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Unlike Anything That Ever Floated
A history of the American Civil War naval battle, the first confrontation between two Ironclads, featuring accounts from men who lived through it. “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 he...
Unlike Anything That Ever Floated
"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 co...
The Civil War on the Water
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 shi...
War in the Western Theater
War in the Western Theater offers fresh perspectives on pivotal Civil War events, shedding light on overlooked battles and figures, revealing untold stories that reshape our understanding of this crucial region. The Western Theater has long been pushed to the side by events in the Eastern Theater, but it was in the West where the Federal armies won the Civil War. Interest in this complex region is finally increasing, and the authors at Emerging Civil War add substantially to that growing body of literature with War in the Western Theater: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War. Dozens of entries offer fresh and insightful aspects and angles to key e...
A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy
Abraham Lincoln knew if the Union could cut off shipping to and from New Orleans, the largest exporting port in the world, and control the Mississippi River, it would be a mortal blow to the Confederate economy. Union military leaders devised a secret plan to attack the city from the Gulf of Mexico with a formidable naval flotilla under one commander, David G. Farragut, a native New Orleanian. Jefferson Davis also understood the city’s importance—but he and his military leaders remained steadfastly undecided about where the threat to the city lay, sending troops to Tennessee rather than addressing the Union forces amassing in the Gulf. In the city, Confederate General Mansfield Lovell, a...
The Carnage was Fearful
“Profusely illustrated . . . an extraordinary and detailed account of a major battle that is often overlooked and underappreciated by Civil War historians.” —Midwest Book Review In early August 1862, Confederate Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson took to the field with his Army of the Valley for one last fight—one that would also turn out to be his last independent command. Near the base of Cedar Mountain, in the midst of a blistering heat wave, outnumbered Federal infantry under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks attacked Jackson’s army as it marched toward Culpeper Court House. A violent three-hour battle erupted, yielding more than 3,600 casualties. “The carnage was fearful,” one observer w...
To Hell or Richmond
In the spring of 1862, George McClellan and his massive army were slowly making their way up the Virginia Peninsula. Their goal: Capture the Confederate capital and end the rebellion. “To Hell or Richmond,” one Federal artillery unit vowed, sewing the words onto their flag. The outnumbered and outgunned Confederates under generals “Prince John” Magruder and Joseph E. Johnston kept pulling back, drawing McClellan away from his base at Fort Monroe and further up the peninsula—exactly the direction McClellan wanted to go. But if they could draw him just far enough, and out of position, they hoped to attack and defeat him. As McClellan approached the very gates of Richmond, a great battle brewed. Could the Confederates save their capital and, with it, their young nation? Could the Federals win the war with a single fatal blow? In To Hell or Richmond: The 1862 Peninsula Campaign, Doug Crenshaw and Drew Gruber follow the armies on their trek up the peninsula. The stakes grew enormous, surprises awaited, and the soldiers themselves had only two possible destinations in mind.
Passing Through the Fire
This Civil War biography “draw[s] upon fresh material . . . to offer some important new insights. . . . An outstanding addition.” (NYMAS Book Review) As the brigade he commanded attacked a Confederate battery on a hill outside Petersburg in July 1864, a bursting shell blew Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain from the saddle and wounded his horse. After the enemy battery skedaddled, the brigade took the hill and dug in, and up came supporting Union guns. Chamberlain figured the day’s fighting ended. Then an unidentified senior officer ordered his brigade to charge and capture the heavily defended main Confederate line. Chamberlain protested the order, then complied, taking his men forward—unti...
Dreams of Victory
“Chick does a good job of portraying [General Beauregard] as the first real hero of the Confederacy, who at times proved his own worst enemy.” —The NYMAS Review Few Civil War generals attracted as much debate and controversy as Pierre Gustav Toutant Beauregard. He combined brilliance and charisma with arrogance and histrionics. He was a Catholic Creole in a society dominated by white Protestants, which made him appear exotic next to the likes of Albert Sidney Johnston and Robert E. Lee. He was reviled by Jefferson Davis and mocked by Mary Chesnut in her diary. Yet he was popular with his soldiers and subordinates. Outside of Lee, he was the South’s most consistently successful comman...
A Confederate Biography
From October 1864 to November 1865, the officers of the CSS Shenandoah carried the Confederacy and the conflict of the Civil War around the globe through extreme weather, alien surroundings, and the people they encountered. Her officers were the descendants of Deep South plantation aristocracy and Old Dominion first families: a nephew of Robert E. Lee, a grandnephew of founder George Mason, and descendants of one of George Washington's generals and of an aid to Washington. One was even an uncle of a young Theodore Roosevelt and another was son-in-law to Raphael Semmes. Shenandoah's mission-commerce raiding (guerre de course)-was a central component of U.S. naval and maritime heritage, a profitable business, and a watery form of guerrilla warfare. These Americans stood in defense of their country as they understood it, pursuing a difficult and dangerous mission in which they succeeded spectacularly after it no longer mattered. This is a biography of a ship and a cruise, and a microcosm of the Confederate-American experience.
