She was ordered to be build between January and February 1862 at the yard of Cameron&Co. at Charleston, launched in March and commissioned in September of the same year. Supervisor during the building was flag officer D.N. Ingram.Her dimensions were >150-176’6”< x 34 x 13 and a probably displacement of 850 tons. Her engines were originally used in the small steamship Lady Davis of the Confederate Navy and in fact not strong enough for her resulting in a speed of 5-6 knots. Her crew numbered 125 men. The armament consisted of 2-7” Brooke rifles guns or a 80pdr forward and a 60pdr placed aft, 2-8” or 2-9” Dahlgren smoothbore guns, possible added by more guns in 1864 and at the end of the Civil war also a spar torpedo, The casemate was armoured with a 4” iron on 22” oak and pine while the other parts of the ships were protected by just 2” iron backed with pine and oak. The Palmetto State was in fact a failure with a speed which was to low, a draught such large that she was suitable for defending harbours and the lacking of an enough wideness of the portholes prevented a sufficient elevating of the guns. When the Confederates gave up Charleston was she destroyed at the mouth of the Town Creek River above that harbour on 18 February 1865 to prevent a capture by the Union forces. Just for 1870 were her remains removed.
