Elvas Tower: USS Cairo Ironclad Civil War City Class Monitor - Elvas Tower

USS CAIRO 1861

City Class Ironclad Gunboat
Union Fleet, US Civil War

Built 1861
Sunk by Min 1862 at Yazoo River


This Union Fleet River Monitor Ironclad Gunboat was built in 1861 as part of a rushed naval expansion to create new ironclad warships for the US Civil War. She was armoured with steel railroad rails, and given a varied armament of heavy canon that were upgraded as supplies were found. She and her sister ships were used on the many river campaigns against Confederate forces, she was 512 tons in weight and carried a crew of over 200 men to serve the guns.

She was active at the Battle of Memphis and other battles but was sunk while clearing mines on the Yazoo River, thus becoming the first warship to be sunk by a naval mine.

This model is converted from an original model by Larry_M of the CSS Virginia, (a conversion herself from a captured Federal ship the USS Merimac), with his kind permission. I have adjusted the shape to convert her to a City Class River Ironclad monitor style gunboat.

I have assigned to her a full compliment of armament drawn from historic records tho some accounts vary.

There will be pilotable and static versions of this ship available. This is part of a project to create objects and scenery elements for a planned US Civil War era MSTS and OR Route.


Length: 175 ft (53 m)
Beam: 51 ft 2 in (15.60 m)
Draught: 6 ft (1.8 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine with 22 inches (560 mm) cylinder and stroke of 6 feet (1.8 m), fed by five fire-tube boilers at 140 psi (970 kPa)[1][2]
paddle wheel-propelled
Speed: 4 knots (7.4 km/h)
Complement: 251 officers and men
Armament: 3 × 8-inch smoothbores
6 × 42-pounder rifle
6 × 32-pounder rifles
1 × 12-pounder rifle
Armour: forward casemate: 2.5 inches (64 mm)
pilot house: 2.5 inches (64 mm)
60 feet (18 m) of the side covering the machinery: 2.5 inches (64 mm).
forward part of casemate sides: 3.5 inches (89 mm) railroad iron

History:

Cairo was built in 1861 by James Eads and Co., Mound City, Illinois, under contract to the United States Department of War. She was commissioned as part of the Union Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla.


On 12 December 1862, while clearing mines from the river preparatory to the attack on Haines Bluff, Mississippi, Cairo struck a Mine detonated by volunteers hidden behind the river bank and sank in 12 minutes; there were no casualties. Cairo became the first armored warship sunk by an electrically detonated mine

The USS Cairo was one of seven ironclad gunboats named in honor of towns along the upper Mississippi and Ohio rivers. These powerful ironclads were formidable vessels, each mounting thirteen big guns (cannon). On them rested in large part, Northern hopes to regain control of the lower Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two.