I don't think there is very much doubt of it being basically a wooden gunboat.

But Tom Ezell's accounts about the railroad rails on the deck of the burning Ponchatrain would seem to indicate that there was some reason for Selfridge's remarks about the railroad rails. That description in Selfridge's report sounds a whole lot like the armour on the CSS ARKANSAS.

Obviously Selfridge got his information from a pretty good system of spies. In studing Selfridges dispatches, his information in several items of activity along the Arkansas River in the matters of troop movements and fortifications general proves to have been remarkable accurate. And the Ponchartrain seem to be of particular interest and concern to him while he was in command of the USS CONESTOGA. So I have no reason to doubt that Selfridge was reasonable certain that railroad rails were being used to suppliment the PONCHARTRAIN's wooden casemate armor.

As for Confederate records in Arkansas I am pretty certain that most of them wound up in Waco and Marshall Texas by the end of the War. So what happen to them is not known. Some have surfaced in recent years such as the Peter Wellington Alexander Collection in Columbia University. Which was donated from the Alexander family collection to the University in 1974. So who knows what will turn up, But I don't hold out much hope for finding additional records that are not already known.