CSS Charleston
CSS Charleston
Namesake: Charleston, South Carolina
Ordered: Fall 1862
Builder: James M. Eason, Charleston
Laid Down: December 1862
Launched: 1863
Commissioned: September 1863
Nickname: Ladies' Gunboat
Fate: Destroyed to avoid capture, 17/18 February 1865
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Characteristics
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Type: Casemate Ironclad
Displacement: 610 tons
Length: 189 ft.
Beam: 34 ft.
Draft: 12 ft 6 in.
Depth: 14 ft.
Propulsion: 1 shaft, 1 steam engine
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Armament
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2 x 9-in. smoothbore Dahlgren guns
4 x 7-in. muzzle-loading Brooke rifles
1 x Spar Torpedo
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Battles
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Charleston Squadron
Blown up with 10 long tons of gunpowder in the Cooper River to prevent capture
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CSS Charleston. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Charleston. Accessed 13 January 2026
Luraghi, Raimondo. A History of the Confederate Navy. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996. p 278, 289, 337
Stern, Pilip Van Doren. The Confederate Navy A Pictorial History. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992. p 243