This ironclad's fantail is an example of pure craftsmanship. The National Civil War Naval Museum wants to conserve it and the engines of another Confederate vessel

Inverted fantail of the CSS Jackson (Picket photos)

A Georgia museum is raising money to conserve the precisely built curved rear deck, or fantail, of the Confederate ironclad CSS Jackson. The section of armor and wood, which protected the vessel’s propellers and rudder, is a remarkable example of design and construction prowess.

The National Civil War Naval Museum has received the offer of a grant that will match up to $250,000 in contributions, said Jeff Seymour, director of history and collections.

Officials would like to conserve the fantail and build a replica to place near the remains of the giant hull. They also want to conserve the engines of the Rebel gunboat CSS Chattahoochee, the museum’s other star attraction.

Both ships were lost in April 1865 at war’s end -- the Jackson set afire by Federal captors and the Chattahoochee scuttled by its own crew. Neither vessel fired upon the enemy in their relatively short history.

CSS Chattahoochee engines (Picket photo)

The fantail and the Chattahoochee engine components are in an open pole barn outside the museum, where they have long been exposed to the elements and are slowly deteriorating. (Officials last year told the Ledger-Enquirer newspaper they didn’t have the money to bring them inside. The hulls of the two ships have been in the main building for nearly 20 years.)

Seymour calls the fantail “a very unique piece of naval architecture” that’s believed to be the only Civil War example currently out of the water. Because the rear deck was curved, builders had to customize the length of the armor and timber.

“All of these pieces are cut into a pie shape to make it fit,” he said.

The remnants of the Jackson’s fantail are inverted. It’s fascinating to study up close how it was put together. Near it is a long row of the ironclad’s armor and other pieces of the two ships.

Bob Holcombe, a naval historian and former director of the museum, says besides the CSS Georgia in Savannah, it may be the only piece of wood from a Confederate ironclad with iron plating still attached.

Jeff Seymour shows area where fantail was built

While some fantails were pointed and straight across, this one needed to be round. “It is so complex to build, particularly the iron plating,” Holcombe said.

The Picket spoke recently with Seymour and Holcombe about the rare artifacts and the history of the vessels.

CSS JACKSON: Locally built

Museum visitors can gaze at the hull of the flat-bottom ironclad from a viewing platform and on the floor. A section is missing, but you get a true sense of the vessel’s enormity – it was about 222 long and 57 feet across. Above the hull is ghosting framework intended to show how the warship appeared above the water line. The rudder is missing.

I discerned smoke on the day I visited. Was that the result of burned longleaf pine and more than 150 years of aging? “We cannot chemically explain it,” said Seymour. “Every once in a while you get a rich pungent river odor.”

Picket photos show stern and ghost framing above hull

The Jackson (originally named the Muscogee) was designed to protect Columbus – a critically important industrial center for the Confederacy -- from Union navy marauders and blockaders. Neither ship was intended to leave the shallow river system that continues south to Florida and Apalachicola Bay. Construction on the Jackson began in early 1863.

While some infantry generals thought the South put too much time, money and material into ironclads – or “ram fever” – they became a high priority. “The fact that Confederates had ironclads was a force in being that you have to deal with them,” said Holcombe.  “It is symbolic of what was largely an agrarian country in shifting their meager industrial resources… to build what was a pretty modern navy.”

CSS Muscogee, later dubbed Jackson (Wikipedia)

The CSS Jackson was built entirely in Columbus, on the Chattahoochee River and just below the Iron Works. The original design based on the CSS Missouri called for a central paddle wheel, but the Confederate navy determined that would not generate enough power, so it shortened the casemate, lengthened the hull and installed twin propellers. The vessel had an iron ram on the bow and an 8-foot draft.

The Jackson’s casemate had a 35-degree slope and featured nearly two feet of wood and two layers of plating, mostly manufactured at the Scofield and Markham mill in Atlanta.

The Jackson, armed with six Brooke rifles (two of which rest outside the museum), was finally launched -- after earlier unsuccessful attempts -- on Dec. 22, 1864, to local fanfare. 

“This splendid ram was successfully launched yesterday at about 11 o’clock and now sits as calmly upon the Chattahoochee as a duck upon a pond,” the Columbus Daily Enquirer reported. Eventually, the Jackson was meant to have a crew of about 200.

Sections of CSS Jackson armor (Picket)

The two engines and four boilers – manufactured in Columbus – were not operational when the city fell, and there’s a question about how well they would have performed, anyway. At best, the Jackson would have done about 5 knots, said Seymour. The ship still needed armor and was unfinished when the Federal cavalry arrived on April 16, 1865.

