CSS Arkansas was a powerful casemate ironclad
ram distinguished particularly for what she
accomplished. Plated over with railroad iron and iron
plate, she had a 9-ton ramming beak and was considered
fast for her size. Laid down at Memphis and completed at
Yazoo City, she was commissioned in May 1862, Lieutenant
Isaac Newton Brown commanding.
On July 15 she engaged the
ironclads Tyler, Belle of the West and
Carondelet.
She sank the Carondelet and chased the other
two Union vessels down the Mississippi where she then
fought her way through the entire Mississippi squadron
of ships commanded by Admiral Farragut.
She fought
her way past the Hartford, Iroquois, Richmond, Sumter,
Louisville, Oneida, Cincinnati, Sciota,
Wissahickon, Winona, Essex, Benton, and Lancaster and
to take refuge beneath the
batteries of Vicksburg city.
Such a feat is an amazing accomplishment to her
construction and the bravery of her crew.
Once docked
at Vicksburg she was repeatedly attacked by the Union
fleet but her crew repulsed every attempt to sink her.
Her 28 days of glory came to an end when her engines
failed while supporting Confederate troops in the land
attack on Baton Rouge.
she was abandoned and set afire to
avoid capture by USS Essex
To conceal the Arkansas, the ship was painted a deep earth brown to match
the color of the Mississippi River but every eyewitness
account says she was rust colored due to the poor
quality of the pigment in the Confederate paint.
Fully assembled
21" long $980
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