View source for CSS Neuse

{{Short description|Confederate ironclad}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin
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|+CSS ''Neuse''
{{Infobox ship image
| Ship image = Side view CSS Neuse.jpg
| Ship caption = Lower hull of CSS ''Neuse''
}}
{{Infobox ship career
| Hide header = 
| Ship country = Confederate States
| Ship flag = {{shipboxflag|Confederate States of America|naval}}
| Ship name = 
| Ship namesake = [[Neuse River]]
| Ship ordered = 
| Ship builder = Howard and Ellis, [[Kinston, North Carolina]]
| Ship laid down = 
| Ship launched = November 1863
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| Ship completed = 
| Ship acquired = 
| Ship commissioned = April 1864
| Ship decommissioned = 
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| Ship fate = Burned to prevent capture, March 1865
| Ship status = Hull raised and on display in [[Kinston, North Carolina]].
| Ship notes = 
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
| Hide header = 
| Header caption = 
| Ship type = Albemarle-class [[ironclad]] [[Naval ram|ram]]
| Ship displacement = 
| Ship length = {{convert|152|ft|m|abbr=on}}
| Ship beam = {{convert|34|ft|m|abbr=on}}
| Ship draft = {{convert|9|ft|m|abbr=on}}
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| Ship armament = 2 × {{convert|6.4|in|mm|abbr=on}} [[Brooke rifle]]s
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}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = CSS ''Neuse'' (Ironclad Gunboat)
| embed = yes
| nrhp_type = 
| image = 
| caption = 
| nearest_city = [[Kinston, North Carolina]]
| coordinates = {{coord|35|15|37.47|N|77|34|53.20|W|region:US-NC_type:landmark_dim:20|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin = North Carolina
| map_width = 300
| built = 1865
| architect = Confederate Navy Dept.; Howard & Ellis
| architecture = 
| added = June 11, 2001
| area = {{convert|0.3|acre}}
| refnum = 00000444<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>
}}
 |}
'''CSS ''Neuse''''' ({{IPAc-en|n|uː|s}} {{respell|NOOSE}}) was a steam-powered [[ironclad ram]] of the [[Confederate States Navy]] that served in the latter part the [[American Civil War]] and was eventually [[scuttled]] in the [[Neuse River]] to avoid capture by rapidly advancing [[Union Army]] forces. In the early 1960s, she produced approximately 15,000 artifacts from her raised lower hull, the largest number ever found on a recovered Confederate vessel. The remains of her lower hull and a selection of her artifacts are on exhibit in [[Kinston, North Carolina]] at the CSS Neuse Civil War Museum, a North Carolina State Historic Site. The ironclad is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name = nris/>
[[File:Model of CSS Neuse.jpg|thumb|272x272px|Model of CSS ''Neuse'']]

==Construction==
A contract for the construction of ''Neuse'' was signed on 17 October 1862 between the shipbuilding company of Thomas Howard and Elijah Ellis and the Confederate Navy. Work began in October of that year on the bank across the [[Neuse River]] (her namesake) from the small village of Whitehall, North Carolina (present day [[Seven Springs, North Carolina|Seven Springs]]). The [[gunboat]]'s design was virtually identical to her sister ironclad {{ship|CSS|Albemarle}}, but ''Neuse'' differed from ''Albemarle'' by having four additional gun ports added (for a total of ten) to her eight-sided armored [[casemate]]. The hull was {{convert|158|ft|m|1}} long by {{convert|34|ft|m|1}} wide, and she was constructed mostly of locally abundant [[pine]], with some {{convert|4|in|0}} of [[oak]] used as sturdy backing for her 4-inch-thick [[wrought iron]] armor. Many delays in construction were incurred by a lack of available materials, mostly the iron plate for her armored casemate and deck; her deck armor was finally left off so the ironclad could be completed and put in service. Due to continuing iron plate shortages, ''Neuse'' became the first of several Southern ironclads built with unarmored decks. This situation was compounded by the [[Confederate Army]] exercising priority over the Navy in the use of the South's inadequate railroad system for transporting vital war material.

