While reviewing some material on the CSS Missouri, I was particularly struck by the survey description of the vessel made by a Union officer after the war. For those of you who have the hardcopy edition of Maxine Turner's book "Navy Gray", take a look at the drawings on the inside covers of the "Jackson aka Muscogee". To the best of my knowledge there were intended to be at least three ironclads of this class: 1) building at Columbus, Ga.; 2) building at Shreveport. The letterbook of Lt. J. Carter clearly shows that he was ordered to hold off on the second Shreveport stern-wheeler, then received orders for a second ironclad with side-wheels. I'm just guessing that she was intended to be similar to the side-wheelers at Mobile. By that time the cost of machinery from vessels with large enough engines and boilers had gone from $75,000 to $250,000! The stern-wheeler actually finished as Missouri had major changes from the original Porter design. She had two forward gunports, vs the single bow chaser of the drawing. Because of a lack of heavy guns, she had pivot gun rings aft of the bow chasers, but only one gun on the forward pivot. The after section of the casement behind the wheel was intended originally to have a single gun. A model built of Missouri depicts twin stern ports (on what basis?). We know that the lower section of the hull aft of the wheel (called a "box" by Carter) was removed with some effort with the agreement of Fauntleroy and Brent in an effort to reduce back pressure on the wheel and increase speed. If the upper structure behind the wheel remained, one wonders if the deck was now structurally sound enough to bear the weight of heavy artillery. Another issue is the machinery layout. The model of the vessel shows twin smokestacks, riverboat style. The only other Southern ironclad that I can recall with twin stacks was the Manassas before she required repairs and was converted to a single stack. I believe I've seen a drawing of the uncompleted Mississippi with a second stack also. Missouri is the only ironclad I've heard of with diagonally-laid rail armor. The Union surveyor guessed it was laid in this manner to eliminate the need to cut the rails. Has anyone hear of any other variations in this vessel? At one point, the prospective captain of the Jackson (George Gift) proposed using the Jackson as a stern-wheeler with partial armoring forward (a la Union turtle) to reduce draft. In view of the low river conditions on Red River during 63 and 64, you wonder why they didn't do something similar to get her into action sooner.