CSS Baltic

CSS Baltic was an iron and cottonclad sidewheeler ship built in 1860 in Philadelphia as a river tow boat belonging to the Southern Steamship Co. She was purchased by the State of Alabama, converted to an armored ram, and turned over to the Confederate States Navy in the middle of 1862. Her first commanding officer was Lieutenant James D. Johnston.

Engraving published in The Soldier in Our Civil War, Volume II, depicting the ironclad ram CSS Baltic at Mobile, Alabama
History
Confederate States
Name: Baltic
Launched: 1860
Commissioned: 1862
Decommissioned: July 1864
Captured: May 10, 1865
Fate: Sold for scrap, December 31, 1865
General characteristics
Displacement: 624 tons
Length: 186 ft (57 m)
Beam: 38 ft (12 m)
Draft: 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine
Speed: 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph)
Complement: 86 officers and men
Armament: 2 × Dahlgren guns, 2 × 32-pounders, 2 × smaller pieces

Throughout the American Civil War, Baltic operated in the Mobile Bay, Mobile, Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers. Baltic was reported unfit for service in February 1863, with her deteriorating condition preventing her from joining the defense of Mobile Bay in June 1864. She was dismantled in July 1864 and her armor transferred to CSS Nashville.

Baltic was captured at Nanna Hubba Bluff, Tombigbee River, Alabama, on May 10, 1865 and sold on December 31, 1865.

References
  • Bisbee, Saxon T. (2018). Engines of Rebellion: Confederate Ironclads and Steam Engineering in the American Civil War. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-81731-986-1.
  • Olmstead, Edwin; Stark, Wayne E.; Tucker, Spencer C. (1997). The Big Guns: Civil War Siege, Seacoast, and Naval Cannon. Alexandria Bay, New York: Museum Restoration Service. ISBN 0-88855-012-X.
  • Silverstone, Paul H. (2006). Civil War Navies 1855–1883. The U.S. Navy Warship Series. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-97870-X.
  • Still, William N., Jr. (1985). Iron Afloat: The Story of the Confederate Armorclads (Reprint of the 1971 ed.). Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0-87249-454-3.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

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