==Ordnance and projectiles==
''Neuse'' was equipped with two {{convert|6.4|in|mm|adj=on|0}} [[John Mercer Brooke|Brooke]] [[Brooke rifle|rifled cannon]] (similar to a [[Parrott rifle]]); each double-banded cannon weighed more than {{convert|12000|lbs}} with its pivot carriage and other attached hardware. Both cannons were positioned along the ironclad's center-line in the armored casemate, one forward, the other aft. The [[field of fire (weaponry)|field of fire]] for both pivot rifles was 180-degrees, from [[port]] to [[starboard]]: Each cannon could fire from one of five gun port positions or could deliver a two-cannon [[Broadside (naval)|broadside]]. ''Neuse''{{'}}s [[projectiles]] consisted of explosive shells, anti-personnel [[canister shot]], [[grape shot]], and blunt-nosed, solid wrought iron "bolts" for use against Union armored ships; many examples of all four types were recovered from her raised wreck.

==Service and post-war history==
Launched in November 1863 while still needing [[fitting out]], ''Neuse'' finally got up steam in April 1864 for duty on the inland waters of North Carolina as part of the force under [[Commander]] R. F. Pinkney, CSN. Shortly thereafter, the ironclad grounded off Kinston due to her mostly inexperienced crew, which had been [[conscript]]ed from the Confederate Army; she remained fast in the mud for almost a month until finally being refloated. After that, due to a lack of available Confederate Army shore support, she never left the river area around Kinston, serving instead as a floating ironclad fortification. In March 1865, with Kinston under siege by Union forces, gunpowder trails were laid down which led to a cache of explosives placed in her bow; the crew then lit fires astern and amidships, and she was destroyed a short time later by fire, then a bow explosion. ''Neuse'' burned to just below her [[waterline]] and then sank into the river mud preventing capture by the rapidly advancing Union Army forces, commanded by [[Major General]] [[John M. Schofield]]. At some point following the war, her sunken hulk, lying in shallow river water and mud, was salvaged of its valuable metals: cannon, carriages and their fittings, anchors, iron ram, casemate armor, both propellers and their shafts, and her steam power plant. Whatever bits and pieces remained, including her projectiles, lay undisturbed in and around the wreck until ''Neuse'' was raised nearly a century later.

==Ironclad recovery==
After nearly a century, the remaining lower hull of the ironclad was discovered and then raised in 1963; approximately 15,000 shipboard artifacts were recovered and carefully cataloged. ''Neuse''{{'}}s hull was then temporarily installed in the Governor Caswell Memorial, beside the river, in Kinston.<ref>{{cite web
|title=CSS Neuse & Gov. Caswell Memorial: A New Home
|url=http://www.nchistoricsites.org/neuse/preservation.htm
|publisher=North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
|work=North Carolina Historic Sites
|access-date=2012-09-07
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120826002718/http://www.nchistoricsites.org/neuse/preservation.htm
|archive-date=2012-08-26
|url-status=dead
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web
|title=Moving the CSS Neuse A Question of Wood and Time
|url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=33849
|publisher=The Historical Marker Database
|access-date=2012-09-07
}}</ref> Since 2013, ''Neuse'' and her artifacts have been on display in a new, climate-controlled building in downtown Kinston.<ref>{{cite web
 |title        = Bidding Opportunities
 |url          = http://www.ncimed.com/index.php?view=details&id=1238:css-neuse-museum-addition&option=com_redevent&Itemid=397
 |publisher    = NC Institute of Minority Economic Development
 |date         = 24 February 2011
 |access-date   = 2012-09-07
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20120320233100/http://www.ncimed.com/index.php?view=details&id=1238%3Acss-neuse-museum-addition&option=com_redevent&Itemid=397
 |archive-date = 2012-03-20
 |url-status     = dead
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|title=Plans unveiled for CSS Neuse gunboat museum
|url=http://www.kinston.com/articles/neuse-69232-drew-plans.html
|last=Anderson
|first=David
|newspaper=Kinston Free Press
|date=29 October 2010
|access-date=2012-09-07
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=YouTube Video:CSS Neuse Moved to Downtown Kinston, 06/23/12| date=25 June 2012 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-BKxb7Yhk4#! |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/x-BKxb7Yhk4 |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|publisher=North Carolina History Museum|access-date=15 March 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

There are currently only four recovered Civil War era ironclad wrecks, CSS ''Neuse'', {{ship|CSS|Muscogee}} (also called CSS ''Jackson'' in some texts), {{USS|Monitor}}, and {{USS|Cairo}}; ''Cairo'' remains the only recovered ironclad wreck left partially exposed outdoors under cover in the sometimes brutal southern climate. Other Union and Confederate ironclad wreck sites are known but remain untouched. The successful Confederate [[submarine]] ''[[H. L. Hunley]]'', which sank the Union blockading [[sloop-of-war]] {{USS|Housatonic|1861|6}}, was recovered and is undergoing extensive restoration and long term conservation at the [[Warren Lasch Conservation Center]] in [[North Charleston]], [[South Carolina]].

