CSS[Note 1] Missouri was a casemate ironclad built by the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War.
After traveling downriver for the first time, the ship was surrendered in June 1865 to the United States Navy—the last Confederate ironclad to be handed over—and sold in November.
[3] These used steam provided by four horizontal return-flue boilers that were 26 ft (7.9 m) long and 40 in (1 m) in diameter[4] that were connected to a single funnel.
[8] After the installation of a donkey engine to power a 3-foot (0.91 m) fan, the bilge pumps and a capstan a few months later, she reached a speed of 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) against a 2–3-mile-per-hour (3.2–4.8 km/h) current.
[17] The two Dahlgren guns had been salvaged from the wreck of the Union ironclad USS Indianola and the 32-pounder piece was likely captured from the Gosport Navy Yard.
[4] Different cannons were originally slated to be assigned to Missouri, but those were intercepted by John C. Pemberton for use in the defenses of the Mississippi cities of Vicksburg and Grand Gulf.
[19] The Confederate Navy Department authorized the construction of one or more ironclad warships at Shreveport on 3 October 1862 and Lieutenant Jonathan H. Carter contracted for two ships on 1 November.
The ship was turned over to the Confederate Navy on 12 September 1863[4] and commissioned a week later[23] after the high-water season on the Red River had ended,[24] although she did not receive her guns until between November 1863 and March 1864.
[4] Carter proposed to name the vessel Caddo after a Native American tribe, but it was instead decided to name her Missouri after the state and its erstwhile Confederate government.
[25] First Lieutenant Charles Fauntleroy was appointed as her captain, although he told Carter that "he hoped the damned boat would sink" and that he "never intended to serve on her if he could help it".
[32] In September, Carter commanded an unsuccessful attempt to seize the Federal gunboat USS Rattler using men from the crews of Missouri and CSS Webb.
[35] Part of her crew was then transferred to Webb,[36] which made an unsuccessful attempt to escape into the Gulf of Mexico on April 23.