CSS Nashville (1864)
CSS Nashville was a large side-wheel steam sloop built by the Confederates at Montgomery, Ala., in 1864 and taken to Mobile for completion. Her first commander was Lit. C. C. Simms, CSN.
Still fitting out, she took no part in the battle of Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864, but was one of the vessels formally surrendered by Commodore E. Farrand, CSN, at Nanna Hubba, Ala., on 10 May 1865.
Although never finished, she had been heavily armored with triple 2-inch plating forward and around her pilot house, only a single thickness aft and there had been some doubts expressed that her builders might have overestimated her structural strength. Rear Adm. H. K. Thatcher, USN, wrote on 30 June 1865, after survey, "She was hogged when surrendered and is not strong enough to bear the weight of her full armor." He was certain "she could not live in a seaway."
Nashville was purchased by the Navy Department and sold at New Orleans, La., on 22 November 1867, her iron sheathing having been removed for naval use.
Part of the text is incorporated from the United States Navy's Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, a work in the public domain.
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