Ironclads had two main types of artillery, the rifled cannon and the smoothbore. The smoothbore was not a new development. The smoothbore could be skipped across the water to reach its target, and was devastating to any arget at close range, although fairly ineffective at a distance. The Union also equipped many of its ships with 100- and 150-pound Parrott rifles. These were better than the smoothbore in that they had better range, accuracy, and penetration, but, unlike the smoothbore, they could not be skipped over the water. The rifle eventually totally replaced the smoothbore in naval artillery. Types of ammunition in these artillery were the explosive shell and the solid shot. The explosive shells were equipped with homemade fuses, and were most effective against wooden ships and forts. On a wooden ship, an explosive shell would set fore to it and fill the air inside of it with large flying splinters. These would be less effective against forts, but, like on wooden ships, it would set fire to the flammable structures and fill it with flying shrapnel. In addition, it would also set off much of the fort's artillery, causing deadly explosion. The solid shot, the precursor to the modern armor-piercing shot, could and did penetrate through the thick armor of the ironclads of the day.
The Union ironclad Onondaga.
By the time of ironclads, the sailing ships of earlier tomes had become obsolete. All the ironclads utilized steam engines. Steam engines were approaching reliability by the end of the war, but they were ususally highly temperamental, making each ship individual from its sister ships. There were two main types of propulsion, the screw propellers and the paddle wheel. The screw propellerwas standard for ironclads, especially Monitos, but some had paddle wheels, especially the Union river fleet. The paddle wheels main disadvantages were that they provided a much larger target for an enemy ship to hit, and they were difficult to armor. They had a few advantages, too, mainly that they would provide for a smaller draft, an important advantage for a riverboat, and that they could be turned independently, giving the ship bearing them more maneuverability.
The USS Neosho. Note the large paddlewheels on her stern.
Even though the ships were all very differnt from each other and each had its own niche in the navy, they all fit into one broad category, Civil War Ironclads.
