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CSS ''Webb'', a 655-ton side-wheel steam ram, was originally built in
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in 1856 as the civilian steamship ''William H. Webb''. She received a Confederate privateer's commission at New Orleans in May 1861, but was instead employed as a transport until January 1862. Converted to a " cotton clad" ram by the Confederate Army, thereafter served on the
Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
and
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Rivers. On February 24, 1863, under the command of Captain Charles Pierce, she participated in the sinking of the Federal ironclad . ''Webb'' was transferred to the Confederate Navy in early 1865. On April 23–24, 1865, under the command of Charles S. Read, ''Webb'' broke through the Federal blockade at the mouth of the Red River, Louisiana, and made a dramatic run down the Mississippi toward the
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
. After eluding several
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
vessels and passing
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Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
, she was confronted by the powerful steam
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. Rather than face the veteran ship's broadside, the ''Webb'' was run ashore and destroyed by her crew. Stern, 1962, pp. 140-141


See also

*
Blockade runners of the American Civil War The blockade runners of the American Civil War were seagoing steam ships that were used to get through the Union blockade that extended some along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastlines and the lower Mississippi River. The Confederate stat ...
*
List of ships of the Confederate States Navy This is a list of ships of the Confederate States Navy (CSN), used by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865. Included are some types of civilian vessels, such as blockade runners, steamboats, and pr ...
* Confederate River Defense Fleet *
Mississippi River campaigns The Mississippi River campaigns, within the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War, were a series of military actions by the Union Army during which Union troops, helped by Union Navy gunboats and river ironclads, took control of the ...
* Red River Campaign


References


Sources

* * : - Cottonclad rams of the Confederate States Navy 1856 ships Ships built by William H. Webb Shipwrecks of the American Civil War Shipwrecks of the Mississippi River Maritime incidents in April 1865 {{AmericanCivilWar-stub