by Rick Badman

Created on: August 18, 2010

THE CONFEDERACY'S LAST HOPE

Desperate men were attempting desperate measures to try and seize victory from the jaws of defeat.  One of those desperate measures was being taken underground in Missouri.  A team of scientists and engineers were hard at work during the winter of 1864 - 65 to build wonder weapons that might turn the tide against the Federals. 

One of the wonder weapons was a steam-powered armored gun carrier that used a three-inch breech-loading cannon and a pair of swivel guns that used belts of cartridges to feed 54 caliber slugs into the breech as the guns were cranked.  With a planned speed of 40 mph and a range of 150 miles, the 12-ton iron monsters that used treads instead of just wheels were formidable weapons that might be able to destroy morale in the Union ranks.  But with only a dozen land dreadnoughts ready to be deployed by late February, they might be ineffective in breaking through to lead the Confederates to victory over Washington. 

Another wonder weapon was a submersible that use a snorkel to allow the steam engine to propel the boat and let the crew members breathe.  The exhaust was sprayed with water to cut down on the smoke.   Steam pressure would build up to launch underwater torpedoes that were supposed to sink Federal ships and when the boat was on the surface, twin rifles that used an electrical ignition system would ignite the cartridges in the breech of each weapon.  One boat was ready by February and two more might be ready by late March. 

The most ambitious wapon being worked on was a huge hydrogen inflated balloon that would be pushed through the air by a small yet powerful steam engine that used coal oil instead of wood or coal.  There were two Gatling-type guns, a two-inch cannon, and bomb racks that could carry a couple dozen small bombs.  It was supposed to fly above the clouds and be relatively silent at that altitude so it could attack cities in the North and maybe even bomb Washington.  With just one balloon, the Confederacy was taking a chance that the 300-foot lighter-than-air craft would do significant damage. 

The Federal spy network was keeping an eye on the area watching scrap iron and cannons being taken to Missouri and underground next to the Mississippi.  The spies thought that maybe the Confederates were constructing an ironclad.  But they had no idea how advanced the weapons systems were that were being developed. 

A team of twenty tunnel diggers started tunneling under the river in the fall of 1864 toward the underground research center and by the late winter in 1865 was under the installation.  A keg of gunpowder was placed about five feet below the floor of the installation and another was placed under the river. 

The Federal and Confederate teams were in a race.  One of them would be victorious and the other might cost their side the destiny of the war effort.   On March 31, 1865, both teams were ready to act.  The Confederates fired the boilers of the steam eagines and were ready to move out.  Three minutes later, the Federal team lit the fuses to the kegs and ran for their lives out of the tunnel.  Before the land dreadnoughts could emerge, two explosions went off.  Water from the Mississippi surged toward the installation and in less than a minute, water gushed upward into the research center. 

None of the weapons could be used against the North.   

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