AUG 1864 – The floating battery Phoenix was sunk as an obstruction in the only remaining gap in the main channel to Mobile, while the damaged hull of a sidewheel ironclad constructed at Selma was also sunk as a block vessel in the main ship channel above the Dog River Bar.

APR 12, 1865 – Federal warships steamed up the Blakely River and then entered the Tensaw River until they were about one mile above Mobile, while 8,000 Federal troops under General Granger marched up the bay to attack the city from below. R.H. Slough, the mayor of Mobile, soon afterwards surrendered the city to the Federal troops. However, Commander Farrand refused to surrender the naval squadron.

After setting the navy yard afire, along with the two unfinished Tombigbee boats, the commander then sank the ironclads Huntsville and Tuscaloosa in the Mobile River twelve miles above the city. The under powered ironclads were unable to stem the river current and Commander Farrand was unable to locate any vessels to tow the warships upriver.

DEC 1983 - Sydney Schell, a retired Mobile maritime lawyer, discovered the ironclads Huntsville and Tuscaloosa “covered in mud at the point where the Spanish River splits off from the Mobile River, a few miles north of the Cochrane-Africatown Bridge.” The vessels were located “within 200 feet of each other through the use of a magnetometer...and the help of expert Carl Helwig from New Orleans.”

1984 – A remote sensing survey of the obstructions in Mobile Bay revealed several vessels, including the ironclad Phoenix.

1985 - A survey of the ironclad Tuscaloosa showed that the bow had broken from the main section of the vessel, but the vessel was “believed to be in surprisingly good shape, due in large part to the isolation of the area and the fact that it lies under soft silt.”

FEB 27, 1989 - Sydney Schell reported to the Mobile Register that the Huntsville and Tuscaloosa appeared to be “in excellent shape” and later estimated that the cost of recovering and preserving the “and erecting a building to display the ships would range from $15 million to $20 million.”

SEP 1993 - An archaeological survey, which included partial mapping of exposed hull remains, was begun in Mobile Bay by researchers from Florida State University.

NOV 1993 - The Florida State survey revealed that the ironclad vessel Phoenix currently lies within a row of obstructions in upper Mobile Bay. The obstructions have been designated by the Alabama State Historic Preservation Office with Historic Site number 1Mb28.

The survey also identified the remains of the iron-hulled tug Thomas Sparks and an unidentified vessel [Selma sidewheel ironclad ?].

NOV 1995 - Researchers from Florida State University returned to the Mobile obstructions to map part of the unidentified vessel.

SEP 23, 2004 – The Tuscaloosa city council announced its sponsorship of a $3,000,000 project to raise the ironclad CSS Tuscaloosa from the Spanish River, located about twelve miles north of the city of Mobile, and relocate the vessel at Tuscaloosa as the “centerpiece in the downtown/riverfront development.”

SEP 30, 2004 - The Tuscaloosa city council voted 6-1 “to seek a federal grant to a study the feasibility of the recovery, preservation and exhibition of the” CSS Tuscaloosa.

OCT 18, 2004 - Teresa Lewis, senior planner for the Community Planning and Development Department of the city of Tuscaloosa, reported, “The council voted to put up $30,240 in city funds to match federal funds of $120,960 for the” feasibility study in the recovery of the CSS Tuscaloosa.

MAR 22, 2005 – The Tuscaloosa News reported that the city was denied a federal grant for the feasibility study in the recovery of the CSS Tuscaloosa.