(extracted from my Ironclads of the Trans-Mississippi)

FEB 06, 1863 - Lieutenant Commander Thomas O. Selfridge, commander of the USS Conestoga, reported intelligence gathered from a reconnaissance mission up the White River, “The rebels have no heavy guns in the river up to Little Rock...The ram Pontchartrain has not had steam up for some time. Some men are still at work upon her. She requires a good deal of pumping to keep her free. She has as yet no guns. She has no officers of consequence...She is represented as being casemated with 20 inches of wood and railroad iron to abaft her wheels.”

SEP 10, 1863 – Union troops under the command of Major General Frederick Steele captured Little Rock, Arkansas. The uncompleted ironclad, CSS Pontchartrain, had been destroyed by the fleeing Confederates to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy.

NOV 30, 1863 - Secretary Mallory report to the Confederate Congress that Union victories at Little Rock, Arkansas, and on the Yazoo River had terminated the Navy Department’s attempts to construct ironclad ships in those areas.