CSS Neuse

CSS ''Neuse'' ( ) was a steam-powered ironclad ram of the Confederate States Navy that served in the latter part the American Civil War and was eventually scuttled to avoid capture by rapidly advancing Union Army forces. In the early 1960s, she produced approximately 15,000 artifacts from her raised lower hull, the largest number ever found on a recovered Confederate vessel. The remains of her lower hull and a selection of her artifacts are on exhibit in Kinston, North Carolina at the CSS Neuse Interpretive Center State Historic Site, which belongs to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. The ironclad is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Construction

A contract for the construction of ''Neuse'' was signed on 17 October 1862 between the shipbuilding company of Thomas Howard and Elijah Ellis and the Confederate Navy. Work began in October of that year on the bank across the Neuse River (her namesake) from the small village of Whitehall, North Carolina (present day Seven Springs). The gunboat's design was virtually identical to her sister ironclad , but ''Neuse'' differed from ''Albemarle'' by having four additional gun ports added (for a total of ten) to her eight-sided armored casemate. The hull was long by wide, and she was constructed mostly of locally abundant pine, with some of oak used as sturdy backing for her 4-inch-thick wrought iron armor. Many delays in construction were incurred by a lack of available materials, mostly the iron plate for her armored casemate and deck; her deck armor was finally left off so the ironclad could be completed and put in service. Due to continuing iron plate shortages, ''Neuse'' became the first of several Southern ironclads built with unarmored decks. This situation was compounded by the Confederate Army exercising priority over the Navy in the use of the South's inadequate railroad system for transporting vital war materiel.

Ordnance and projectiles

''Neuse'' was equipped with two Brooke rifled cannon (similar to a Parrott rifle); each double-banded cannon weighed more than with its pivot carriage and other attached hardware. Both cannons were positioned along the ironclad's center-line in the armored casemate, one forward, the other aft. The field of fire for both pivot rifles was 180-degrees, from port to starboard: Each cannon could fire from one of five gun port positions or could deliver a two-cannon broadside. ''Neuse''s projectiles consisted of explosive shells, anti-personnel canister shot, grape shot, and blunt-nosed, solid wrought iron "bolts" for use against Union armored ships; many examples of all four types were recovered from her raised wreck.

Service and post-war history

Launched in November 1863 while still needing fitting out, ''Neuse'' finally got up steam in April 1864 for duty on the inland waters of North Carolina as part of the force under Commander R. F. Pinkney, CSN. Shortly thereafter, the ironclad grounded off Kinston due to her mostly inexperienced crew, which had been conscripted from the Confederate Army; she remained fast in the mud for almost a month until finally being refloated. After that, due to a lack of available Confederate Army shore support, she never left the river area around Kinston, serving instead as a floating ironclad fortification. In March 1865, with Kinston under siege by Union forces, gunpowder trails were laid down which led to a cache of explosives placed in her bow; the crew then lit fires astern and amidships, and she was destroyed a short time later by fire, then a bow explosion. ''Neuse'' burned to just below her waterline and then sank into the river mud preventing capture by the rapidly advancing Union Army forces, commanded by Major General John M. Schofield. At some point following the war, her sunken hulk, lying in shallow river water and mud, was salvaged of its valuable metals: cannon, carriages and their fittings, anchors, iron ram, casemate armor, both propellers and their shafts, and her steam power plant. Whatever bits and pieces remained, including her projectiles, lay undisturbed in and around the wreck until ''Neuse'' was raised nearly a century later.

Ironclad recovery

After nearly a century, the remaining lower hull of the ironclad was discovered and then raised in 1963; approximately 15,000 shipboard artifacts were recovered and carefully cataloged. ''Neuse''s hull was then temporarily installed in the Governor Caswell Memorial, beside the river, in Kinston. Since 2013, ''Neuse'' and her artifacts have been on display in a new, climate-controlled building in downtown Kinston.

There are currently only four recovered Civil War era ironclad wrecks, CSS ''Neuse'', (also called CSS ''Jackson'' in some texts), , and ; ''Cairo'' remains the only recovered ironclad wreck left partially exposed outdoors under cover in the sometimes brutal southern climate. Other Union and Confederate ironclad wreck sites are known but remain untouched. The successful Confederate submarine ''H. L. Hunley'', which sank the Union blockading sloop-of-war , was recovered and is undergoing extensive restoration and long term conservation at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, South Carolina.

''Neuse II'' replica

A replica of the CSS ''Neuse'', better known as CSS ''Neuse II'', was the brainchild of Kinston activist and businessman Ted Sampley and built by Alton Stapleford. ''Neuse II'' is on grounds display at a separate site in Kinston and contains a complete fitted-out interior that shows all shipboard details; she was constructed by volunteers from 2002 to 2009. ''Neuse'' is the only Confederate ironclad that has a historic, full-size replica on display. Since April 2002 ''Neuse''s sister ironclad, CSS ''Albemarle'' has had a scale replica, long, at anchor near the Port O' Plymouth Museum in Plymouth, North Carolina. This ironclad replica is self-powered and capable of sailing on the river.

References

Notes

Bibliography

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* Bright, Leslie S., Rowland, William H., and Bardon, James C. ''C.S.S. Neuse, A Question of Iron and Time''. Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Raleigh, NC. 1981. .
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* Campbell, R. Thomas. ''Southern Thunder: Exploits of the Confederate States Navy'', White Maine Publishing, 1996. .
* Campbell, R. Thomas. ''Southern Fire: Exploits of the Confederate States Navy'', White Maine Publishing, 1997. .
* Campbell, R. Thomas. ''Fire and Thunder: Exploits of the Confederate States Navy,'' White Maine Publishing, 1997. .
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External links

CSS Neuse Nuseum

CSS Neuse II

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neuse
Ironclad warships of the Confederate States Navy
Museums in Lenoir County, North Carolina
Museum ships in North Carolina
Ships preserved in museums
National Register of Historic Places in Lenoir County, North Carolina
History of North Carolina
Ships built in North Carolina
Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina
1863 ships
American Civil War museums in North Carolina
Maritime incidents in March 1865
Scuttled vessels
Ship fires
Shipwrecks of the American Civil War
North Carolina State Historic Sites