Burning of the "New Ironsides," at League Island, on the Delaware River.

A 19th-century perspective of the Burning of the "New Ironsides," at League Island, on the Delaware River, captured as a wood engraving and hand colored to highlight the details.

The USS New Ironsides was commissioned in 1862 by Federal forces to be used against the Confederacy during the American Civil War. She was largely used to blockage Confederate ports, such as Charleston, South Carolina. Her hearty shell made her difficult to damage, and her powerful guns a force to be reckoned with. Even a torpedo proved incapable of causing any real damage to her hull in 1863.

In his address to the Georgia Historical Society in 1879, Charles H. Olmstead said of New Ironsides, "Her broadsides were not fired in volley, but gun after gun, in rapid succession, the effect upon those who were at the wrong end of the guns being exceedingly demoralizing. Whenever she commenced there was a painful uncertainty as to what might happen before she got through." The ship was outfitted with fourteen 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbore guns and two 150-pound Parrot rifled guns.

Sadly, the USS Ironsides was destroyed in a fire while sitting in reserve on December 16, 1866 in the Philadelphia ship-yard.