The CSS Atlanta, was converted from the iron-hulled blockade runner Fingal at Savannah by the Tift brothers, builders of the never completed CSS Mississippi. The Fingal was cut down to the waterline; the armored deck projected six feet from the hull with a casemate on top.
The Atlanta, stationed at Savannah, was captured in Wassaw Sound, Ga., by the monitors Nahant and Weehawken. While coming out to do battle, the Atlanta ran aground, and after a couple of hits by the Weehawken's 11" guns, which did little damage, and two devastating hits by the monitor's 15" Dahlgren's, which penetrated the armor, Atlanta was surrendered on 17 June 1864.
The Atlanta was taken into Union service and served in the South and North Atlantic Blockading Squadrons, spending most of her time on the James River.