Yes, George- A limited window of opportunity for effective use for the Mississippi and Texas, indeed. No doubt Federal manufacturing capabilities would have exceeded Confederate abilities in short order.

There is another use for these armored cruisers that I have not seen mentioned nor was the tactic ever used by the Confederacy. That is the use of these vessels as convoy protectors. Blockade runners used stealth to enter ports, usually entering ports singly under cover of night. These two cruisers, with a fleet of armed merchantmen (mortars on deck?), would have pried open a port en masse, utilizing technical advantage. Adams threats would have been over-ridden by the success, perhaps.