View source for CSS Texas (1865)

{{Short description|Ironclad of the Confederate States Navy}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=[[File:CSS Texas plan.jpg|300px|CSS Texas cross-section]]
|Ship caption=One of the few surviving plan drawings of ironclad CSS ''Texas'': a cross-section through the boiler area.
}}
{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country=Confederate States
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Confederate States of America|naval}}
|Ship name=''Texas''
|Ship namesake= [[State of Texas]]
|Ship ordered=
|Ship awarded=
|Ship builder=
|Ship original cost=
|Ship laid down=
|Ship launched=January 1865
|Ship sponsor=
|Ship christened=
|Ship captured=4 April 1865
|Ship fate=Sold, 15 October 1867
|Ship notes=
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}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
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|Header caption=
|Ship class={{sclass|Columbia|ironclad|0}} [[casemate ironclad]]
|Ship displacement=
|Ship tons burthen=
|Ship length={{convert|217|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} 
|Ship beam={{convert|48.5|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} 
|Ship draught=
|Ship draft={{convert|13.5|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} 
|Ship power=
|Ship propulsion=steam
|Ship speed=
|Ship range=
|Ship complement=50 officers and men
|Ship crew=
|Ship armament=two rifled pivot canons, two rifled broadside canons
|Ship armor=
|Ship notes=
}}
|}

'''CSS ''Texas''''' was the third and last {{sclass|Columbia|ironclad|0}} (or {{sclass|Tennessee|ironclad|0}} according to some sources<ref name=Konstam8>Konstam, 2001, p. 8</ref>) [[casemate ironclad]] built for the [[Confederate Navy]] during the [[American Civil War]]. Not begun until 1864 and intended to become part of the [[James River Squadron]], she saw no action before being captured by Union forces while still [[fitting out]]. CSS ''Texas'' was reputed to have been one of the very best-constructed Confederate ironclads,<ref name=Gibbons23>Gibbons, 1989, p. 23</ref> second only to {{ship|CSS|Mississippi}}.<ref name=Melton249>Melton, 1968, p. 249</ref>

==History==
Designed by [[John L. Porter]], the Confederacy's chief naval designer, CSS ''Texas'' belonged to an 1863/64 class of three ironclads, with {{ship|CSS|Tennessee|1863}} (also referred to as the CSS ''Tennessee II'') and {{ship|CSS|Columbia}}, all three slated to be sister ships. Of the three, only ''Tennessee'' was  completed and commissioned, proving her mettle in the [[Battle of Mobile Bay]].<ref name=Konstam8>Konstam, 2001, p. 8</ref> ''Columbia'' was launched but incapacitated while being completed, never seeing operational duty in the Civil War, despite later being captured, repaired, and appraised by the [[Union Navy]].

The keel for CSS ''Texas'' was [[Keel laying|laid down]] at [[Rocketts Landing|Rocketts Naval Yard]], just outside [[Richmond, Virginia]]. She was [[ship naming and launching|launched]] in mid-January 1865, almost at exactly the same time as her unfinished sister ironclad ''Columbia'' was crippled beyond salvation.<ref>Gibbons, 1989, pp. 34, 52</ref> At the time of [[Robert E. Lee]]'s evacuation of Richmond on 3 April 1865, she was left unfinished but still intact at the Richmond Navy Yard. She was one of only two vessels (the other being the small iron-hulled gunboat {{ship|CSS|Beaufort}}) which escaped destruction by retreating Confederate forces,<ref name=Orn1>''[[Official Records of the War of the Rebellion|Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion]]'', Series I, Vol. 12, pp. 98, 101 and 115, 1901</ref> because attempts to set her ablaze proved unsuccessful.<ref name=Konstam16>Konstam, 2001, p. 16</ref> Captured when Richmond fell the following day, both ironclad and gunboat were appropriated "for use in the Navy", as per Union Admiral [[David D. Porter]] (not related to the ''Texas'' designer).<ref name=Orn1/> In his official report of April 12, 1865, Porter mentioned that he was informed that the engines and parts of her armor were not yet installed, residing undamaged but completed in the warehouses of the Richmond naval yard. He subsequently ordered all of it transported to the [[Norfolk Naval Shipyard]], along with the ironclad. This task was begun on 3 May 1865 and completed the following day. ''Texas'' was towed downstream by three tugboats, accompanied by Union monitor {{USS|Sangamon|1862|6}}, commanded by [[Lieutenant Commander]] R. Chandler, who was in charge of the overall operation.<ref name=Orn1/>

