Whether this would have proved to be feasible cannot be known, as she was not complete when New Orleans fell to the Union Fleet under Flag Officer David G. Farragut on 25 April 1862.

[1] Despite the delays in construction that left her unfinished and untried, her mere existence, together with that of CSS Louisiana, raised thwarted hopes in the defenders of New Orleans, and unfounded fears in Union circles, that affected the strategy of both sides in the campaign on the lower Mississippi.

Mississippi is significant to the Civil War therefore not so much as a warship as in the way her reputation influenced events, and as an example of the difficulties the South had in the contest with the industrial North.

[2] At his prodding, the Confederacy embarked on a construction program that included several armored vessels intended for use on the Mississippi River and other inland waters.

[3] The initial plans, prepared after US President Abraham Lincoln had proclaimed the blockade of Southern ports but before the North had taken any major steps to subjugate the South, called for five ironclads to be built in the interior: CSS Eastport on the Tennessee River, Arkansas and Tennessee on the Mississippi at Memphis, and Louisiana and Mississippi at New Orleans.

Reasoning that too much time would be lost training men in traditional techniques, Tift hit on the idea of constructing ships on housebuilding principles.

He thought of making a ship with flat sides, with square corners except where the pointed ends join with the rest of the hull.

He had become a successful businessman in Key West, where he had come to know Stephen Mallory before he had become a United States senator and then Confederate Secretary of the Navy.

In the words of Secretary Mallory,[8] Among the first tasks confronting the brothers was that of finding a shipyard capable of handling a job as big as the one envisioned.

Acquisition of parts and materials was most obvious, but the builders also encountered labor troubles, plus interference from the local military authorities.

Eventually the Tifts were able to find a foundry in Atlanta that would produce plate iron of sufficient thickness, but delivery by way of the already overtaxed railroad system was often sporadic.

A satisfactory shaft was found in a wrecked ship in October, but only the Tredegar Iron Works or the Gosport (Norfolk) Navy Yard in Virginia could handle the needed modifications.

[13] Another set of delays was caused by the local military policies, which insisted that all men of appropriate ages participate in militia activities, including parades.

Long after Mississippi was torched and New Orleans was surrendered, Nelson Tift stated that he believed his ship would have been completed in another two or three weeks.

)[15] In mid-March 1862, the Union fleet under Flag Officer Farragut began to enter the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico, with the obvious ultimate purpose of attacking New Orleans.

The Confederate government in Richmond was not so much concerned with the blockade as with the threat posed by the Union Western Gunboat Flotilla, then approaching Memphis.

A self-appointed group of citizens, calling themselves the Committee of Public Safety,[18] tried to force them to launch Mississippi prematurely, against the advice of Sinclair and the engineers working on the ship.

Report of evidence taken before a joint special committee of both Houses of the Confederate Congress to investigate the affairs of the Navy Department."