CSS North Carolina

Career	Confederate Navy Jack Confederate Naval Ensign after 1863
Name:	CSS North Carolina
Ordered:	1863
Laid down:	1863
Launched:	October 1863
Commissioned:	December 1863
Decommissioned:	September 27, 1864
Fate:	Sank September 27, 1864
General characteristics
Displacement:	600 tons
Length:	150 ft (46 m)
Beam:	32 ft (9.8 m)
Draft:	12 ft (3.7 m)
Propulsion:	Steam engine
Complement:	150 officers and men
Armament:	6 8-inch guns, 1 pivot gun

For other ships named North Carolina, see USS North Carolina.

CSS North Carolina, an ironclad gunboat, was built by Berry & Brothers at Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1863 at a cost of $76,000. The ship's bulkheads above the waterline were sloped inward and armored with railroad iron, similar to the CSS Virginia. She had two gun ports on each of her four sides and carried six 8-inch guns that could be moved from one port to another, and mounted one pivot gun on her bow. She was placed in commission during the latter part of the year with Commander W. T. Muse, CSN, in command.

North Carolina was discovered to be structurally unsound, and unsuitable for use on the open ocean. She remained in the Cape Fear River until September 27, 1864 when she developed a leak and sank, her hull riddled by shipworms, off Smithville (modern Southport), where she had been serving as a guard ship.

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.