Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1.

Most of these vessels were small craft, only suitable for detached local employment in rivers and harbors. Of the more formidable ships, the Tennessee and Arkansas were built at Memphis in the winter of 1861-62. They were covered with railroad iron. The Arkansas was completed and taken to the Yazoo River in April, 1862. After a short and brilliant career under Lieutenant Isaac N. Brown, she finally fell a victim in August to the defects of her engines. The Tennessee, being still on the stocks at Memphis when Davis's fleet descended the river, was burnt where she lay. At Mobile, the second Tennessee, a much more powerful vessel, but with engines transferred, like those of the Louisiana, from a river steamboat, was captured in her first and only engagement, when she attacked single-handed the whole Federal squadron. At Savannah, the Atlanta, a converted blockade-runner with a casemate covered with four inches of armor, was disabled and defeated by four shots from the monitor Weehawken. At Charleston, four casemate ironclads were built, the Palmetto State and Chicora in 1862, the Charleston in 1863, and the Columbia; the last, however, was still unfinished at the close of the war, and was captured by Admiral Dahlgren at the evacuation of the city. The other three were blown up at the same time. In the sounds of North Carolina two iron-clads were projected, one to be built on the Neuse River, the other on the Roanoke. The first was destroyed before completion, but the second, the Albemarle, which the Union forces, through most culpable negligence, suffered to remain undisturbed until she was fully armed and equipped, captured the town of Plymouth, and fought a drawn battle with the squadron of double-enders in the sound. After a career of six months, she was destroyed by the expedition under Lieutenant Cushing.

The last, and in some ways the most useful naval force of the Confederates, was the James River Squadron. After the destruction of the Merrimac in May, 1862, and the abortive attempt of the Union vessels to pass up the James River, a fleet was gradually constructed and fitted out for the defense of Richmond. There were still in the river the Patrick Henry, which was soon after assigned to the use of the Confederate Naval Academy, and the Beaufort and Raleigh, which had come to Hampton Roads from the North Carolina Sounds after the battles of Roanoke Island and Elizabeth City. All three had taken part in the first day's engagement off Newport News, when the Merrimac (Virginia) had destroyed the Congress and the Cumberland, after which they withdrew to the James River. To these were added the gun-boats Nansemond, Hampton, and Drury. But by far the most important division of the squadron consisted of the three iron-clads Richmond, the second Virginia, and Fredericksburg. Of these the Fredericksburg was the weakest and the Virginia the strongest. In fact, the Virginia was one of the strongest vessels that the Confederates got afloat at any point, having six inches of armor on the sides of her casemate and eight inches on the ends. This fleet was an important element in the military situation in Virginia in 1864-65, though never brought into decisive action. At the evacuation of