CSS Arkansas

[Knife]

If ever there was a plucky little ship, it was the CSS Arkansas. She was built in Memphis. Captain Isaac Brown was charged with outfitting her, but when he first arrived in Memphis he found all the iron casing was sunk and lying at the bottom of the Mississippi. He recovered the iron, made the ship watertight and towed her to Yazoo City and completed her construction in 5 weeks. Boiler plate was stuck on her stern to fool the Union forces by simulating thicker armor. In her first check-out voyage she single-handedly took on the whole Union navy attacking Vickburg. She disabled the Union ironclad USS Carondelet and proceeded to sail down the breadth of the wooden ships purposely sailing as close as possible to prevent being rammed and to prevent the large ships from firing down upon her. Prior to Pearl Harbor this was the single worst defeat suffered by the US Navy.

Sheltering under the heavy guns of Vicksburg, she was a constant threat to the Union forces attacking the city. Ironclads were like the nuclear weapons of their day. Their effectiveness was often based more upon their threatened use, rather than actual combat. Because the Arkansas could sail at anytime from Vicksburg, the Union forces were forced to keep their fleet ready to steam at anytime and be fully combat ready. Her threat was so great that after her first week in Vicksburg she was the target of a raid by three Union warships. The attack was repulsed, and with the Arkansas' constant threat the Union warships retreated to New Orleans and the Vicksburg campaign became primarily a ground battle.

In a classic case of "hey dad, can I borrow the keys" the CSS Arkansas was destroyed when Capt Brown took a week of leave, instructing his second in command to keep the vessel in port. Lt Henry Stevens disobeyed his orders, and took the vessel out to attack Baton Rouge. At exactly the worse time, when under attack by the USS Essex, both of Arkansas' engines broke down and she drifted helplessly to shore. The crew abandoned ship and set her afire. She eventually drifted down river and exploded.

During her short but illustratrus lifetime, no photos were taken of her. My model is based on illustrations found in the Osprey publishing book "Confederate Ironclad 1861-65". I've modified the design based on several illustrations and other modeler's attempts found off the internet. Designing and unfolding was accomplished per CT Ertz's tutorial. I'm currently working on the exported 2d images to add detail.