Shawn,

One thing to remember with regard to Saffold is that it was only a short trip downriver by steamer from the industrial facilities at Columbus. There was a massive amount of boatbuilding on the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers prior to the war. Some of the paddlewheel boats built on the system during the 1840s and 50s were, in fact, larger than the C.S.S. Chattahoochee.

There were also significant shipyards at Apalachicola and on the lower Chipola River (a tributary) prior to the war where a number of schooners and other ocean-going vessels were constructed. There was no shortage of men in the region, both white and black, with extensive naval construction experience. A good example is the case of the Tift brothers, who were building steamboats at Albany on the Flint River before the war, but immediately went into business constructing gunboats on the Mississippi after the outbreak of fighting.

When you look at Saffold today, you think of it as a remote rural area. Early County in 1860, however, was an extremely prosperous plantation district on a major Southern river. That river linked it with Columbus, one of the South's major industrial complexes during the war, which in turn was linked by rail directly with Selma, another major industrial complex. At the other end of the river system was Apalachicola, one of the major port facilities on the Gulf of Mexico.

I think it is fascinating that Johnston developed a shipyard, built a fully operational 141-foot screw-propelled warship, and made repairs to other vessels operating on the rivers for the Confederate government with no prior experience at all. Clearly, by the time the Chattahoochee was finished, he and his slaves had gained the experience they needed to build more.

I doubt the contracted ships were ever completed, but I think it is very possible that they were well underway when the war ended and had possibly been launched.

There were a couple of paddlewheel gunboats active in the area, by the way. The Spray, a converted sidewheel steamer, was used on the St. Marks River below Tallahassee for much of the war and the Marianna, a sternwheeler, was manned for part of the war by a section of Florida light artillery.

Interesting stuff.

Dale