Dennis,
We read it but what I quoted in one of the posts on this thread was a direct quote from a Confederate navy man who was aboard the CSS Tennessee during the battle of Mobile Bay. Maybe the new CSS Tennessee was very inovative or something. It was supposed to have been one of our best ironclads. The fact that it had as its inner bulkhead layer or lining 2 1/2" oak boards laid on the bulkhead diagonally was strange to me. Most ironclads that I have read or seen sketches had their inner casemate walls or bulkheads laid verticle or even horizontally.

Anyway, I don't know if other US or CS ironclads had protective netting, but I know the CSS Tennessee did.
The guy directly stated that when the 15" round from one of the Monitors hit squarely on their portside casemate it caved it in enough to allow sunlight to show where there had been two feet of wood and five inches of iron before the round hit. He then stated it did not come all the way through though (must have caved it in and formed a big crack in it) and that their protective netting protected the men from flying splinters and shards of wood which I reckon he meant had popped off of the wall at the impact. I don't mean to sound like a smart aleck but a statement by someone that was there, an eye witness account, is enough for me.
Dave