USS New Ironsides (1862)

USS New Ironsides under steam and sail
History
United States
Name:	USS New Ironsides
Namesake:	USS Constitution
Ordered:	15 October 1861
Builder:	William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Cost:	$780,000
Launched:	10 May 1862
Sponsored by:	Commodore Charles Stewart
Commissioned:	21 August 1862
Decommissioned:	6 April 1865
Fate:	Destroyed by fire, 16 December 1865
General characteristics
Type:	Broadside ironclad
Displacement:	4,120 long tons (4,190 t)
Length:	230 ft (70.1 m) p.p.
Beam:	57 ft 6 in (17.5 m)
Draft:	15 ft 8 in (4.8 m)
Installed power:	1,800 ihp (1,300 kW)
Propulsion:	1 × shaft, 2 × Direct-acting steam engines 4 × water-tube boilers
Speed:	7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph)
Complement:	449 officers and enlisted
Armament:	14 × 11-inch (279 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren guns 2 × 150-pounder Parrott rifles 2 × 50-pounder Dahlgren rifles
Armor:	Belt: 4.5 in (114 mm) Battery: 4.5 in (114 mm) Deck: 1 in (25 mm) Bulkheads: 2.5 in (64 mm)

USS New Ironsides was a wooden-hulled broadside ironclad built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The ship spent most of her career blockading the Confederate ports of Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1863–65. New Ironsides bombarded the fortifications defending Charleston in 1863 during the First and Second Battles of Charleston Harbor. At the end of 1864 and the beginning of 1865 she bombarded the defenses of Wilmington in the First and Second Battles of Fort Fisher.

Although she was struck many times by Confederate shells, gunfire never significantly damaged the ship or injured the crew. Her only casualty in combat occurred when she was struck by a spar torpedo carried by the CSS David. Eight crewmen were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the Second Battle of Fort Fisher in 1865. The ship was destroyed by fire in 1865 after she was placed in reserve.

After the United States received word of the construction of the Confederate casemate ironclad, CSS Virginia, Congress appropriated $1.5 million on 3 August to build one or more armored steamships. It also ordered the creation of a board to inquire into armored ships. The U.S. Navy advertised for proposals for "iron-clad steam vessels of war" on 7 August and Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy, appointed the three members of the Ironclad Board the following day. Their task was to "examine plans for the completion of iron-clad vessels". They evaluated 17 different designs, but recommended only three on 16 September.