CSS Nashville

CSS Nashville was a large side-wheel steam casemate ironclad built by the Confederates late in the American Civil War. Description The ship was long overall, had a beam of and a draft of . The side wheels were powered by two steam engines with a bore and a stroke. She was armed with three Brooke rifles and a 24-pounder howitzer. Construction and career Nashville was laid down at Montgomery, Alabama, because of the availability of riverboat engines there. Launched in mid-1863, Nashville was taken to Mobile, Alabama, for completion in 1864. Part of her armor came from the . Her first commander was Lieutenant Charles Carroll Simms, CSN. Still fitting out, she took no part in the Battle of Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864. She helped fend off attacks on Spanish Fort, Alabama, on 27 March 1865, supported Confederate commander Randall L. Gibson until driven away by Federal batteries, and shelled Federal troops near Fort Blakely on 2 April 1865. The ships retreated up the Tombigbee River 10 days later when Mobile surrendered. She was one of the vessels formally surrendered by Commodore Ebenezer Farrand, CSN, at Nanna Hubba Bluff on 10 May 1865.