The Cottonclad

[Ptarmigan]

I do not see how one could have three heavy artillery guns (one 32 pounder and two 24 pounder guns) all placed on an open bow deck. I assume she had a bow gun of the 32 pounder but it was casemated behind those railroad iron rails.

Hi Jayhawker, I have to caution you, there is no precedent of any Riverboat conversion where the guns were placed behind an armoured casemate. There were however 13 vessels built where a casemate was constructed protecting the machinery and the guns mounted in the open on the bow, so this seems to be the likeliest configuration.

 

[Talos]

There were also a variety of 32-pounders in various lengths and weights from 61 down to 27 cwt - something I learned here, before that I had assumed that 32- or 24-pounders other than carronades were all long guns as in the days of fighting sail.

Yes, there were. I've always been interested in that series of guns, so I drew the full set of them a few years back. I'm reposting for those who haven't seen it, though I know you have. The most common size I see referenced in the theater seem to be the 42 cwt variants. Even Kearsarge and her sisters had them as broadside guns supplementing their XI-inch Dahlgrens.

When I asked about a 24-pdr long gun, I was using it as a generic term to set it apart from the much smaller boat howitzer which were most of the 24-pdrs we see in armament lists in the Civil War. The Navy standardized on the 32-pdr and 8-inch shell gun families in the early 1840s and by the 1850s, all carronades, 24-pdr cannons, 18-pdr cannons, etc, were no longer in service. The 61 cwt was never issued by the Navy for sea use (which is why I didn't draw it with the others, it wasn't part of the family), and all the surviving ones were in storage at Gosport when the Confederates seized it.

 

[Louisiana Jayhawker]

Ptarmigan
I believed to have read some materials by Major Brent CSA in which he claimed to have caused a casemate to be constructed upon the riverboat steamer COTTON in his effort to make her an "ironclad steamer". In his work he cited the casemate had gun ports. I assume the purpose of the gun ports were for the placement of guns. It would please me if you could dispel this issue with some type of proof one way or the other (did the COTTON have a pivot bow gun(s) or not?). Note the Federal invasion was upon the Teche Country quickly which would not allow for any time consuming professional efforts but only crude quick application of oak planking and railroad iron rails. I assume the entire project happen on the Teche River maybe at New Iberia, Louisiana?

 

[Ptarmigan]

Hi Jayhawlker , please P P me at vanill***@sky.com and I will discuss with you the information that I have.