Heavy wooden framing was required to support the weight of machinery, armament and iron plating. This view shows several “City” class river ironclads building at James Eads’s Union Marine Works in Carondelet, Missouri, September 1861. Within five months they would be in action on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. CHS 2013.225.19
This past weekend we offered a special Civil War-themed behind the scenes tour at CHS. I spent a day selecting a wide variety of objects, manuscripts and graphics items to include in the tour, including several that I had not used in the past. Among these was a pair of fine photographs of river gunboats being constructed in September 1861. Continue reading
inside the CHS 