Given that a steam powered hammer was fabricated for construction of the C.S.S. Arkansas this indication of ability leads me to think that casting of drive train components and engine parts may have been done at the Shirley yard on the Yazoo. New Orleans manufacturing capability ,which was considerable and increasing in potential, had been lost in April of 1862. Nashville and Richmond, two other urban centers of Confederate manufacturing, were at their limits of production and in want of materials. Though small islands of industrial ability existed throughout the South it's a fair conjecture that Stevens and Brown were left to their own resources in order to construct in a timely manner. That less was done to save the vessel states a breakdown in the naval command structure. Who was naval ranking in the area?