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Description

Ported to OBJ, textured, and further modified from the STL format low poly tabletop war gaming model created by Patrick Woodard. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. You can download Mr. Woodard's original STL model as part of his Confederate Ironclads Pack at the link below but be warned! STL models normally come untextured because they're made for use with 3D printers, with the end user expected to hand paint the 3D printed model. Furthermore I've added extra parts to this one in order to soup it up a bit and make it look somewhat better. If you want this to look the way it does in the above picture (or even better if you have the skill), then you'll have to round up your own textures and extra parts and do the job yourself, just like I did. Here's that link:

www.thingiverse.com/thing:3179…

CSS Tennessee was unique in several ways among the many ironclads fielded by the Confederate States Navy (CSN) during the American Civil War (1862-65). For starters, she was built from the keel up as an ironclad instead of being converted from an existing vessel, same as the better CSN ironclads. She had the longest build time of any CSN vessel, longer than even CSS Virginia II, originally being laid down in October 1862 at Selma, Alabama but not being completed and commissioned into CSN naval service until February of 1864 at Mobile, having been moved there for further work once her basic hull had been completed. She was also the most expensive ironclad ram ever built for the Confederacy if surviving records are accurate. Part of this was due to her being built larger than a typical Richmond class in order to mount more guns, and part of it due to a funky attachment to her main boiler that could generate scalding hot water for repelling boarders. O_O As with CSS Virginia II many miles away chronic metal plate shortages in the Confederacy forced her builders to pick and chose in how they laid down what armor was available, so it was laid thickest (six inches) in her most vital spots, less so in less critical spots (four to five inches) and thinnest (two inches) on her her sides and main deck, which were the least likely to be hit by direct naval gunfire. It was an eerie anticipation of the "all or nothing" armoring scheme adopted by the United States Navy (USN) many decades later for its Nevada class battleships, although in the case of CSS Tennessee it was due to dire shortages of armor and not a deliberate design feature. She had dual power plants and twin shafts with standard screws (propellers) taken from the former steamer Alonzo Child, and armament as launched consisted of two 7-inch Brooke naval rifles in the fore-and-aft steerable positions (with three gunports available for each) and four 6.4 inch Brooke naval rifles with two each port and starboard on her broadsides. Furthermore, all of these were rifled naval guns for greater accuracy, not old style smoothbores, with the concept of barrel rifling being fairly new in terms of manufactured weapons and very modern for that time. She was also fitted with a reinforced bow and ram, although she was never fitted with a spar torpedo like many other CSN ironclad rams. She probably came too late in the war for that. Two odd design features that would later prove to be her Achilles' heels are also worthy of note. Both the main pull chains for each gunport shutter and her steering chains for her dual rudders were inside of slits or trenches outside her armor belt (not visible on this low-poly model but on better ones). Remember those weaknesses as you read on.

CSS Tennessee earned her place in Civil War history by being the only CSN ironclad available for the defense of Mobile during the epic Battle of Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864, just under seven months after she had entered service. Arrayed against her and three dinky little CSN wooden gunboats was a powerful 14-ship Union fleet commanded by Admiral David Farragut of "Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!" fame -- a quote uttered at the start of this famous Civil War clash. All three CSN gunboats were quickly swept aside, which left Tennessee alone against the entire Union fleet, four of which were ironclads. Two of these were new shallow draft double turreted ironclads, USS Chickasaw and USS Winnebago; while the other two were improved Monitor types, USS Manhattan and USS Tecumseh, with single turrets but brand new 15-inch (!!!) Dahlgren guns more powerful than anything on any CSN warship anywhere. Tecumseh was sunk and lost with all hands at the start of the battle when she hit a mine, but the other three Union ironclads were luckier and safely avoided meeting the same fate. Tennessee could have saved herself by remaining under the protection of the big guns of the Confederate river forts but her commander elected to take on the Union fleet anyway despite obvious overwhelming odds. For a while Tennessee did fairly well, especially against the more numerous Union wooden hulled ships, but once the turreted Union ironclads were able to engage Tennessee themselves directly then the outcome of this rather lopsided battle was decided. Tennessee's vulnerable steering chains had already been shot off in her engagement with the Union wooden hulled ships and that left her unable to maneuver save by engine steering. One by one her gunport shutter chains were subsequently shot off by the attacking Union ironclads, which closed her gunports and left her unable to return fire. The coup de grace came when Manhattan was able to get into position and open up on the helpless Tennessee at close range with her 15 inch Dahlgren guns. Her casemate armor began to buckle under the pounding and was finally blown clean through, and that was when Tennessee hoisted the white flag and surrendered. The Union took possession of the badly battered Tennessee, deemed her still serviceable enough to repair and use, and she was subsequently repaired and recommissioned into the USN as USS Tennessee. As such she would assist Union forces on the Mississippi River for the rest of the war. After the end of the Civil War she was decommissioned and laid up in reserve, and was eventually sold for scrap two years later in 1867. Four of her guns were saved from the scrappers and are still mounted at various military installations around the United States.