==''Neuse II'' replica==
[[File:Neuse II Replica Kinston NC.jpg|thumb|The ''Neuse II'' replica]]
A replica of the CSS ''Neuse'', better known as CSS ''Neuse II'', was the brainchild of Kinston activist and businessman [[Ted Sampley]] and built by Alton Stapleford. ''Neuse II'' is on grounds display at a separate site in Kinston and contains a complete fitted-out interior that shows all shipboard details; she was constructed by volunteers from 2002 to 2009. ''Neuse'' is the only Confederate ironclad that has a historic, full-size replica on display. Since April 2002 ''Neuse''{{'}}s sister ironclad, [[CSS Albemarle|CSS ''Albemarle'']] has had a {{frac|3|8}} scale replica, {{convert|63|ft}} long, at anchor near the Port O' Plymouth Museum in [[Plymouth, North Carolina]]. This ironclad replica is self-powered and capable of sailing on the river.

==References==

===Notes===
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book |last1=Bisbee |first1=Saxon T. |title=Engines of Rebellion: Confederate Ironclads and Steam Engineering in the American Civil War |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |isbn=978-0-81731-986-1|date=2018}}
* Bright, Leslie S., Rowland, William H., and Bardon, James C. ''C.S.S. Neuse, A Question of Iron and Time''. Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Raleigh, NC. 1981. {{ISBN|0-86526-187-3}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Canney |first1=Donald L. |title=The Confederate Steam Navy 1861-1865 |date=2015 |publisher=Schiffer Publishing|location=Atglen, Pennsylvania |isbn=978-0-7643-4824-2}}
* Campbell, R. Thomas. ''Southern Thunder: Exploits of the Confederate States Navy'', White Maine Publishing, 1996. {{ISBN|1-57249-029-2}}.
* Campbell, R. Thomas. ''Southern Fire: Exploits of the Confederate States Navy'', White Maine Publishing, 1997. {{ISBN|1-57249-046-2}}.
* Campbell, R. Thomas. ''Fire and Thunder: Exploits of the Confederate States Navy,'' White Maine Publishing, 1997. {{ISBN|1-57249-067-5}}.
* {{cite book|last=Silverstone|first=Paul H.|title=Civil War Navies 1855–1883 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York|year=2006|series=The U.S. Navy Warship Series |isbn=0-415-97870-X}}
* {{cite book|last=Silverstone|first=Paul H.|title=Directory of the World's Capital Ships|year=1984 |publisher=Hippocrene Books|location=New York|isbn=0-88254-979-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Still | first=William N. Jr. |author-link=William N. Still Jr. |year=1985 |title=Iron Afloat: The Story of the Confederate Armorclads |orig-year=1971 |location=Columbia, South Carolina |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |isbn=0-87249-454-3}}
* {{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa7/neuse.htm}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|CSS Neuse (ship, 1863)}}
* [https://cssneuse.org/museum/ CSS Neuse Museum]
* [http://www.cssneuseii.org/ CSS Neuse II]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080229073007/http://www.civilwaralbum.com/misc3/cssneuse1.htm#blank_bot Civil War Album]

{{CSN ironclads}}
{{1865 shipwrecks}}{{Historic Sites of North Carolina}}
{{National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina}}{{Oldest surviving ships (pre-1919)}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neuse}}
[[Category:Ironclad warships of the Confederate States Navy]]
[[Category:Museums in Lenoir County, North Carolina]]
[[Category:Museum ships in North Carolina]]
[[Category:Ships preserved in museums]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Lenoir County, North Carolina]]
[[Category:History of North Carolina]]
[[Category:Ships built in North Carolina]]
[[Category:Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina]]
[[Category:1863 ships]]
[[Category:American Civil War museums in North Carolina]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in March 1865]]
[[Category:Scuttled vessels]]
[[Category:Ship fires]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the American Civil War]]
[[Category:North Carolina State Historic Sites]]