to help defend Wilmington, any hope of ground support for a New Bern expedition by the Neuse was extinguished for good. Three days after the fall of Fort Fisher
Two weeks after Wilmington fell, Union forces stood ready to move on the important rail junction of Goldsboro. The objective of the expedition was to link up with Gen. William T. Sherman's enormous army group in the vicinity of Goldsboro. Sherman, whose 60,000 Federals were blazing a trail northward through the Carolinas, was set to rendezvous with the commands of Alfred H. Terry and Jacob. D. Cox and they were soon en route for Goldsboro. Cox's command, having traveled up the coast, was heading inland from New Bern. Cox set out from New Bern on March 6 with two divisions numbering more than 13,000 men.
Hoke's Division, which had retreated from Wilmington after its fall, gathered in the vicinity of Kinston and attempted to repulse Cox's invading Federals. At Wyse Fork (east of Kinston) on March 8-10. Confederate Army of Tennessee were defeated by Cox and forced back toward Goldsboro.
Bragg had ordered the destruction of the Neuse. For more than two years, the Navy Department had struggled greatly to build and equip the new vessel for Confederate service. But Federal raiding parties, a scarcity of materials, and lack of ground support had all conspired to keep the luckless ironclad—which had been dubbed the "Neuse'ance" bottled up at Kinston. Later that day, the ram Neuse was destroyed by fire and sunk by the Confederates to avoid capture by Union forces.