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The Civil War was primarily a land conflict, but it was not only
that. “Nor must Uncle Sam’s web-feet be forgotten,” wrote
Abraham Lincoln. “At all the watery margins they have been
present. Not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid
river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the ground
was a little damp, they have been and made their tracks.” From
the Arctic Circle to the Caribbean, swift Rebel raiders decimated
Union commerce pursued by the U. S. Navy. Offshore, storm-tossed
blockaders in hundreds of vessels patrolled from Hatteras to
Galveston while occasionally lobbing a few shots at a speeding
Rebel runner. Around the continental periphery, it was ships vs.
powerful fortifications as titanic clashes erupted: Port Royal, New
Orleans, Charleston, Mobile. Massive army-navy amphibious
operations presaged twentieth-century conflicts: The Peninsula,
North Carolina Sounds, Fort Fisher. In the heartland, the two
services invented riverine warfare: Forts Henry and Donelson,
Island No. 10, Memphis, Vicksburg. And through it all, emerging
technology of the machine age played a critical role: iron armor,
torpedoes, steam propulsion, heavy naval artillery. However,
nothing in the history and traditions of the United States Navy had
prepared it for civil war. The sea service would expand tenfold
from a third-rate force to (temporarily) one of the most powerful
and advanced navies. Meanwhile, former shipmates in the Confederacy
struggled to construct a fleet from nothing, applying innovative
technologies and underdog strategies to achieve more than anyone
thought possible. Both sides faced unprecedented strategic,
tactical, and technological challenges that made their navies
indispensable – even as the navies themselves faced those same
sorts of challenges. The Civil War on the Water: Favorite Stories
and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War
compiles favorite navy tales and obscure narratives by
distinguished public historians of the Emerging Civil War in
celebration of the organization’s tenth anniversary. This
eclectic collection presents new stories and familiar battles from
a unique perspective – from the water – sea, surf, and stream.
"Ironclad against ironclad, we maneuvered about the bay here and
went at each other with mutual fierceness," reported Chief Engineer
Alban Stimers following that momentous engagement between the USS
Monitor and the CSS Virginia (ex USS Merrimack) in Hampton Roads,
Sunday, March 9, 1862. The day before, the Rebel ram had
obliterated two powerful Union warships and was poised to destroy
more. That night, the revolutionary - not to say bizarre - Monitor
slipped into harbor after hurrying down from New York through
fierce gales that almost sank her. These metal monstrosities dueled
in the morning, pounding away for hours with little damage to
either. Who won is still debated. One Vermont reporter could hardly
find words for Monitor: "It is in fact unlike anything that ever
floated on Neptune's bosom." The little vessel became an icon of
American industrial ingenuity and strength. She redefined the
relationship between men and machines in war. But beforehand, many
feared she would not float. Captain John L. Worden: "Here was an
unknown, untried vessel...an iron coffin-like ship of which the
gloomiest predictions were made." The CSS Virginia was a paradigm
of Confederate strategy and execution - the brainchild of
innovative, dedicated, and courageous men, but the victim of
hurried design, untested technology, poor planning and
coordination, and a dearth of critical resources. Nevertheless, she
obsolesced the entire U.S Navy, threatened the strategically vital
blockade, and disrupted General McClellan's plans to take Richmond.
From flaming, bloody decks of sinking ships, to the dim confines of
the first rotating armored turret, to the smoky depths of a Rebel
gundeck - with shells screaming, clanging, booming, and splashing
all around - to the office of a worried president with his cabinet
peering down the Potomac for a Rebel monster, this dramatic story
unfolds through the accounts of men who lived it in Unlike Anything
That Ever Floated: The Monitor and Virginia and the Battle of
Hampton Roads, March 8-9, 1862 by Dwight Sturtevant Hughes.
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