“The following day the nearly completed ship was set ablaze and cut loose by her captors,” a panel at the naval museum says. “After drifting downstream some 30 miles, the Jackson ground on a sandbar and burned to the waterline.”

Holcombe said the wreckage apparently smoldered for weeks.

There were some salvage and recovery attempts in the early 20^th century. The engines and boiler (which no longer survive) were pulled out before World War I along with some guns.

The push for the recovery of the two ships came during increased interest going into the Civil War centennial. The wreck was found in 1960 and a variety of funding sources paid for the 1962-1963 recovery.

Seymour shows area where fantail would have been built

Crews needed to break the hull in two for the trip upriver. They used dynamite -- that’s why the CSS Jackson is missing 10 to 12 feet in the center.

“There was a massive groan when I showed a photograph of the explosion to archaeologists,” Holcombe said.

CSS CHATTAHOOCHEE: Bottled up

If the Jackson was jinxed, the Chattahoochee had a true hard-luck story, according to the museum.

The Chattahoochee was a sail and steam gunboat, said Seymour, and was constructed on the Chattahoochee River in Saffold, Ga., about 10 miles north of the Florida border. Its engines were manufactured in Columbus “without most of these guys having laid their eyes on the ship itself,” said Seymour.

After numerous construction delays, the three-mast ship – 140 feet long and featuring six guns -- was commissioned on Jan. 1, 1863. While the Confederate navy intended the Chattahoochee for river and coastal defense, “everyone in command wants to get battle and win glory for themselves,” according to Holcombe.

Some of the crew had served on the CSS Virginia (Merrimac), which famously tangled with the USS Monitor in early 1862.

The vessel was plagued by engine and other problems from the very beginning. It became apparent because of a new Confederate strategy and obstructions in the Apalachicola River, the gunboat would not be able to do any raiding in the Gulf of Mexico.

The stern of the CSS Chattahoochee (Picket photo)

The Chattahoochee’s only attempt to engage the enemy, with the aim of recapturing a blockade runner, ended in disaster on May 24, 1863, near Blountstown, Fla., as a storm approached. The boiler exploded as it was raising steam and about 18 men succumbed immediately or died from hideous scalding injuries. (Some histories say there was an argument of how much water to put into the boiler and the pipes burst when the water hit the red-hot iron)

“Thus ends this fated and useless craft,” skipper George Gift wrote.

Seymour explains the working of the gunboat engines (Picket)

The ship sank and was not raised for several months. It was towed to Columbus, where it was repaired and recommissioned in mid-1864, but the machinery was not operable and it often ran aground. Its crew made a separate failed raid using small boats on a Federal ship off Apalachicola, Fla.

The CSS Chattahoochee returned from Eufaula, Ala., to Columbus for repairs and the replacement of the boiler with one from the CSS Raleigh. But the work was not a priority, as builders were trying to finish the CSS Jackson. “She was pretty much an obsolete ship by that time,” Holcombe said of the wooden gunboat.

Model of CSS Chattahoochee at museum (Picket photo)

As Federal cavalry entered the city, its crew towed the CSS Chattahoochee 12 miles below the city.

“They probably saw the hulk of the Jackson float by. They set her afire and cut intake pipes and she sank downriver,” said Holcombe.

The remains lie on the river bottom until the early 1960s, when volunteers, governments and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tried to recover them. Cables were placed under the hull, but a 30-foot stern section broke free; that’s the part that was taken to Columbus. The forward two-thirds of the gunboat remain in the river. The bow is gone, but there are some places where 8 feet or more of the hull are intact.

The original engines were recovered. They were built to provide basic screw propulsion for the two screws. The gunboat could make about 12 knots during the short time it had a working boiler.

Stern is prepared for recovery (Photos courtesy Bob Holcombe)

A jumble of machinery inside the recovered hull 

“They are the only Confederate-made naval steam engines on display, even if they are in the shed,” said Holcombe.

The recovery yielded other artifacts and many are on display today alongside the Chattahoochee or in exhibit cases. Seymour would like to “reverse engineer” the engines to better understand how the propulsion system worked and put them on display inside.

A monument to those killed in the 1863 explosion can be seen in Chattahoochee, Fla., where memorial events are held annually.

As for the big picture

The museum has begun raising $250,000 to match the grant from the unnamed source. Seymour would like to exceed that, for a total of $750,000. Although the museum has brought in some funds, it has only begun a very challenging fund-raising journey.

Seymour and other museum officials would like to eventually see a redo of the CSS Jackson exhibit – with better lighting, 3D pop-outs, interactive kiosks and a revamped mural, among other efforts.

All of this would better engage visitors about the histories and salvage of the ships and the importance of Columbus as a Southern manufacturing center.

“We want to improve the story,” said Seymour.