As the war was winding down, and unlike her captured sister ship ''Tennessee'', ''Texas'' was not commissioned into the Union Navy. She saw no active service, except for a trial run on 22 June 1865 with her engines apparently installed, the one and only time ''Texas'' was known to have sailed under her own power.<ref name=ORN>''[[Official Records of the War of the Rebellion|Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion]]'', Series II, Vol. 1, p. 269, 1921</ref> She was eventually laid up at the Norfolk yard until 15 October 1867, when she was sold at auction for scrapping to J. N. Leonard & Co.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ddgCAAAAYAAJ&dq=J.+N.+Leonard+%26+Co&pg=PA1014 Price & Lee Directory (1899)]</ref> of [[New Haven, Connecticut]], having originally cost $218,068 to construct.<ref name=ORN/><ref name=Gibbons23/>

==Design==
The [[casemate]] of ''Texas'' was roughly octagonal, rather than being a sloped, rectangular, armored box, as on earlier Confederate ironclads and including her class sisters; during construction, it was shortened and reshaped due to critical war materials shortages, accounting for the substantially reduced number of crew needed, when compared to her class sister CSS ''Tennessee II''. The casemate fitted snugly around her eight gun ports, six of which were to be used with two pivot cannons, each one firing from three forward and three aft gun port positions.
[[File:NH 76389 Brooke Single-Banded Rifled Gun.jpg|240 px|thumb|left|Cannon and pivot carriage mounting plan intended for CSS ''Texas'' installation.]]
Details of her armament are sketchy, but her sister ''Tennessee II'', carried four {{convert|6.4|in|mm|adj=on|0}} [[Brooke rifle]]s, two {{convert|7.0|in|mm|adj=on|0}} Brooke rifles, and a bolted-on [[spar torpedo]] fitted to her bow. ''Tennessee II''{{'}}s armor was three layers of {{convert|2|in|mm|adj=on|0}} iron plate, and instead of being bolted to her deck, the [[pilot house]] formed a seamless extension of her sloped side-armor. ''Tennessee II''{{'}}s top speed was about {{convert|5|kn|lk=in}}, according to some sources, and her crew numbered about 133 sailors. However, it is unclear how closely ''Texas'' would have resembled her sister had she been completed, if at all, considering the shortages ''Texas'' had to contend with during construction.

Other sources gave ''Texas'' a (projected) top speed of about {{convert|10|kn}}. These note that both ''Tennessee II'' and ''Texas'' differed from each other in their final details due to a lack of available materials, notably the iron plate for her armor; her cannons and engines were also different. During construction, design improvements were also incorporated into ''Texas'' from lessons learned in combat with the Union Navy.<ref name=Konstam16/>

Particulars on her dimensions and propulsion, recorded by her [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] captors, were later included as a statistical summary in the "[[Official Records of the War of the Rebellion|Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion]]". It was stated that she measured 217 feet in length, 48.6 feet abeam, and was designed to draw 13 feet of water and 13.6 feet when fully loaded. She was a twin-engined vessel, each driving a separate propeller, powered by two 22'(L)×8.4'(W)×9.1'(H) boilers, heated by a 7'(L)×3.6'(W) furnace, with a grate surface area of 96.8 sq. ft. Recorded is also an appraisal of an inspecting Union officer, who deemed ''Texas'' as "(...) one of the best and most valuable hulls built by the Rebels". It was only in this summary that the June 22 trial run was mentioned.<ref name=ORN/>

==Popular culture==
CSS ''Texas'' is featured prominently in the [[feature film]] [[Sahara (2005 film)|''Sahara'']] (2005), based on the best-selling [[Sahara (novel)|novel of the same name]] by [[Clive Cussler]]. In both, a team of treasure hunters search for what was considered by the late 20th century a mythical Civil War-era Confederate ironclad transporting an equally mythical cargo of gold bullion (one more take on the myth of lost "[[Confederate gold]]"). In the film's fictionalized version of historical events (and unlike its historical counterpart), CSS ''Texas'', close to completion and under the command of Captain Mason Tombs, made it out of Richmond just before the fall of the city. The ironclad battles through the Union blockade of the [[James River]] before disappearing into history. It is carrying what remains of the Confederate treasury's gold bullion, the riches the salvagers are pursuing. The ironclad and its contents (including the mortal remains of its crew that later succumbed to a tropical disease) are discovered a century later. Everything is buried in an old, forgotten, dried up tributary of the [[Niger River]], deep in western Africa (on the highly implausible assumption that an early river ironclad, without masts and long-range sails, could somehow traverse the often violent Atlantic all the way to Africa without a renewable fuel source for its hungry steam boilers and engines). The adventurers manage to reactivate the ironclad's heavy ordinance to fight-off an African warlord and his troops. They succeed in killing him, even though the ironclad's iron plating is heavily bullet-riddled and no match for modern armor-piercing ordnance. ''Texas'' and its historic contents are remanded into the custody of the Smithsonian Institution, but not before the adventurers have successfully removed the Confederate bullion to another African location, under the watchful, guarding eyes of others...