This model is missing the bow ram as well as many of the finer details of the original Tennessee. That's because it was originally created for use as a small naval war gaming miniature, and I for my part only added the lower hull structure, the missing guns, the small boats, the pilothouse windows, and the flagpole. I also incorrectly show Tennessee with only one screw instead of two because I borrowed the lower hull from another CSN ironclad ram model. That said I think it's still decent for what it is, and it will do nicely as a placeholder for now. I hope you have fun with it too once you download it and start playing with it yourselves. XD

For non-profit, non-commercial use only. If you use, mod, re-release in original or modded form or do anything else with Mr. Woodard's models, please give him credit for his original handiwork, okay? Thank you.

ASIDE - I've always thought of Tennessee as one of the finer testaments of the CSN ironclad ram legacy despite her weaknesses, which ended up helping to do her in during her one and only major battle. I don't think she could have done too much better even without those flaws other than lasting longer, given the long odds she faced on that terrible day for the Confederacy. There are only a small handful of other CSN ironclad rams that fought as hard and as well as she did before her inevitable defeat came, and even the Union though her worthy enough to save her and use her themselves. An amazing story for us Civil War buffs. Truly amazing.

Description

Ported to OBJ, textured, and further modified from the STL format low poly tabletop war gaming model created by Patrick Woodard. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. You can download Mr. Woodard's original STL model as part of his Confederate Ironclads Pack at the link below but be warned! STL models normally come untextured because they're made for use with 3D printers, with the end user expected to hand paint the 3D printed model. Furthermore I've added extra parts to this one in order to soup it up a bit and make it look somewhat better. If you want this to look the way it does in the above picture (or even better if you have the skill), then you'll have to round up your own textures and extra parts and do the job yourself, just like I did. Here's that link:

www.thingiverse.com/thing:3179…

CSS Tennessee was unique in several ways among the many ironclads fielded by the Confederate States Navy (CSN) during the American Civil War (1862-65). For starters, she was built from the keel up as an ironclad instead of being converted from an existing vessel, same as the better CSN ironclads. She had the longest build time of any CSN vessel, longer than even CSS Virginia II, originally being laid down in October 1862 at Selma, Alabama but not being completed and commissioned into CSN naval service until February of 1864 at Mobile, having been moved there for further work once her basic hull had been completed. She was also the most expensive ironclad ram ever built for the Confederacy if surviving records are accurate. Part of this was due to her being built larger than a typical Richmond class in order to mount more guns, and part of it due to a funky attachment to her main boiler that could generate scalding hot water for repelling boarders. O_O As with CSS Virginia II many miles away chronic metal plate shortages in the Confederacy forced her builders to pick and chose in how they laid down what armor was available, so it was laid thickest (six inches) in her most vital spots, less so in less critical spots (four to five inches) and thinnest (two inches) on her her sides and main deck, which were the least likely to be hit by direct naval gunfire. It was an eerie anticipation of the "all or nothing" armoring scheme adopted by the United States Navy (USN) many decades later for its Nevada class battleships, although in the case of CSS Tennessee it was due to dire shortages of armor and not a deliberate design feature. She had dual power plants and twin shafts with standard screws (propellers) taken from the former steamer Alonzo Child, and armament as launched consisted of two 7-inch Brooke naval rifles in the fore-and-aft steerable positions (with three gunports available for each) and four 6.4 inch Brooke naval rifles with two each port and starboard on her broadsides. Furthermore, all of these were rifled naval guns for greater accuracy, not old style smoothbores, with the concept of barrel rifling being fairly new in terms of manufactured weapons and very modern for that time. She was also fitted with a reinforced bow and ram, although she was never fitted with a spar torpedo like many other CSN ironclad rams. She probably came too late in the war for that. Two odd design features that would later prove to be her Achilles' heels are also worthy of note. Both the main pull chains for each gunport shutter and her steering chains for her dual rudders were inside of slits or trenches outside her armor belt (not visible on this low-poly model but on better ones). Remember those weaknesses as you read on.

