The Confederacy, by the end of the war, had begun building on fifty-nine ironclads, but had only finished twenty-four of the massive ships. Confederate Ironclads were very different from Union ironclads. For starters, they did not use the Monitor design. Many of the Confederacy's ironclads were fitted as rams, including the famous Southern ironclad, the Virginia, and these were fairly effective, especially on the western rivers with little room to maneuver. The Southern ironclads generally had sloping casemates, because a shot hitting the ship at n anglewould spread its force over a larger area and then bounce off in an upward direction. Southern ironclads did not fall into specific classes, but they all generally did have the Southern Casemat design, meaning that the hull was flat, generally with a keel, and the cross-section was simple, so the ship could be built by semi-skilled laborers in the industry-poor south.The design of some designers were even intended to be built by men with absolutely no shipbuilding experience. Often, the ship was built with with wood origionally, and was later plated with iron when the iron became available. Often, this iron was from railroads. Though this was not limited to the south, it happened very frequently. The Confederacy also often converted existing wooden frigates into ironclads, because they often had mostly-intact hulls and already-installed machinery. Even the famous Confederate ironclad, the Virginia, was converted from the wooden frigate Merrimack when the Northern troops evacuated Gosport Navy Yard, Virginia. The retreating Northern army left her scuttled and burned hull behind, hoping that the advancing Confederate army would think of her as just a piece of junk. When the Confederate troops came upon her, they raised her and placed her in dry-dock. She was eventually commissioned the C.S.S. Virginia on February 17, 1862. The usual end of service for a Confederate Ironclad was to be burned by her own crew to prevent her capture by th Norhtern forces.
Union Ironclads