Visit the Museum on Friday afternoon to enjoy lunch in the Mariners’ Park Café and stimulating Civil War discussion with renowned historian, John Quarstein. There is no charge to participate. Lunch will be available for purchase at the café!

 

Originally named Sphynx as a deception, CSS Stonewall was an ironclad ram built by the Armand Brothers at Bordeaux, France. The ship was sold to Denmark and then acquired by the Confederacy on January 6, 1865. Captain Thomas Jefferson Page took command and after repairs at Coruna, Spain, Stonewall headed for American waters, planning to attack Port Royal Sound, South Carolina. The ship reached Cuba by May 1865. There, Page learned that the war was over. The ironclad was then sold to Spanish authorities and later acquired by the United States. Eventually, the ram would be sold to Japan and named Azuma.