Model Ships-CSS MANASSAS ironclad ram

Description

CSS MANASSAS
ironclad ram
The 1/192 scale Manassas kit is a very easy to construct model, perfect for the beginner building resin ships and working with photo etched parts.  It features all parts needed to construct a museum quality model (base and pedestals not included).  An independent review of the kit may be found here:
www.modelwarships.com/index1.html
CSS Manassas, a 387-ton ironclad ram, was originally built at Medford, Mass. as the screw towboat Enoch Train.  Purchased in 1861, she was converted to a warship.  Her above water hull was reshaped to a "turtle-back" form and covered with iron plating.  She was given a pointed ram bow and carried a single gun that fired forward through a small gun port.  Her low profile made her a difficult target, while her armor protected her against all but the most well direct enemy gunfire.
Placed in privateer service, Manassas was soon taken over by the Confederate Navy and formally purchased in December, 1861.  On October 12 of that year, she attacked the Federal Blockading Force at the Mississippi Rivers' Head of Passes.  The big steam sloop USS Richmond was rammed and seriously damaged, but survived.  Manassas was also damaged mostly by the force of her ramming the vessel, but withdrew and was repaired.
On the lower Mississippi, Manassas played a pivotal role in the major battle that took place during the night of April 24, 1862 when US Navy Flag Officer David Glasgow Farragut took his squadron up the river past Confederate forts Jackson and Saint Philip to capture New Orleans.
During the action, Manassas attacked the large Union warships Pensacola, Mississippi, and Brooklyn.  She was able to ram the last two, though not fatally, before running aground.  The USS Mississippi then disabled her with withering cannon fire.  Abandoned and afire, Manassas drifted downstream, exploded and sank.