ship's casemate was shaped like a rectangle and Porter's plan showed two pilothouses on the casemate's roof, although operational reports from her captain make no mention of the rear pilothouse. The Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond was contracted to produce her propulsion system, although Bisbee believes that it is possible that the Richmond-based Shockoe Foundry may have produced them. The ship was propelled by a pair of direct-acting steam engines that each drove a propeller. Porter's plan shows Fredericksburg as having three horizontal boilers measuring 7 feet tall, in diameter, and long, but it is not known if the final construction varied from the blueprints or not. Bisbee believes that the boilers probably were of the fire-tube type. Fredericksburg could move at a speed of about and had a crew of 150. She also carried about 20 to 25 Confederate States Marines in case of a battle that required naval boarding. Fredericksburg eventually received her armament of one Brooke rifle on a pivot mount in the bow, two Brooke rifles, one on each broadside and a Columbiad muzzle-loading smoothbore gun on a pivot mounting in the stern. Naval historian Paul H. Silverstone states that she was armed with one smootbore cannon, an rifled cannon, and two rifled cannons, and naval historian W. Craig Gaines states that she was armed with four rifled cannons. Gaines states that she had of wrought-iron armor. The area where the casemate met the deck was armored with of iron, and the armor extended below the waterline. The top of the casemate consisted of 2-inch-thick iron bars, spaced apart. After the Battle of Chaffin's Farm in September–October 1864, the ship's captain recommended that additional iron bars be positioned between the bars to better protect the crew, although it is uncertain if this was ever done. Fredericksburg had less armor than Virginia II, which gave her a lighter draft but made her comparatively weaker. Construction and career Named for the Virginia city, Fredericksburgs construction was partially funded from monies raised by women's organizations for ship construction; the ship was one of several ironclads sometimes known as the "Ladies Gunboats". An attempt to launch the warship on June 6, 1863, failed when the Confederates were unable to get her into the water, but another on June 11 was successful. Her fitting out was prolonged by a lack of iron, which was in short supply in the Confederacy. The