In Cussler's novel, CSS ''Texas'' is powered by riverboat steam engines that enable her to make a highly unlikely 14 knots. She is armed with four heavy cannon, two Blakely 100-pounders and two 9-inch 68-pounders, which to a certain extent corresponds with what little is known of the historical ship in her final configuration. The film features the ship with more than four guns.

Two recreations of ''Texas'' were constructed for the film: a scale shooting model and full-sized exterior and interior sets. Their outer appearances did not correspond with what is known about the historical ironclad; instead, ''Texas'' is represented on screen as an amalgam of the original {{ship|CSS|Virginia}} (of the [[Battle of Hampton Roads]] fame) and Porter's original casemate ironclad (co-)design, which he based on his two 150&nbsp;ft. and 180&nbsp;ft. standard designs. The ''Columbia''-class was a variant of the latter and both CSS ''Tennessee'' and CSS ''Columbia'' were built with larger and differently-shaped casemates.<ref>Gibbons, 1989, pp. 22-23, 34-35, 44-45</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |last1=Bisbee |first1=Saxon T. |title=Engines of Rebellion: Confederate Ironclads and Steam Engineering in the American Civil War |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |isbn=978-0-81731-986-1|date=2018}}
* {{cite book |last1=Canney |first1=Donald L. |title=The Confederate Steam Navy 1861-1865 |date=2015 |publisher=Schiffer Publishing|location=Atglen, Pennsylvania |isbn=978-0-7643-4824-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Canney|first=Donald L.|title=The Old Steam Navy: The Ironclads, 1842–1885 |publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland |date=1993|volume=2 |isbn=0-87021-586-8}}
* {{cite book|last=Gibbons|first=Tony|title=Warships and Naval Battles of the US Civil War|publisher=Dragon's World Publishing|location=Limpsfield, UK|date=1989|isbn=1-85028-094-0}}
* {{cite book|last=Melton|first=Maurice|title=The Confederate Ironclads|publisher=Thomas Yoseloff |location=South Brunswick, New York|date=1968}}
* {{cite book|last=Konstam|first=Angus|title=Confederate Ironclad 1861-65|publisher=Osprey Publishing|location=Wellingborough, UK|date=2001|isbn=1-84176-307-1}}
* {{cite book|last=Silverstone|first=Paul H.|title=Civil War Navies 1855–1883 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York|year=2006|series=The U.S. Navy Warship Series |isbn=0-415-97870-X}}
* {{cite book|last=Silverstone|first=Paul H.|title=Directory of the World's Capital Ships |year=1984 |publisher=Hippocrene Books|location=New York|isbn=0-88254-979-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Still |first=William N. Jr. |author-link=William N. Still Jr. |year=1985 |title=Iron Afloat: The Story of the Confederate Armorclads |orig-date=1971 |location=Columbia, South Carolina |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |isbn=0-87249-454-3}}

==External links==
* {{Cite web|title=NH 76388 CSS Texas (1865)|url=https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-76000/NH-76388.html|website=Naval History and Heritage Command}}
* {{Cite web|title=Sketch of CSS Texas|url=https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/4494|website=East Carolina University Digital Collections}} &ndash; concerns the only known historical and contemporary representation of CSS ''Texas''{{'}} exterior
* {{Cite web|title=The Evolution of the Ironclad CSS Texas|url=https://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-evolution-of-the-ironclad-css-texas.146196|website=CivilWarTalk.com}}
* {{Cite web|title=The 189ft PP Ironclad Gunboats of John Luke Porter|url=https://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-189ft-pp-ironclad-gunboats-of-john-luke-porter.136620|website=CivilWarTalk.com}}
{{CSN ironclads}}
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[[Category:Ironclad warships of the Confederate States Navy]]
[[Category:Texas in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Ships built in Norfolk, Virginia]]
[[Category:1865 ships]]
[[Category:Captured ships]]