CSS Tennessee ( 1863 ) CSS Tennessee was a casemate ironclad ram built for the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War . She served as the flagship of Admiral Franklin Buchanan , commander of the Mobile Squadron , after commissioning . The ship was captured by the Union Navy during the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864 and commissioned to participate in the subsequent Siege of Fort Morgan . She was decommissioned after the end of the war and sold for scrap in 1867 . Design , description and construction . " Tennessee " was built at Selma , Alabama , where she was commissioned on February 16 , 1864 . towed her to Mobile where she was fitted out . " Tennessee " was laid down in October 1862 , hull and other woodwork turned out by Henry D . Bassett , who launched her the following February , ready for towing to Mobile to be engined and armed . Her steam plant came from the steamer " Alonzo Child " ; only casemate design differed materially from and . Her iron mail was the same 2 by 10 in ( 50 by 250 mm ) plate used on CSS " Huntsville " and CSS " Tuscaloosa " but triple instead of double thickness . This iron plate was made by the Shelby Iron Company in Shelby , Alabama . A fearsome detail of her armament was a " hot water attachment to her boilers for repelling boarders , throwing one stream from forward of the casemate and one aft . " The vicissitudes implicit in creating such an ironclad are graphically conveyed by Admiral Franklin Buchanan , writing September 20 , 1863 to Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory : " Tennessee " became flagship of Admiral Buchanan , and served gallantly in action in the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5 , 1864 . On that morning " Tennessee " and wooden gunboats , , and , steamed into combat against Admiral David G . Farragut ' s powerful fleet of four ironclad monitors and 14 wooden steamers . Unable to ram the Union ships because of their superior speed , " Tennessee " delivered a vigorous fire on the Federals at close range . The Confederate gunboats were sunk or dispersed . Farragut ' s fleet steamed up into the bay and anchored . Buchanan might have held " Tennessee " under the fort ' s protection but steamed after the Federal fleet and engaged despite overwhelming odds . The ram became the target for the entire Union fleet . " Tennessee " was rammed by several ships , and her vulnerable steering chains ( which , oddly , lay in exposed trenches on the after deck ) were carried away by the heavy gunfire . Unable to maneuver , " Tennessee " was battered repeatedly by heavy solid shot from her adversaries . With two of her men killed , Admiral Buchanan and eight others wounded , and increasingly severe damage being inflicted on her , " Tennessee " was forced to surrender . USS " Tennessee " . Immediately following her capture and repair , " Tennessee " was commissioned in the United States Navy , Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Pierre Giraud in command . The ironclad participated in the Federal assault on Fort Morgan on August 23 which resulted in the fort ' s capitulation that same day . That autumn , she moved from Mobile , AL to New Orleans , LA for repairs before joining the Mississippi Squadron . She served on the Mississippi river through the end of the war in April 1865 and briefly thereafter . On August 19 , 1865 , " Tennessee " was placed out of commission and was laid up at New Orleans . There , she remained until November 27 , 1867 when she was sold at auction to J . F . Armstrong for scrapping . Though the remainder of the vessel was scrapped , two 7 - inch Brooke rifle s and two 6 . 4 - inch Brooke rifles were preserved and are still on display in the Old weapons exhibit in East Willard Park at the Washington Navy Yard , Washington , D . C . One of her 6 . 4 - inch ( 160 mm ) double - banded Brooke rifled cannon is on display at the Headquarters of the Commander - in - Chief U . S . Atlantic Command at the Norfolk , Virginia Naval base . One of her 7 - inch Brooke rifle s is on display at the city hall of Selma , Alabama where it was cast .