In the summer of 1861, Southern plantation owners along the Mississippi River were alarmed by Union gunboats which threatened to capture Memphis, Tennessee. The Union boats were being built in St. Louis, Missouri, and the river gave them a wide open route into the South. Only by building a fleet of ironclad gunboats could the South protect Memphis from this menace and control the Mississippi. The idea originated with Captain John T. Shirley, a Memphis building contractor, and it was soon approved by Congressman Daniel M. Currin of Tennessee and General Leondieus Polk, who commanded the Confederate forces in Tennessee.
Captain Shirley presented his plan to Stephen Mallory, the Confederate Secretary of the Navy, at Richmond in July of that year, and again won wholehearted approval. On 19 August 1861, Congressman Currin introduced a bill providing for construction of the gunboats. Four days later, Charles M. Conrad, Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, recommended legislation “for the construction, equipment, and armament of two ironclad gunboats for the defense of the Mississippi River and the city of Memphis, 5160,000.” The vessels were to be completed before 24 December 1861 at a cost of 576,920 each. Payment for the gunboats was to be made in five installments: on completion of the frames, on completion of planking and decking, on delivery aboard of engines and boilers, on installation of engines and boilers, and on final completion of the vessels. On 24 August 1861, the Confederate Congress passed the proposed legislation. President Jefferson Davis signed the bill and Secretary Mallory signed a contract with Captain Shirley for the construction of CSS Arkansas and CSS Tennessee on the same day that President Davis signed the bill. The contract had been drafted in advance in anticipation of ratification of the bill.
Captain Shirley selected Mr. Prime Emmerson of Memphis as the principal constructer for the gunboats. Both men agreed that Fort Pickering, a landing a few miles above Memphis, Tennessee, on the Mississippi River, was the proper location in which to build the boats.
Oak timber for the frames was obtained from five nearby sawmills, but pine timber for planking came 140 miles by railroad. Iron bolts and spikes were rolled at a mill on the Cumberland River. Iron for armoring the gunboats was purchased both in Memphis and across the River in Arkansas. Worn, scrap railroad rails were used for the external armor of the gunboats. The engines for Arkansas were built in a foundry on Adams Street in Memphis. These were the first engines ever built for a warship in this foundry.
As work progressed on the two vessels, it became evident that they both could not be completed because of the difficulty in obtaining experienced shipbuilders, as well as the scarcity of material, especially iron. Captain Shirley contacted General Polk in an effort to obtain army carpenters to work on the gunboats, but he was unsuccessful. Agents were sent to New Orleans, Mobile, and Nashville, but they failed to find any experienced shipbuilders, for these men were being paid higher wages to work in St. Louis, Missouri. Finally, although the timber to build both vessels became available, Captain Shirley decided to concentrate work on Arkansas.
Arkansas was a combination river boat- steamer with a sharp bow, flat bottom, and curved stern. She was designed as a ramming gunboat and had an 18,000-pound cast iron beak protruding four feet forward of her bow, about three feet below the waterline. The ship was 165 feet in length, had a 35-foot beam and drew 11§ feet of water, with only one foot of freeboard. The keel and frames were of 20-inch oak and the upper deck planking was 3-inch pine.
On deck amidships, she carried a 2-foot thick, box-like shield with perpendicular sides, made of oak beams 40 to 50 feet long. Compressed cotton bales were wedged behind the beams and covered with light wood to guard against fire. The ends of the shield were slanted at an angle of 35 degrees to deflect cannon balls. The top of the shield was covered with heavy iron bars to protect the guns and men inside the gunboat. The entire exterior of the ship, except the stern, was covered with worn-out railroad rails spiked and bolted horizontally on the sides of the hull and shield, and vertically on the forward and after parts of the gun shield, 13 inches below the waterline. The curved stern of the gunboat was covered with thin boiler plate and had little protection. Iron shutters covered the small portholes in the shield when the guns were not in battery.
