Asa Tift Designs Fountain to Replicate Ironclad Warship

Asa Tift Designs Fountain to Replicate Ironclad Warship. . Notice the design of the fountain below. It was built by Asa Tift in 1862 and replicates the cutting edge warship design he and his brother, Nelson, developed for the Confederacy, the Ironclad Warship., The Confederate Secretary of Navy, a friend of Asa Tift, sought his help to build a naval force quickly and economically. He wrote to Tift:, "The Department trusts to your patriotism, judgment, and discretion to produce the ship designed in the shortest time at the lowest price and to act in the premises generally as if you were building for yourselves and had to pay the money out of your own pockets." -Stephen Mallory, 1861, Because the Confederacy had no shipyards and only a few skilled shipwrights, the Tift brothers designed their warships to be built by carpenters using basic house-building techniques. The CSS Mississippi, CSS Louisiana, and three other ironclad warships gave the Confederacy a credible Naval presence., The Tift brothers were not paid for their design or their labor., (captions) , (left) Asa Tift designed, built, and moved his family into this home in 1851, but their enjoyment was short lived. His wife and children died tragically from yellow fever between 1854-1855. , (center) The Ironclad incorporated flat sides, square corners, and pointed sterns and bows attached to rectangular hulls. , (right) The ill-fated ironclad CSS Mississippi was burned by Confederate troops before it was finished to avoid its capture when New Orleans fell to the Union troops in April 1862.