armored ship thursday on friday

here are two small ironclads serving in the Confederate States Navy in the War Between the States. CSS Chicora and CSS Palmetto State were both built in Charleston, SC and served their entire careers there. both vessels were 150' long and displaced around 850t. their casemate side armor was 4" with 2" on the ends. both of them were underpowered as was the case with most if not all the Confederate ironclads. the Confederacy having no marine engine industry was forced to use what it could get. thus their top speed was only 5-6kts. Palmetto State was the most powerfully armed of the two with a Brooke 7" rifle at each end of the casemate and one 9" Dahlgren smoothbore on each side. the Chicora had four 32lb. rifles. on the morning of January 31, 1863 under the command of Commander Tucker CSN the two ironclads put to sea in order to attack the Union Navy's blockading fleet off Charleston. surprizing the Yankees greatly the USS Mercedita was forced to surrender and the USS Keystone State was put out of action by the Palmetto State. the Chicora stood off the rest of the US fleet while this happened. once awakened by all this the Union fleet retreated. the two ironclads being so slow couldn't catch them and so retired to harbor. all in all a success for the Confederate Navy. later in the year the two helped defend the harbor and Fort Sumter against the attack of the Union ironclads under Admiral DuPont. the Union Navy was forced into retreat but still kept up the blockade of Charleston. at the surrender of Charleston in 1865 the CSS Chicora and CSS Palmetto State were burned to prevent their capture. the two top pictures have captions explaining their contents. the third picture is of Palmetto State and the last one of Chicora.