Drive On: James Eads & the Mississippi Ironclads

GREAT!
Pretty good documentary with lots of information on James Eads making ironclads. They say St. Louis, but at the time of the Civil War Carondelet was it's own town separate from City of St. Louis. The additional video of USS Cairo gunboat was neat, lots of video of walking around the gunboat.

James Eads Documentary Description
James Buchanan Eads is best known for building his famous bridge spanning the Mississippi river at St. Louis, Missouri. Eads Bridge was the first steel arch bridge to cross the "Mighty Mississippi" river, which helped create a vital link between the East and West. What many people do not know, is that James Eads built another "first" at St. Louis during the American Civil War. This documentary, "Drive On: James Eads & the Mississippi Ironclads" tells the story of Eads building the first United States ironclad gunboats in 1861. You may know of the Civil War sea battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (Merrimack) ironclads at Hampton Roads, Virginia - But did you know that a full month before their historical sea battle, Eads City class ironclad gunboats had already helped capture Fort Henry from the Confederates.

On a Saturday afternoon in October 1861, a large crowd gathered at the Eads Boatyards to observe the launching of the first U.S. ironclad built in the...



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