CSS Manassas

CSS "Manassas", formerly the steam icebreaker "Enoch Train", was built at Medford, Massachusetts, by J. O. Curtis in 1855. A New Orleans commission merchant, Captain John A. Stevenson, acquired her for use as a privateer and fitted her out at Algiers, Louisiana as an ironclad ram of radically modern design. Covered with 1½-inch iron plating, her hull projected only 2½ feet above the water, and her plated top was convex causing cannon shot to glance off harmlessly. She was provided with sharp irons on her bow to stave holes through enemy vessels. Fast moving, lying low in the water and a difficult target, virtually bomb-proof, she looked like a floating cigar or egg shell and was described by Union intelligence as a "hellish machine."

Commissioned as a Confederate privateer on September 12, 1861, "Manassas was" seized soon afterwards by Flag Officer G. N. Rollins, CSN, for use in the lower Mississippi River. With Lieutenant A. F. Worley, CSN, in command she participated in Flag Officer Rollins' surprise attack on the Federal blockading squadron at Head of Passes, Mississippi River, on October 12, 1861. In the action "Manassas" violently rammed USS "Richmond", damaging her severely below the water line. "Manassas", however, suffered the loss of her prow and smokestack and had her engines temporarily thrown out of gear from the impact. 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 by the Confederate Government.

Under Lieutenant Worley, "Manassas" joined the force of Captain John K. Mitchell, CSN, commanding Confederate naval forces in the lower Mississippi. She participated in the engagement of April 24, 1862 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 blow and deliver a broadside at close range. "Manassas" then ran into murderous fire from the whole line of the Union fleet. She then charged USS "Mississippi" and delivered a long glancing blow on her hull, firing her only gun as she rammed. Next she rammed USS "Brooklyn", again firing her gun, and injuring her rather deeply, but not quite enough to be fatal.

After this action "Manassas" followed the Union fleet quietly for a while, but as she drew closer "Mississippi" furiously turned on her. "Manassas" managed to dodge the blow but was run aground. Her crew escaped as "Mississippi" poured her heavy broadsides on the stranded Confederate vessel. Later "Manassas" slipped off the bank and drifted down the river in flames 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.

External links

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-us-cs/csa-sh/csash-mr/manassas.htm CSS Manassas at the Naval Historical Center]