Pook Turtles

Pook Turtles. The New Ironclad Gunships. Two of the ironclad gunboats that attacked Fort Henry on February 6, 1862, were among several designed by Samuel S. Pook for the U.S. War Department in 1861. They were called "Pook Turtles" because their sloping rectangular sides, called casemates, made them look like mud turtles. From their first use here at Fort Henry to the Red River Expedition of 1864, the "Pook Turtles" proved invaluable weapons in Union operations on western waters. The ironclads were built between August 1861 and January 1862 by James B. Eads at an average cost of $101,808 each. Four were built at Carondelet Marine Ways near St. Louis, Missouri, and three in Mound City, Illinois. Named for towns along the Ohio and Upper Mississippi rivers, Cairo, Carondelet, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis, they were the first ironclad warships built in the Western Hemisphere., Ironclads' Baptism of Fire , Union gunboats Carondelet, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Essex exchange fire with Fort Henry, February 6, 1862, in their first test in battle., - 6 32-Pounder Smoothbore Cannon , - 4 42-Pounder Rifled Cannon , - 3 8-Inch Dahlgren Rifled Cannon , - 2.5 Inches of Iron Armor on forward and central slopes of the casemate., Weakness , - Very slow , - Large turning radius , - Upper deck vulnerable to plunging fire. , - Aft portion of casemate unarmored., (Top Right Image Caption): , "Pook Turtles" under construction at the Carondelet Marine Ways. The ironclads Carondelet and St. Louis, which took part in the attack on Fort Henry, were built here., James B. Eads , James Eads, a retired engineer who later became one of America's most famous bridge builders, financed the construction of the gunboats. He was later reimbursed by the U.S. Government., (Bottom Left Image Caption): , The ironclad USS Essex, not one of the Eads gunboats, was disabled in the attack on Fort Henry when a well-placed Confederate shot ruptured its boiler., (Background Image Caption): , This engraving appeared in the February 22, 1862 issue of the illustrated newspaper Harper's Weekly. Though containing a number of errors, the most obvious being the island in front of Fort Henry, the drawing provided a sense of drama surrounding the first significant Union victory of the Civil War.