The website http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-us-cs/csa-sh/csash-mr/manassas.htm claimed that she was an ironclad ram measuring 387 tons and build as the screw towboat Enoch Train at Medford, Massachusetts. She was acquired by an captain John Stevens of New Orleans in 1861 and at Algiers, Louisiana rebuild as a warship with a surfaced hull shaped like a turtle back and which was all over covered with iron plating, a bow lengthened with an iron ram and armed with just one gun firing forward through a small porthole. Commissioned as a privateer in September that year was she in December acquired by the Confederate States Government. Heavily damaged by the USS Mississippi during the Union attack on the Forts Jackson and Saint Philip was she left by her crew and drifted while burning down the river and exploded.
The website http://www.numa.net/expeditions/manassas_louisiana_arkansas.html reports that her remains nowadays are “buried nine feet under the mud” ... “about a half mile above the Boothville high school on the southwest bank of the river” … “could be very well preserved.”
The website http://www.cityofart.net/bship/manassas.html writes that she was build as the icebreaker annex tugboat Enoch Train at Medford, Massachusetts in 1855. Just after the outbreak of the Civil War was she bought by a New Orleans citizen who ordered her rebuilding at Algiers, Louisiana as an ironclad ram for privateering against the Union merchant trade. The armament consisted of just one 64pdr gun in the front. The plan was to ram a ship while shooting at it with the gun. In December became she property of the Confederate States. This website also claims that her remains still exists nowadays. Her displacement should be 387 tons with as dimensions 143’x 33’x 17’ or 43,6 x 10 x 5,18 metres with an armament consisting of the 9,2 meter long ram and the 64pdr Dahlgren gun. Her crew numbered 36 men while the deck was protected by 38mm (1.5”) thick armour.
The website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Manassas said that she was launched either in 1853 or 1855 as a steam icebreaker/twin screw towboat Enoch Train at Medford, Massachusetts by shipbuilder James O. Curtis in 1855. She was purchased by the merchant captain John A. Stevenson of New Orleans who rebuild her at Algiers and she taken into service as a privateer on 12 September. On 24 April 1862 while attacking the Brooklyn, two broadsides of the Mississippi put her out of action when she run aground. She managed to slip off the bank and exploded while burning in sight of the Union mortar flotilla commanded by commander David Dixon Porter. As technical details this website said that she had a displacement of 387 tons or a measurement of 384½ tons burthen with as dimensions 143’x 33’x 17’, a crew which numbered 36 men and a 64pdr Dahlgren gun which was later replaced by 1-32pdr gun.
Paul H. Silverstone wrote in his book Civil War navies 1855-1883 (Annapolis, 2001) that when she was still a towboat her dimensions were 128’x 26’x 12’6” and as an ironclad 143’x 33’17’with a tonnage of 387 tons burden. She was originally build in 1855 at Medford and rebuilt as the ram at Algiers.
B.S. Osbon in his The Handbook of the United States navy: being a compilation of all the principal evens in the history of the United States Navy from April, 1861 to May, 1864 (published New York 1864) page 158 said that on 24-25 April she was armed with one gun and a crew of 30 men commanded by commander Worley.
John S.C. Abbott in his The history of the Civil War in America (published New York 1863) wrote
p. 138: “During the summer, beside building several gun-boats, a formidable
p. 139: steam ram had been constructed for this purpose at Algiers, opposite the city of New Orleans. This vessel, afterward named the Manassas, took a conspicuous part in the two naval engagements on the lower Mississippi, and was of peculiar construction. Her foundation was the Enoch Train, a strong tow-boat, built at Boston. The upper portion was covered with railroad iron, so strongly riveted as to be protection against any ordinary cannonade. The hull rose only two and a quarter feet above the water level, and the bow was built of oak planks, nine feet long, braced all around by timbers, six feet thick, made perfectly tight and solid, and shielded with iron plates, two inches in thickness. The prow was a formidable mass of iron, in the form of a knob, and beneath this a steam borer or augur, intended to pierce the vessel against which she should make a dash. This vessel was intended mainly as a ram. Her armament consisted only of one sixty-four pounder Dahlgren gun.”
In the Monthly nautical magazine, and quarterly review, volume 2, April-September 1855, page 81 is a fine steam towboat Enoch Train mentioned with as captain Hennessy which went from Boston to Portsmouth with a average speed of 14 miles and while towing a large clipper ship coming back she shad an average speed of 9,5 knots.
