Terry

Naval OR's Ser. 1, vol. 24, page 242 in a report by T.O. Selfridge, USS CONESTOGA, February 6, 1863.

"The Ram PONCHARTRAIN has not had steam up for some time. Some men are still at work upon her. She requires a good deal of pumping to keep her free. She has as yet no guns. She has no officers of consequence. One of her engineers was on duty on the Flag-of-truce boat. She is represented as being casemated with 20 inches of wood and railroad iron to abate her wheels."

Other reports in the OR's describe her as having wood and iron around the engine.

Another report or statement in a book, which I can't remember where I have seen it, said that she was armoured on the front and both sides with "T" rails and that the stern was only casemated with wood. That could have been someone else interpretation of the above report.

Whether this constitutes the reclassification of the PONCHARTRAIN as an "Ironclad", I could not say. There would be some that would argue that.

However, there were efforts to build "ironclads" such as the CSS Missouri on the Red River at Shreveport, so I can't see why there wouldn't be an effort to do the same on the Arkansas River. I think the idea is somewhat supported by the contemporary accounts about there being railroad iron on her deck when she was being burned.

However, again the water level issue would have played a big part of this decision. The more iron that you added the more water that would have been required to float her. Evidently she was a strong boat, because reportedly when she evacuated Fort Randolph her desks were almost awash because of the load of heavy equipment and guns she had on board. And at the time of Selfridges report above 5 of her 7 guns had been lost and not recovered, destroyed or captured by the federals at St. Charles, Arkansas Post, and Duvall's Bluff. So she would not have been carrying that weight, which may have allowed her to be armoured.

It is also to be noted that the two surviving guns an 8-inch and a 9-inch gun, of the PONCHARTRAIN's original 7 heavy guns survived the Ponchartrains destruction and could have been remounted back aboard the PONCHARTRAIN had she become operational as an "Ironclad Ram".

Of course the whole point of all of this for the Confederates was to maintain the threat of the PONCHARTRAIN possibly being able to break out of the Arkansas River and threaten the Union fleet and Army supply steamboats going to Vicksburg. And thereby keep a sizable part of the Union fleet involved in blockading the Arkansas River and escorting these same supply steamboats to Vicksurg. There was no way that she was going to be able to challenge the main might of the Union ironclad fleet.