CSS Mississippi CSS " Mississippi " was a projected ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy , intended to be used on the Mississippi River in the vicinity of New Orleans during the American Civil War . Her design was unusual , as she was built according to house - building techniques . Whether this would have proved to be feasible cannot be known , as she was not complete when New Orleans fell to the Union Fleet under Flag Officer David G . Farragut on 25 April 1862 . Rather than let her fall into enemy hands , Captain Arthur Sinclair , CSN , ordered her to be hastily launched and burned . Despite the delays in construction that left her unfinished and untried , her mere existence , together with that of CSS " Louisiana " , raised thwarted hopes in the defenders of New Orleans , and unfounded fears in Union circles , that affected the strategy of both sides in the campaign on the lower Mississippi . " Mississippi " is significant to the Civil War therefore not so much as a warship as in the way her reputation influenced events , and as an example of the difficulties the South had in the contest with the industrial North . Origin of the river ironclads . At the start of the Civil War , Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R . Mallory had promptly urged the building of armored warships , to counter by the inherent quality of ships in his Navy the superior numbers the Federal Navy would be able to use . At his prodding , the Confederacy embarked on a construction program that included several armored vessels intended for use on the Mississippi River and other inland waters . The initial plans , prepared after US President Abraham Lincoln had proclaimed the blockade of Southern ports but before the North had taken any major steps to subjugate the South , called for five ironclads to be built in the interior : CSS " Eastport " on the Tennessee River , " Arkansas " and " Tennessee " on the Mississippi at Memphis , and " Louisiana " and " Mississippi " at New Orleans . In the end , only " Arkansas " of these five ever engaged the Union fleet in the intended manner ; here we are concerned with why " Mississippi " was unable to do so . Concept , contract , and construction . Nelson Tift had been raised in Florida , but moved to Georgia as a young man and there became locally prominent . ( The town of Tifton , in Tift County , is named for him . ) At the outbreak of the Civil War , he realized some of the difficulties faced by the South in its need to confront the Northern navy . Secretary Mallory had called for building a navy essentially from scratch , but not only were there no shipyards , there were also no skilled shipwrights to work in them . Reasoning that too much time would be lost training men in traditional techniques , Tift hit on the idea of constructing ships on house - building principles . He thought of making a ship with flat sides , with square corners except where the pointed ends join with the rest of the hull . He made a model to illustrate his idea , and used it to further his proposal . ( See accompanying figure . ) Nelson ' s brother Asa F . Tift agreed to work with him . Asa ' s support was important , as he had remained in Florida when Nelson moved to Georgia . He had become a successful businessman in Key West , where he came to know Stephen Mallory before he became a United States Senator and then Confederate Secretary of the Navy . No evidence exists that Asa Tift and Mallory were ever formally associated in any of their businesses , but their friendship opened doors . The Tifts showed the model to Mallory , who in turn showed it to a naval review board . When the board pronounced the idea to be feasible , Mallory authorized the brothers to go to New Orleans and there put their idea into concrete form . They were to supervise the construction of an as yet unnamed armored ship carrying 18 guns , driven by three screws . The contract , such as it was , was unusual . The Tifts were not paid for their labors , aside from expenses . They were encouraged to alter the planned construction if they thought that doing so would improve it . No completion date and no cost limit were set . All depended upon the skill and integrity of the Tifts . In the words of Secretary Mallory , Among the first tasks confronting the brothers was that of finding a shipyard capable of handling a job as big as the one envisioned . None in or near New Orleans was suitable , so they established their own at Jefferson City , on the river just north of the city line . As the builders of CSS " Louisiana " had the same experience and solved it the same way , the two monsters came to be built side by side . " Mississippi " ' s name was henceforth forever linked with that of " Louisiana . " The first plank — it would be incorrect to refer to it as the keel — was laid down on 14 October 1861 . Already it had been found that the engines of the original design could not drive the finished vessel at the desired speed , so more boiler space had to be added . This increased the overall length to 252 feet ( 76 . 