An effort to build two effective Confederate warships turned out to be a bust in Columbus, Ga. A talk Friday will examine how a postwar industrial boom followed

CSS Jackson in the Chattahoochee River late in the Civil War (U.S. Navy photo)

A symposium exploring the historical and environmental significance of Georgia’s waterways will feature a talk on how the production of two Confederate gunboats set the stage for new postwar industry in the Columbus area.

Logan Barrett, director of history and collections at the National Civil War Naval Museum, on Friday afternoon (April 11) will present “The Chattahoochee River Squadron: Wartime Ending, New South Beginning” at the Georgia Archives in Morrow.

“I will be arguing that although these ships had almost no military success during the Civil War, their historical significance rests as precursors to New South industry,” Barrett (below) told the Picket in an email.

Popularized by Atlanta newspaper editor Henry Grady, the term “New South” signified the move from a largely agrarian society to one with more industry. Much of this occurred in the late 19^th century following Reconstruction. But the economic modernization largely failed to benefit poor whites and blacks and kept intact the Jim Crow system.

Columbus was a critically important industrial center for the Confederacy, making a wide range of weapons and equipment.

Today, the stars of the naval museum are the remains of the ironclad CSS Jackson and twin-screw wooden ship CSS Chattahoochee. 

The Jackson (originally named the Muscogee) was designed to protect Columbus from Union navy marauders and blockaders. Construction began in early 1863 but there were numerous problems, including coming up with a worthy power system. It was built entirely in Columbus.

When it was finally launched in December 1864, the local newspaper said: “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."

Engines for the Chattahoochee were made in Columbus and shipped downstream to Saffold, about 10 miles north of the Florida border, where the wooden boat was built. The ship sank after a boiler explosion, was raised and moved to Columbus, where it was being refitted at war’s end.

Both 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 histories. 

They were recovered from the Chattahoochee River in the 1960s.

Postcard showing the Eagle and Phenix Mills in Columbus early in the 20th century

Barrett’s PowerPoint starts with the founding of the city in 1828 and covers the advent of textile mills, the formation of the Confederate navy yard, enslaved labor, the redesign and cost overruns of the Jackson, postwar rebuilding (including the return of the Columbus Iron Works and the Eagle and Phenix Mills) and labor conditions.

Barrett is working on a larger research project for the museum's planned exhibition “Columbus: A Civil War City.” Topics will include Horace King, a remarkable bridge builder born into slavery.

“During the Civil War, Columbus supplied the Confederacy with textile products, gun carriages, cannon and shot, Indian rubber cloth, tents, military caps and uniforms, steam engines, and gun boats,” according to Historic Columbus.The Chattahoochee River city near doubled in wartime population to 17,000. 

The city fell to Union troops near the end of the war.

Much of Columbus’ heavy industry declined after the war, but it remained strong in textiles and mill products for decades. Utilizing cheap labor, industrialists made capital investments and built textile mills across town.

“Both small and large entrepreneurs immediately rebuilt their enterprises. Foundries started producing by June, and textile mills were in back in operation by December 1865. By 1870 more than 100 manufacturers operated within the city, but the small nontextile companies languished in that decade,” says the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Crucial to the New South was a diversified economy, including tobacco, and the growth of railroads and  transportation systems. But the good times didn’t last forever. Mills shuttered as international competitors grew.

Revitalization in the 1990s and Fort Benning’s strength turned things around in the core of the city. Columbus State University lofts filled vacant buildings and taverns and shops replaced wig shops.

Other talks at the free Friday-Saturday symposium include environmental protection of the Chattahoochee River, recycling of treated wastewater in Clayton County, water and wildlife diversity on the Georgia coast, maritime archaeological sites and the journeys of those using various water craft.

Barrett will speak around 2:35 p.m. Friday for about an hour. The symposium is free and open to the public, with no registration required. It will take place at the Georgia Archives, 5800 Jonesboro Road, Morrow. Details are here

Arson investigation continues as National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Ga., details what was lost, survived

Drone view of destroyed pole barn  (Columbus Fire and EMS)

Investigators are pursuing leads in a suspected arson fire that damaged rare artifacts and destroyed modern vessels in a storage area at the National Civil War Naval Museum.

Sgt. Charles Collins with the fire department in Columbus, Ga., said a reward of up to $10,000 is being offered in the June 1 fire at an open-air pole barn behind the museum. Agents from federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have been on site, officials said.

Collins told the Picket this week that the case is receiving special attention because of its apparent targeting of historic pieces.

Museum officials said there is a silver lining in the devastating blaze, which followed a smaller arson attempt two days before. “While the fire was a total loss as far as anything wood goes, all the iron is still very much intact,” said museum executive director Holly Wait.

Among the items in the open air but padlocked area is the locally made ironclad CSS Jackson’s fantail.

Fantail of the CSS Jackson before fire (Picket photo)

The fantail was the precisely built curved rear deck of the Confederate warship, which was never fully operational. The section of armor and wood protected the vessel’s propellers and rudder and is a remarkable example of design and construction prowess. 

“The wood to the fantail was burned, but we don't yet know how deep the burn went since the wood was layered. Everything ‘on top’ (or the actual underside) is ashes,” Wait wrote in an email.

The engines of the Confederate gunboat Chattahoochee, the iron plates from the Jackson’s armor and the iron plating to the fantail survived, though they were exposed to the thermal heat.