The pilothouse and smokestack protruded two feet above the armored gun shield. Since the smokestack was extremely large, it offered a good point of aim for any enemy fire. The proposed pilothouse was never completed and a small square structure of vertical iron bars served as such. The helm was located in the forward part of the gun shield; a copper speaking tube provided communications to the pilothouse. Two low pressure, 900-horse- power engines were built for Arkansas on Adams Street in Memphis. These engines had a 24-inch bore and a 7-foot stroke. They drove two 7-foot propellers at a maximum rate of 90 revolutions per minute for a maximum speed of 16 knots. Engines and boilers were below the waterline as a protection against gunfire. Also below the waterline were officers’ berths, dispensary, magazines, and mess hall. Hammocks for the crew were rigged between the guns in the armored shield.
Armament consisted of two rifled 32- pounders mounted to fire astern, two 7-inch 64-pounders in the bow, and two 100-pounder Columbiads and a 6-inch naval gun in each broadside. All guns were located within the armored shield. Steam lines were laid topside to repel boarders.
Late in April 1862, General Pierre Beauregard, Confederate States Army, ordered Tennessee burned and Arkansas moved to the Yazoo River. The steamboat Capitol, towed Arkansas down the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Yazoo River, and then up that river to Yazoo City. The gunboat moored in Yazoo City until 7 May 1862 when it was moved upstream to Greenwood, Mississippi. At Greenwood, in their haste to move up the river, the Confederates made the mistake of sinking a barge containing 400 bars of drilled armor rail and the steam equipment for drilling holes in the rails. This power equipment had been especially brought from Memphis as there was no such equipment in the Yazoo City area.
On 29 May 1862, Lieutenant Isaac N. Brown, Confederate States Navy, arrived at Greenwood and found Arkansas anchored nearly four miles from land—her armor was on the bottom of the river; her engines were apart; there were no carriages for the guns which were strewn about the decks. Work was at a standstill. Lieutenant Brown wrote Major General Ruggles, Confederate States Army, that progress on the gunboat was slow and that Arkansas would again be moved to Yazoo City on 30 May. Most of the equipment and armor rail which had been sunk in the river earlier were recovered by a bell boat. On 4 June 1862, Arkansas was towed back to Yazoo City, Mississippi, by the steamboat Capitol. Little progress had been made since Arkansas left Memphis a month before.
The Yazoo City shipyard proved to be the best possible location for the completion of Arkansas. The shipyard was connected to the nearest railroad at Canton, Mississippi, by a plank road, and the river provided good water transportation. The nearby Frank Grimme Mill provided necessary lumber, freshly cut in the surrounding swamps. Lieutenant Brown located 14 forgers on the river banks, and rural blacksmiths pounded wagonloads of scrap iron into spikes and bolts. Mrs. Lizzie McFarland Blackmore allowed Brown to make his headquarters in her plantation home.
One of the biggest problems facing Brown was the construction of gun carriages, items which had never been built previously in the state. Two gentlemen from Jackson, never having seen a naval gun carriage before, and with only some dimensions to go by, contracted to build the six broadside gun carriages in their Canton, Mississippi, carriage shops. The other four guns were mounted on railroad rail carriages which never worked properly.
By that time, Admiral Farragut’s Union fleet was at Vicksburg, only 60 miles below the mouth of the Yazoo River. The Confederates blocked the Yazoo, 22 miles south of the city, with a raft armed with two 42- pound guns. On 9 June 1862, Lieutenant Brown asked General Ruggles for a regiment of infantrymen and heavy artillery to to strengthen the defense of the barrier raft. He also reported that it was impossible to move the gunboat under her own power, since the boilers were not entirely installed.
By 22 June 1862, Arkansas was almost completed. The guns were not mounted and Lieutenant Brown had no crew, but in five weeks 200 men working 24 hours a day had built a formidable craft with which to threaten the Union fleet on the Mississippi River. Local plantation owners were so anxious for Arkansas to be completed that they sent their slaves to work on the job.
Captain Brown attempted to paint the gunboat the same brown color of the muddy river water, but the paint was of such poor quality that the ship remained her original rusty red color despite his efforts.
Finally, on 14 July 1862, Arkansas was as complete as she would ever be. The engines would not work properly and the crew was inexperienced, but Brown was forced to prepare for battle. He was ordered to take his rusty ram to Vicksburg and defeat the Union fleet on the Mississippi River there. She was the only Confederate ship on the river capable of meeting the Union fleet. As she shoved off early on the morning of 15 July, Brown told his men, “No ram, no run, just fight.”