I'm a new kid on the block when it comes to researching the CSS Ram Arkansas and I've just gone thru all the messages on this board. Some were over my head but some of the information was very familiar. However I feel I must put my two cents worth in on the Fort Pickering boatyard location. I'm a native of Memphis and I have in my possession an 1858 Map of Memphis drawn by the City Engineer E. W. Rucker showing Fort Pickering at the southern boundary of Memphis City limits. Fort Pickering is not 12 miles south of Memphis. It's right next to the current Memphis/Arkansas bridge and now is in the city limits of Memphis. The Federal map of Fort Pickering in the Atlas to the "Official Records" circa 1864-1865 shows the sawmill that I believe Shirley & Emerson built for the construction of the Arkansas and the Tennessee.

Secondly, I just found a reference in "IRON AFLOAT" by William N. Sill, Jr., stating that the machinery on the Arkansas were two horizontal direct-acting noncondensing engines with four boilers. I don't have a clue as what that means, but was wondering if all of you could confirm that information or dispute it?

Lastly, I don't recall which one of you fellows on this message board asked about bio information on John T. Shirley, but I do have a little info that I've dug from local Memphis sources, including his obit from the Memphis newspapers of the time.