“The Virginia was a complete loss,” continued Wait. “That ship was a supposed blockade runner donated to the museum many years ago. There was no money in our budget to do any conservation on the ship and we had no real documentation as regards in provenance.”

Jeff Seymour of museum staff with stored items in 2019 (Picket photo)

Also lost were a launch, two john boats, an old pontoon and two reproduction Fiberglass ships that the museum was taking apart.

Remains of the Jackson and Chattahoochee are the star exhibits of the museum and are inside the main building. Both 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. They were recovered from the Chattahoochee River in the 1960s.

“The big conservation project to restore the engines and fantail will continue,” said Wait. The museum has a web page on the fantail and information on how to support its conservation.

Collins, with the fire department, said he could not provide more details on the fire and investigation. The pole barn for years has been surrounded by a padlocked fence.

Fire investigator Charles Collins can be reached at ccollins@columbusga.org  or 706-225-4216. The hotline for Georgia Arson Control, which is offering the reward, is 1-800-282-5804.

US Navy engineer's letters home provide riveting details of blockade, life aboard ships. They are on display in Columbus, Ga.

Display case at the National Civil War Naval Museum (Civil War Picket)

Letters written by a US Navy engineer describing the blockade of Charleston, S.C., soldiers of the legendary 54^th Massachusetts, Gen. George B. McClellan and even a hippopotamus at Barnum’s American Museum in New York City are now in the collection of the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Ga.

(Heritage Auctions, HA.com)

The museum last year purchased about 120 letters and other items from Heritage Auctions for $16,000. It has been displaying letters from third assistant engineer George S. Paul to his parents and other family members.

Jeffery Seymour, director of history and collections at the museum, said officials decided to make their first major purchase in some time, through the help of a major donor and a few other givers.

The museum wanted the perspective of a junior officer who detailed operations of the vessels on which he served: the gunboat USS Paul Jones, the ironclad USS Nahant and the gunboat USS Sonoma.

“We need more information about what life is like in the engine room,” Seymour recently told the Picket.

Paul, a native of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, failed in his first attempts to pass an engineer exam and moved in the fall of 1861 to Wilmington, Delaware, where he worked on federal government shipbuilding contracts. The 24-year-old recalled in a September 1862 letter the passage of a train through the city carrying wounded Federal soldiers.

“Yesterday morning the citizens of W. received word that there would be fourteen hundred wounded soldiers through here at noon and citizens were invited to bring down refreshments so just before noon women began to string along the road with baskets of provisions and the track was lined on both sides for half a mile with people and their baskets....At about two oclock the cars came along....There were forty car loads of them...some had one ear shot off others had their heads all bandaged up. One had his chin shot off another had both heels shot of[f]." 

(Civil War Picket)

By January 1863, he passed the Navy test and began his service. Seymour said Paul was likely on the low end of the totem pole.

Paul wrote a letter to his parents: "It is the duty of the Third Asst. Engineer to keep water in the boilers keep an account of the amount of coal used, to register the pressure of steam per square in. every hour and to keep the register of the height of water. His duties are not hard. His watch is four hours on and eight hours off so it makes the days work eight hours each day. The rest of my spare time I can spend in studying and as I will carry all my books with me, I can get along very well." 

According to Heritage Auctions, Paul was in St. Simons, Ga., in the summer of 1863. He detailed seeing Col. Robert Gould Shaw of the 54^th Massachusetts, the famed regiment of African-American troops, come aboard. Paul said while his captain opposed such units, he and others believed in their service.

The Second Battle of Fort Wagner, which involved an assault by the 54th Massachusetts, took place in July 1863. Although a tactical defeat, the gallant service of the 54^th led to further use of black troops.

(Heritage Auctions)

Paul was transferred to the monitor USS Nahant in January 1864. The engineer inked two drawings of the vessel and wrote this vivid description:

"Every thing is under water and the men mess and sleep in the next room to the board room and at this time they are making considerable racket as they have got up a walk around dance and are playing 'dixie' on two violins and the bones so you can imagine what kind of noise we have got...the waves run over every thing but the Turret....In perfectly smooth water the deck is about eighteen inches out of water." 

Paul’s other letters described life on the Nahant and described various bombardments of Confederate positions in South Carolina. Regarding one: "We went into action at 11 AM, and in one hour we were struck nine times three times cutting holes in the deck each one three feet long. One cut through in the Engine room and knocked a good many splinters down into the room. They were very fine, and not capable of doing much damage...and the third shot that cut the deck, cut it nearly over the powder magazine and knocked a piece of the deck plate through the deck which struck a fireman....It cut him in the head just above the right ear cutting a frightful gash, and then went down and struck him in the collar bone, breaking it and cutting him badly."

(Civil War Picket)

(Heritage Auctions, HA.com)

Seymour said Paul wrote about the February 1864 sinking of the USS Housatonic, though he did not mention the Hunley. He probably did not know at the time that the Confederate submarine was responsible.

Paul saw service through the end of the war. He later worked in Pennsylvania before moving to Ohio, where he worked an engineer for a railroad line. After a stint in Iowa, Paul settled in Cuyahoga Falls. He died in 1900 at age 62.

Seymour said the museum will continue transcribing and rotating the letters, with the hope of eventually digitizing them.

USS Nahant (Wikipedia)