8 meters ) . The extra length allowed positions for two more guns , for a total of twenty . For comparison , CSS " Virginia " ( ex - USS " Merrimack " ) carried only 12 guns , while " Louisiana " had 16 . From the first , construction was delayed by a combination of circumstances . Acquisition of parts and materials was most obvious , but the builders also encountered labor troubles , plus interference from the local military authorities . Consider these in turn . Iron for the armor was in short supply throughout the Confederacy , and was not to be found near New Orleans . Eventually the Tifts were able to find a foundry in Atlanta that would produce plate iron of sufficient thickness , but delivery by way of the already overtaxed railroad system was often sporadic . Plates awaiting shipment sometimes lay in Atlanta for weeks . The final armor arrived in New Orleans on the day the ship was burned . The engines and shafts added to the problems . The increased size of boilers , already alluded to , caused some delay . The contract that was let for the engines called for the job to be done by the end of January , but they were not installed until April . The greatest mechanical problem , however , was fabrication of the three shafts that were to connect the engines to the screws . The two outboard shafts could be handled by New Orleans shops , but the long central shaft could not be manufactured anyplace in the Confederacy . A satisfactory shaft was found in a wrecked ship in October , but only the Tredegar Iron Works or the Gosport ( Norfolk ) Navy Yard in Virginia could handle the needed modifications . When they were completed , the shaft then had to be transported over the rails . It was shipped out on 26 March . Although all three shafts were put into the hull , they were not hooked up with the engines , and the two outboard screws were still on the wharf at the end . Labor troubles of the traditional sort arose in November , shortly after work commenced . The workers in all the shipyards struck , demanding that their wages be increased from $ 3 to $ 4 per day . The other owners wanted to wait out the strikers , but after a week the Tifts gave in . The others were forced to follow suit . Trouble of a different sort was found shortly thereafter , when the Tifts found that they were competing with E . C . Murray , who was building " Louisiana , " for the same skilled workmen . To solve this problem , the Tifts and Murray agreed to share labor , with " Louisiana " having first call . Another set of delays was caused by the local military policies , which insisted that all men of appropriate ages participate in militia activities , including parades . A protest to the governor was rejected . Murray and the Tifts requested of Major General Mansfield Lovell that their men be exempted . Although Lovell agreed and issued the needed order , the practice continued . Although all the delays cannot be simply added to find how much time was lost , clearly the loss was critical . Long after " Mississippi " was torched and New Orleans was surrendered , Nelson Tift stated that he believed his ship would have been completed in another two or three weeks . ( This estimate was contradicted by Captain Sinclair , who thought she was more like ten weeks away from completion . ) The final days . In mid - March 1862 , the Union fleet under Flag Officer Farragut began to enter the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico , with the obvious ultimate purpose of attacking New Orleans . Farragut was already under some time pressure from Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles , who feared that if the two ironclad " monsters " ( a term widely used at the time to characterize CSS " Louisiana " and " Mississippi " ) were to be successfully completed , they would be able to shatter the blockade . The Confederate government in Richmond was not so much concerned with the blockade as with the threat posed by the Union Western Gunboat Flotilla , then approaching Memphis . Even as Farragut was moving his ships across the bar , President Davis and Navy Secretary Mallory were promising Flag Officer George N . Hollins , commanding the Confederate States Navy forces on the Mississippi , that " Louisiana " would be sent up to Memphis as soon as she could be finished ( expected to be within days ) , and " Mississippi " would follow shortly thereafter . At about this time , the Navy Department ordered Commander Arthur Sinclair to report to New Orleans to take command of " Mississippi . " Sinclair arrived on 3 April . The Tift brothers about this time came under increasing public pressure to hasten the completion of their ship . A self - appointed group of citizens , calling themselves the Committee of Public Safety , tried to force them to launch " Mississippi " prematurely , against the advice of Sinclair and the engineers working on the ship . The Tifts refused , arguing that to do so would delay completion by several weeks . All arguments were rendered moot on 24 April , when the Union fleet passed the forts defending New Orleans from the south . Trying to move the ship to a safe place where she could be finished , Sinclair had her hastily launched — with approval of the Tifts — , and tried to have her towed upriver . The tow boats he initially hired were inadequate , however , so next day he tried to find others . While he was so engaged , the Union fleet came in sight , so " Mississippi " was ordered burned . Further reading . Durkin , Joseph T . , S . J . , " Confederate Navy Chief : Stephen R . Mallory . " Univ . of North Carolina Press , 1954 ; republished , Univ . of South Carolina Press , 1987 . " Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion . " Series I , 27 volumes ; Series II , 3 volumes . Government Printing Office , 1894 – 1922 . Especially useful is Volume 1 of Series II , pages 431 – 809 , " Investigation of [ Confederate ] Navy Department . Report of evidence taken before a joint special committee of both Houses of the Confederate Congress to investigate the affairs of the Navy Department . "