Warley, CSS Manassas joined the force of Captain John K. Mitchell, CSN, commanding Confederate naval forces in the lower Mississippi. She participated in the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, during which Commodore David Farragut, USN, on his way to New Orleans, ran his fleet past the Confederate forts of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip. In the action Manassas attempted to ram , which turned in time to avoid the heavy blow and delivered a full broadside at close range. Manassas then ran into more murderous fire from the whole line of the Union fleet. She then charged and delivered a long glancing blow to her hull, also firing her single cannon as she rammed. Next she rammed , again firing her cannon, injuring her deeply, but not fatally. After this action Manassas followed the Union fleet quietly for a while, but as she drew closer Mississippi furiously turned on her and made an attempt to ram the ironclad. Manassas managed to dodge the blow but ran aground in the process. Her crew managed to escape as Mississippi poured heavy broadsides into the stranded Confederate ram. Now on fire, Manassas slipped off the bank and drifted down the river past the Union mortar flotilla. Commander David Dixon Porter, USN, in command of the mortar boats, tried to save her as an engineering curiosity, but Manassas exploded and immediately plunged under water, a total loss. Years after the war, in the book Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, there was a claim that a Manassas crewman was knocked off the ironclad by a Union sailor; however Lieutenant Warley reported no casualties among his Manassas crew in an official report dated 13 August 1863. References Notes Abbreviations used in these notes Official atlas: Atlas to accompany the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ORA (Official records, armies): War of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies. ORN (Official records, navies): Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Bibliography External links CSS Manassas at the Naval Historical Center Ironclad warships of the Confederate States Navy Shipwrecks of the Mississippi River Shipwrecks of the American Civil War Naval magazine explosions Louisiana in the American Civil War Ships built in Medford, Massachusetts Tugboats Steamboats of the United States 1855 ships Maritime incidents in April 1862