Union Gunboats

This is as good a pre-existing thread as any - stumbled over the following.

Introduction: The Naval battles fought in the vicinity of Nashville are often overshadowed by the famous 2-day Battle of Nashville highlighted by heavy action at landmarks such as the Redoubts and Shy’s Hill. In this article, Nashville attorney John Allyn brings his research to bear on the military action along the Middle Tennessee rivers and gives the Naval conflicts their rightful place in the Civil War history of Nashville. John is a member of the Board of Director of BONPS and currently serves as president of The Nashville City Cemetery. His articles exploring military burials in and around Nashville can be found elsewhere on the BONPS Features page. BONPS was instrumental in the preservation of Kelley’s Point Battery. For more, see our Kelley’s Battery Page on the sidebar.

THE NAVAL BATTLE OF NASHVILLE
By John Allyn
© John Allyn 2011
http://www.bonps.org/the-battle/nashville-naval-battle/
 
Yup. It would surprise many to know that a monitor took a (small) part in the battles around Nashville!

(Notably, all the ironclads and tinclads involved were of very light draft of water-- important that far up the river.)
 
It would surprise many to know that a monitor took a (small) part in the battles around Nashville!
It sure surprised me !
That would be the USS Nesho.

098608901.jpg

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http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/86/86089.htm


Thanks for the homework assignment. :thumbsup:
 
Wow !
That's going to be an impressive model. Keep us updated on your build.

You flatter me, Sir, but thank you. I have one photo to work from and Andy's treatise on how these ships actually work.

What I've notice is that obscure model builds (where plans are absent or kitbashing has to be done) feel like a variation of Oscar Wilde's "Life imitates Art / Art imitates Life" quip. The original tinclads sound like they were cobbled together, the yards sort of working with what was on hand - which is what I'm doing above, but much smaller and in plastic.
 
I thought I recognized some of the parts (I built the Lee model a few years ago, and it perches on one of my bookshelves). :D

I did think a lot about tinclad conversions as I was building it. In fact, one of the reasons I did it to begin with was to become more familiar with the structure of an "unconverted" boat.

If you haven't encountered it yet, I highly recommend Myron J. "Jack" Smith, Jr.'s Tinclads in the Civil War: Union Light-Draught Gunboat Operations on Western Waters, 1862-1865 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2009. 431 pp). It's the only book I'm aware of that zeroes in specifically on the "tinclads."
 
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