CSS Manassas

History
Confederate States of America
Name	Manassas; originally Enoch Train
Namesake	Battle of First Manassas; Enoch Train
Owner	Boston Steam Tow-Boat Co.
Builder	James. O. Curtis, Medford, Massachusetts
Launched	1853 or 1855
Commissioned	September 12, 1861
Decommissioned	April 24, 1862
Fate	Sunk in battle April 24, 1862
General characteristics
Class and type	Steam tug, Ironclad
Displacement	387 tons
Tons burthen	384+1⁄2 tons
Length	143 ft (44 m)
Beam	33 ft (10 m)
Draft	17 ft (5.2 m)
Propulsion	Steam engine
Complement	36 officers and men
Armament	One 64-pounder Dahlgren, later replaced by one 32-pounder

CSS Manassas, formerly the steam icebreaker Enoch Train, was built in 1855 by James O. Curtis as a twin-screw towboat at Medford, Massachusetts. A New Orleans commission merchant, Captain John A. Stevenson, acquired her for use as a privateer after she was captured by another privateer (later gunboat) CSS Ivy. Her fitting out as Manassas was completed at Algiers, Louisiana; her conversion to a ram of a radically modern design made her the first ironclad ship built for the Confederacy.

Description

Covered with 1.25-inch (32 mm) iron plating, her above-water hull was reshaped into a curved "turtle-back" form; at its lowest when fully loaded, the hull projected only 6+1⁄2 feet above the waterline, not counting her smokestacks (surviving accounts and period illustrations vary showing Manassas was equipped with either a single or two side-by-side smokestacks, possibly slanted back at a rakish angle). The convex shape of her iron-plated topside was intended to cause cannon shot to glance off harmlessly. She was 128 feet (39 m) in length, overall, and had a 26-foot (7.9 m) hull beam and 11-foot (3.4 m) draught. Her bow was fitted with a pointed iron ram to stave holes in Union vessels, and she also carried a forward-firing cannon behind a single gun port with an armored shutter. Her low profile made her a difficult target, while her curved armor iron plate protected her against all but the most well-directed Union cannon fire. Lying low in the water, she looked like a floating cigar or egg and was described by Union intelligence as a "hellish machine."^[3]^[4]^[5]^: 68–9

Service history

Commissioned as a Confederate privateer on 12 September 1861, Manassas was seized soon afterwards by Flag Officer George N. Hollins, CSN, for use in the lower Mississippi River. With Lieutenant A. F. Warley, CSN, in command, she participated in Flag Officer Hollins' surprise attack on the Federal blockading squadron at Head of Passes on 12 October 1861, the action being known as the Battle of the Head of Passes. In the action Manassas rammed USS Richmond, but the impact was partly absorbed by a coal barge tied alongside. Manassas, however, suffered the loss of her iron prow and smokestack(s) and had one of her two engines unseated from its mounts, temporarily putting it out of commission. She managed to retire under heavy fire from USS Preble and Richmond, whose shells glanced off her armor. Two months after this engagement, Manassas was purchased for direct ownership and re-commissioned in the CSN by the Confederate Government.^[6]

Under Lieutenant Warley, CSS Manassas joined the force of Captain John K. Mitchell, CSN, commanding Confederate naval forces in the lower Mississippi. She participated in the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, during which Commodore David Farragut, USN, on his way to New Orleans, ran his fleet past the Confederate forts of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip. In the action Manassas attempted to ram USS Pensacola, which turned in time to avoid the heavy blow and delivered a full broadside at close range. Manassas then ran into more murderous fire from the whole line of the Union fleet. She then charged USS Mississippi and delivered a long glancing blow to her hull, also firing her single cannon as she rammed. Next she rammed USS Brooklyn, again firing her cannon, injuring her deeply, but not fatally.^[7]

After this action Manassas followed the Union fleet quietly for a while, but as she drew closer Mississippi furiously turned on her and made an attempt to ram the ironclad. Manassas managed to dodge the blow but ran aground in the process. Her crew managed to escape as Mississippi poured heavy broadsides into the stranded Confederate ram. Now on fire, Manassas slipped off the bank and drifted down the river past the Union mortar flotilla. Commander David Dixon Porter, USN, in command of the mortar boats, tried to save her as an engineering curiosity, but Manassas exploded and immediately plunged under water, a total loss.^[8] In 1981, the National Underwater and Marine Agency located the suspected wreckage of the Manassas under a current levee on the bank of the Mississippi.^[9]

Years after the war, in the book Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,^[10] there was a claim that a Manassas crewman was knocked off the ironclad by a Union sailor; however Lieutenant Warley reported no casualties among his Manassas crew in an official report dated 13 August 1863.^[11]

Clipper

Manassas is a similarly-named clipper, formerly the U.S. Revenue Cutter Afinot,^[12] was seized by the Confederates at New Bern, North Carolina, on 27 August 1861. With the launches Mosquito and Sand Fly, she was placed under Lt. W. H. Murdaugh, CSN, who was seriously wounded in the Federal attack on Fort Hatteras the next day, and was unable to assume his command. Manassas was active on the coast of North Carolina during 1861-62 and then dismantled by the Confederates.^[13]

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

Notes

Abbreviations used in these notes: Official atlas: Atlas to accompany the official records of the Union and Confederate armies.; ORA (Official records, armies): War of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies.; ORN (Official records, navies): Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion.

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Gleason, Hall (1937). Old Ships and Ship-Building Days of Medford. Medford, MA: J.C. Miller. p. 77.
^ ORN I, v. 18, p. 131.
^ A history of the United States Navy from 1775 to 1902, Volume 2, Edgar Stanton Maclay, Roy Campbell Smith, p. 315
^ CSS Manassas http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-us-cs/csa-sh/csash-mr/manassas.htm Archived 2012-02-03 at the Wayback Machine
^ Hearn, Chester G. (1995). The Capture of New Orleans 1862. Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-1945-8.
^ Hearn, pp. 86–91.
^ Hearn, pp. 210–35.
^ Hearn, pp. 235–6.
^ Cussler, Clive. "Search for the Ironclads". NUMA. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
^ Vol 2.p.67
^ ORN 1, 18, p. 337
^ This is stated in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies. No other record, official or unofficial, of U.S. Revenue Cutter Minot has been found.
^ "Confederate Navy 1861-65". naval encyclopedia. 4 February 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2023.

Bibliography

Bisbee, Saxon T. (2018). Engines of Rebellion: Confederate Ironclads and Steam Engineering in the American Civil War. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-81731-986-1.
Canney, Donald L. (2015). The Confederate Steam Navy 1861-1865. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7643-4824-2.
Silverstone, Paul H. (2006). Civil War Navies 1855–1883. The U.S. Navy Warship Series. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-97870-X.
Still, William N. Jr. (1985) [1971]. Iron Afloat: The Story of the Confederate Armorclads. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0-87249-454-3.