Why the American Civil War produced the strangest ironclads

Where should a reader look for the most unusual ironclad ideas that were actually tried?

Look to the American Civil War, where Union and Confederate forces experimented with an exceptionally varied range of ironclad designs.

The American Civil War is the best starting point for the era's most unusual ironclad experiments. Union and Confederate forces both tried an exceptionally varied set of concepts. The comparison spans both sides rather than crediting one navy alone. No individual vessels are named in this short response, so it supplies a research direction rather than a ranked list.