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} |} The Pook Turtles, or City-class gunboats to use their semi-official name, were war vessels intended for service on the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. They were also sometimes referred to as "Eads gunboats." The labels are applied to seven vessels of uniform design built from the keel up in Carondelet, Missouri shipyards owned by James Buchanan Eads. Eads was a wealthy St. Louis industrialist who risked his fortune in support of the Union.〔Joiner, ''Mr. Lincoln's Brown Water Navy,'' pp.17–18.〕 The City-class gunboats were the United States' first ironclad warships.〔Because the City-class gunboats were built using War Department funds, when commissioned they were Army property. Because of this, the , commissioned over a month after the first of the City-class vessels, has the honor of being the U.S. Navy's first ironclad.〕 The gunboats produced by Eads formed the core of the US Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla,〔The Western Gunboat Flotilla was a unique "joint service" organization. The gunboats were built using funds from the War Department, were manned by Navy personnel, and were under the ultimate command of the U.S. Army theater commander.〕 which later was transferred to the US Navy and became the Mississippi River Squadron. Eads gunboats took part in almost every significant action on the upper Mississippi and its tributaries from their first offensive use at the Battle of Fort Henry until the end of the war.〔The major exception is the Battle of Shiloh; the two gunboats there had been built and converted in other shipyards.〕 ==Early connection between Eads and the US government== In the early days of the Civil War, before it was certain that the secession movement had been thwarted in Missouri and before it was known that Kentucky would remain in the Union, James B. Eads offered one of his salvage vessels, ''Submarine No. 7'', to the Federal government for conversion to a warship for service on the western rivers. In a letter he wrote to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, he pointed out that the catamaran-type hull of his boat〔In the mid-nineteenth century, a vessel that was not intended to venture on the open ocean was referred to as a boat and never a ship, no matter her size or construction. The distinction has been lost, except in rather special cases.〕 was already divided into several watertight compartments, and therefore could sustain numerous hits by enemy artillery without danger of sinking. As the interior of the country was the responsibility of the Army and not the Navy, Welles passed the letter on to Secretary of War Simon Cameron, who in turn referred it to Major General of Volunteers George B. McClellan for consideration.〔Joiner, ''Mr. Lincoln's Brown Water Navy,'' pp. 18–20.〕 McClellan was commander of the Department of the Ohio, with responsibilities that included defense of the Ohio River and the parts of the Mississippi that were not in Confederate control.〔ORA ser. I, v. 2, p. 2. Official Atlas, plate 158.〕 At about the same time that McClellan received the letter, he also had a naval officer, Commander John Rodgers, added to his staff. Rodgers came with orders to provide the department with gunboats, either by acquiring civilian craft and converting them, or by having them built from the keel up. As the Eads letter meshed with the orders carried by Rodgers, McClellan passed responsibility on to him, ordering him to St. Louis to consult with Eads and see if his ideas were feasible. Rodgers did not like ''Submarine No. 7,'' but his negative assessment was overruled by Major General John C. Fremont, who succeeded McClellan when the latter was called to Washington to serve as General-in-Chief. Although Rodgers had opposed Eads's proposal, the two men were able to work together. This was the beginning of their short-lived but productive collaboration.〔Joiner, ''Mr. Lincoln's Brown Water Navy,'' p. 25.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「City-class ironclad」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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