In April 1862 Arkansas was removed to the Yazoo River in Mississippi to prevent capture as Memphis fell to the Federal Navy. Her sister ship, CSS Tennessee was burned in her dock because she could not escape.

CSS Manassas, formerly the steam propeller Enoch Train, was built at Medford, Massachusetts, by J. O. Curtis in 1855. A New Orleans commission merchant, Captain John A. Stevenson, acquired her for use as a privateer and fitted her out at Algiers, Louisiana as an ironclad ram of radically modern design. Covered with 1½-inch iron plating, her hull projected only 2½ feet above the water, and her plated top was convex causing cannon shot to glance off harmlessly.

CSS Virginia was built at Boston Navy Yard as the frigate Merrimack, commissioned 20 February 1856, Capt. G. J. Pendergrast, USN, in command.

CSS Stonewall, a 1390-ton ironclad ram, was built in Bordeaux, France, for the Confederate Navy. Embargoed by the French government in February 1864, prior to her launching, she was subsequently sold to Denmark under the name Stærkodder. Upon completion of her construction in late 1864, the Danish government would not accept delivery and her builder secretly resold her to the Confederates.