Sea battles, ship skeletons displayed at Civil War Naval Museum

Posted 7:25PM on Saturday 16th February 2002 ( 22 years ago )

COLUMBUS - Visitors to the Port Columbus National Civil War Naval Museum enter a full-size replica of the Confederate ironclad, CSS Albemarle, and experience the sights and sounds of four major naval battles. Officers shout commands during the simulated warfare as gunners bombard distant ships barely visible through dense clouds of smoke. Visitors can almost feel the thud of cannon balls striking the iron sides. The interactive museum bills itself as the only American museum to take a comprehensive look at the sea battles of the Civil War and the naval technology that emerged, said curator Bob Holcombe. ``The navies, particularly the Union Navy, had an impact on the outcome,'' Holcombe said. ``The Confederates were outnumbered. Technology developed by the Confederate Navy submarines, mines, rifled cannons helped offset the superiority of the Union Navy.'' Housed in a tall, stark brick building designed to resemble 19th century industrial structures, the museum features Civil War naval equipment, ship models and details of sea battles, including the 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay, where U.S. Navy Admiral David Farragut shouted, ``Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!'' The museum opened last March 9 on the 139th anniversary of the famous clash between the Union ship Monitor and the CSS Virginia, also known as the Merrimack. Since then, the museum has drawn about 14,000 visitors. The battle between the Monitor and the Virginia was considered a draw after both ships pounded each other for hours without causing any substantial damage. Still, it proved the superiority of metal warships over wooden ships and marked the beginning of modern naval engineering. The museum has a life-size replica of a portion of the Monitor. But it also has the actual remains of two Confederate ironclads that were fished from the Chattahoochee River south of Columbus. In a cavernous hall is the block-long hull of the CSS Jackson, an ironclad built at the Confederate Navy Yard in Columbus for defense of the Appalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint river system. A shortage of armor plating delayed its launching until 1864. When Union soldiers arrived the following year, they set it ablaze and cut it loose. The burning vessel drifted downstream for 30 miles where it stuck on a sandbar and burned to the waterline. Workers raised the vessel's wooden hull in the 1960s and hauled it back to Columbus in two sections. It was on display at another location until the museum opened. Port Columbus also has the remains of the 130-foot CSS Chattahoochee, a steam and sail-powered gunboat built in Early County. Nineteen crew members died most from steam burns when the ship's boiler exploded in the Appalachicola River on May 24, 1863. It was rebuilt, but the crew scuttled the ship 12 miles below Columbus in 1865 as the Union Army closed in. Holcombe said the Confederates, with a much smaller fleet, were quick to adopt innovations, such as rifled cannons that fired further and more accurately than the smoothbores used by the Union Navy. The Confederates also tried to gain an advantage with ironclads, which first appeared during the Crimean War of the 1850s, and by pioneering the use of submarines and mines, known as torpedoes. With far more ships, the Union Navy was able to blockade the South and cut off essential supplies. Mobile Bay was a hideout for Confederate ships trying to elude the Union blockade. A replica of the USS Hartford sits in one corner of the museum. Visitors can compare the simple quarters for the crew with the deluxe captain's cabin. ``It was a pretty rough life,'' Holcombe said. ``The common sailor slept in a hammock. There was no furniture. They sat on an oilcloth on the floor to eat their meals. But officers' quarters were nicely fitted.'' Life was particularly harsh on the ironclads, he said. ``The metal soaked up heat,'' he said. ``They were built very low in the water, so you had a lot of problems with seepage. Officers and sailors who had served on conventional ships detested the ironclads.'' Holcombe believes the role of the navies in the Civil War has been overshadowed by the horrific events on the battlefields. ``People are familiar with the Gettysburgs, Bull Runs and Antietams, but they know very little about the naval battles,'' Holcombe said. ``We give them something completely different to contemplate.''

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