Name Huntsville Ordered May 1, 1862 Out of service April 12, 1865 Draft 2.1 m | Namesake Huntsville, Alabama Completed August 1, 1863 Launched 7 February 1863 | |
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Fate Scuttled in Spanish River to prevent capture Builder Selma, Alabama in the American Civil War | ||
CSS Huntsville was a Confederate ironclad floating battery built at Selma, Alabama from 1862 to 1863.
History
Huntsville was ordered on May 1, 1862 by the Confederate States Navy. She was launched at the Confederate Naval Works at Selma on February 7, 1863 and finished in Mobile. She was finally delivered on August 1, 1863. She was only partially armored, with the armor plate delivered by the Shelby Iron Company of Shelby, Alabama and the Atlanta Rolling Mill. She had defective engines that were obtained from a river steamer and an incomplete armament, so was assigned to guard the waters around Mobile.
Huntsville escaped up the Spanish River following the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864. The city of Mobile held out another eight months, with the upper portion of Mobile Bay remaining in Confederate hands. She, along with the CSS Tuscaloosa, was scuttled to prevent capture on April 12, 1865, following the surrender of the city. He wreck lay where the Spanish River splits off from the Mobile River on the north side of Blakeley Island, just north of Mobile, until being located in 1985.