USS NEW IRONSIDES
The most powerful vessel in the Civil War

USS New Ironsides was one of the Union's original three "salt-water" ironclad warships during the American Civil War. Commissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard 21 August 1862, New Ironsides was the last, and largest, of the group of three. With a length of 230', she had a complement of 449 sailors. She was named after the sail frigate USS Constitution, the legendary "Old Ironsides" of the War of 1812 because of her very thick armor.

From the waterline, New Ironsides' armor  was 4.5-inch. Below the waterline was 3 inches. This tremendous iron protection made the ship ideal for blockading and she spent most of her career blockading the Confederate ports of Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1863–65. USS New Ironsides was fitted with a steam engine which propelled her up to eight knots. She also had a sail rig, which was removed and stowed while the ship was engaged in hostile action.

After final fitting out at Norfolk, the large new ironclad steamer became Rear Adm. Du Pont's flagship. She led the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston, S.C., on 17 January, guarding the wooden blockaders from attack of Confederate ironclads.

On 7 April, Du Pont's ironclads attacked the Confederate defensive works in Charleston Harbor. At noon the Union ships got under way and followed monitor Weehawken into battle. Soon the concentrated fire of the shore batteries began pounding Du Pont's vessels; and during the next two hours, more than 2,000 Southern rounds challenged their progress. Some 50 times the Confederate cannoneers hit New Ironsides but did not severely damage her. The tricky currents in the narrow channel also proved formidable, twice forcing the New Ironsides to anchor to avoid running aground. In addition, New Ironsides lay directly over a torpedo containing over a ton of powder for nearly an hour, but a broken wire prevented the Confederates from exploding the "infernal machine." As darkness approached, Du Pont ordered the ironclads to retire. He learned that the efficiency of his monitors had been greatly impaired and USS Keokuk had been severely damaged (she sank the following day.) New Ironsides, on the other hand, had withstood her intensive pounding with less damage. During the ensuing weeks, while most of the monitors were absent for repairs, New Ironsides remained off Charleston guarding the vulnerable Federal wooden hulled ships.

New Ironsides' broadside battery of eight heavy guns on each side made her a uniquely valuable ship for bombardment purposes. Early in July, New Ironsides resumed operations in Charleston Harbor concentrating against Fort Wagner. For about two months, she hammered Confederate positions. On 4 September, Col. Lawrence M. Keitt who commanded the fort, reported, "rapid and fatal" effects of the Union guns. The next day the shelling killed 100 of the fort's defenders and the bombardment grew in intensity until the Confederacy secretly evacuated Morris Island on the night of 6 September.

The following day, USS Weehawken ran aground during an attack on Fort Sumter, and New Ironsides joined four monitors in shelling Confederate batteries to cover their helpless sister. The next morning, she placed herself between Weehawken and the Southern batteries to draw fire while Union tugs labored to refloat Weehawken. Although hit over 50 times, the powerful flagship emerged unscathed.

A few weeks later, on the night of 5 October, CSS David, a Confederate torpedo boat, slipped into the harbor and exploded a spar torpedo against New Ironsides' starboard quarter, somewhat damaging her. She nevertheless remained on blockade duty off Charleston until steaming to Philadelphia in May 1864 for repairs on 30 June.

Recommissioned on 27 August 1864, New Ironsides joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Norfolk, Va. New Ironsides got underway on 18 December to rendezvous with the Union armada. On Christmas Eve, she led other ironclads into attack. The admiral reported that New Ironsides "took her position in the most beautiful and seamanlike manner, got her spring out, and opened deliberate fire on the fort which was firing at her with all its guns...they were silenced almost as soon as the New Ironsides opened her terrific battery."

On 13 January 1864, the Union renewed the attack. New Ironsides led the monitors to within 1,000 yards of Fort Fisher and opened on the batteries. Meanwhile, Union's 8,000 troops landed out of range of the fort's guns. At mid afternoon on the third day of the fighting, the fleet ceased firing and the soldiers, aided greatly by a landing party of some 3,000 Sailors and Marines, charged the Confederate fortifications. The battle hung in the balance until the guns of the Union ships, firing at right angles to the direction of the Union advance, opened with deadly precision. Col. Lamb, the Confederate commander, later wrote "as the tide of the battle seemed to have turned in our favor, the remorseless fleet came to the rescue of the faltering Federals."

The fall of Fort Fisher on 15 January 1865 and the closing of Wilmington cut off the South's last source of supplies for its armies in the field and severed Confederate communications with the outside world.

New Ironsides stood out for Hampton Roads on 17 January to join the James River division supporting Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's final operations against Richmond. As the Confederacy collapsed, New Ironsides steamed to Philadelphia and decommissioned at League Island on 6 April 1865. A fire destroyed the veteran ironclad on 16 December 1866.

This primarily wood model of the ironclad USS New Ironsides is 28" long x 10.5" tall x 7" wide (1/100 scale.) $2,650  Shipping and insurance in the contiguous USA included. Other places: $300 flat rate.  This model is in stock and can be shipped within five business days.
 

Be sure to check out our beautiful USS Cairo, CSS Virginia, USS Monitor model, USS Tecumseh, CSS Tennessee.
                                               

Learn more about the New Ironsides here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_New_Ironsides