page_title: Casemate ironclad
hierarchical_section_title: Casemate ironclad
caption_attribution_description: English: Painting by Robert G. Skerrett of CSS Palmetto State, published in James Morris Morgan's Recollections of a Rebel Reefer (1917). From the public domain U.S. Naval Historical Center.
context_page_description: The casemate ironclad was a type of iron or iron-armored gunboat briefly used in the American Civil War by both the Confederate States Navy and its adversary, the Union Navy. Compared to the turreted ironclad warships that became standard, the casemate ironclad did not have its individual cannons encased in a separate armored gun deck/turret, but instead had a single casemate structure, or armored citadel, on the main deck housing the entire gun battery. As the guns were carried on the top of the ship yet still fired through fixed gunports, the casemate ironclad is seen as an intermediate stage between the traditional broadside frigate and the modern warships.
context_section_description: The casemate ironclad was a type of iron or iron-armored gunboat briefly used in the American Civil War by both the Confederate States Navy and its adversary, the Union Navy. Compared to the turreted ironclad warships that became standard, the casemate ironclad did not have its individual (often paired) cannons encased in a separate armored gun deck/turret, but instead had a single (often sloped) casemate structure, or armored citadel, on the main deck housing the entire gun battery. As the guns were carried on the top of the ship yet still fired through fixed gunports, the casemate ironclad is seen as an intermediate stage between the traditional broadside frigate and the modern warships.
caption: CSS Palmetto State, the archetypal casemate ironclad. Note the sloped deck and the low waterline.
exif: {}