CSS Tennessee earned her place in Civil War history by being the only CSN ironclad available for the defense of Mobile during the epic Battle of Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864, just under seven months after she had entered service. Arrayed against her and three dinky little CSN wooden gunboats was a powerful 14-ship Union fleet commanded by Admiral David Farragut of "Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!" fame -- a quote uttered at the start of this famous Civil War clash. All three CSN gunboats were quickly swept aside, which left Tennessee alone against the entire Union fleet, four of which were ironclads. Two of these were new shallow draft double turreted ironclads, USS Chickasaw and USS Winnebago; while the other two were improved Monitor types, USS Manhattan and USS Tecumseh, with single turrets but brand new 15-inch (!!!) Dahlgren guns more powerful than anything on any CSN warship anywhere. Tecumseh was sunk and lost with all hands at the start of the battle when she hit a mine, but the other three Union ironclads were luckier and safely avoided meeting the same fate. Tennessee could have saved herself by remaining under the protection of the big guns of the Confederate river forts but her commander elected to take on the Union fleet anyway despite obvious overwhelming odds. For a while Tennessee did fairly well, especially against the more numerous Union wooden hulled ships, but once the turreted Union ironclads were able to engage Tennessee themselves directly then the outcome of this rather lopsided battle was decided. Tennessee's vulnerable steering chains had already been shot off in her engagement with the Union wooden hulled ships and that left her unable to maneuver save by engine steering. One by one her gunport shutter chains were subsequently shot off by the attacking Union ironclads, which closed her gunports and left her unable to return fire. The coup de grace came when Manhattan was able to get into position and open up on the helpless Tennessee at close range with her 15 inch Dahlgren guns. Her casemate armor began to buckle under the pounding and was finally blown clean through, and that was when Tennessee hoisted the white flag and surrendered. The Union took possession of the badly battered Tennessee, deemed her still serviceable enough to repair and use, and she was subsequently repaired and recommissioned into the USN as USS Tennessee. As such she would assist Union forces on the Mississippi River for the rest of the war. After the end of the Civil War she was decommissioned and laid up in reserve, and was eventually sold for scrap two years later in 1867. Four of her guns were saved from the scrappers and are still mounted at various military installations around the United States.

This model is missing the bow ram as well as many of the finer details of the original Tennessee. That's because it was originally created for use as a small naval war gaming miniature, and I for my part only added the lower hull structure, the missing guns, the small boats, the pilothouse windows, and the flagpole. I also incorrectly show Tennessee with only one screw instead of two because I borrowed the lower hull from another CSN ironclad ram model. That said I think it's still decent for what it is, and it will do nicely as a placeholder for now. I hope you have fun with it too once you download it and start playing with it yourselves. XD

For non-profit, non-commercial use only. If you use, mod, re-release in original or modded form or do anything else with Mr. Woodard's models, please give him credit for his original handiwork, okay? Thank you.

ASIDE - I've always thought of Tennessee as one of the finer testaments of the CSN ironclad ram legacy despite her weaknesses, which ended up helping to do her in during her one and only major battle. I don't think she could have done too much better even without those flaws other than lasting longer, given the long odds she faced on that terrible day for the Confederacy. There are only a small handful of other CSN ironclad rams that fought as hard and as well as she did before her inevitable defeat came, and even the Union though her worthy enough to save her and use her themselves. An amazing story for us Civil War buffs. Truly amazing.