Design
From a technological view, the CSS Texas was one of the three "Tennessee class" ironclads (the other two being the CSS Tennessee II and the CSS Columbia) that used the latest in Confederate shipbuilding efforts.
The casemate of the Texas was octagonal, rather than being a sloped, rectangular box as on the earlier Confederate ironclads. The casemate fitted snugly around her forward, broadside, and aft cannon positions. Instead of being bolted to the deck, the pilot house formed a seamless extension of her sloped side-armor.
Details of her armament remain sketchy, but her sister ship, the CSS Tennessee II carried four 6.4 inch Brooke rifles, two 7.0 inch Brooke rifles, and a bolted-on spar torpedo. The armor of the CSS Tennessee II was listed as three layers, two inches thick, apiece. Her top speed was about five knots, according to some sources, and her crew was about 133 sailors. However, it is unclear how closely the Texas was to resemble the Tennessee II.
Other sources gave the Texas a (projected) top speed about 10 knots, and these note that both the Tennessee II and the Texas differed from each other in their plans due to a lack of available key metals, in particular for their cannons and engines, and also in design improvements made during her construction from lessons that had been learned in combat with the U.S. Navy.
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