An inside look at the Confederacy's military science and technology Loaded with previously unavailable information about the Confederate Navy's effort to supply its fledgling forces, the wartime diaries and letters of John M. Brooke (1826–1906) tell the neglected story of the Confederate naval ordnance office, its innovations, and its strategic vision. As Confederate commander of ordnance and hydrography in Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, Brooke numbered among the military officers who resigned their U.S. commissions and "went South" to join the Confederate forces at the onset of conflict. A twenty-year veteran of the United States Navy who had been appointed a midshipman at the age of fourteen, Brooke was a largely self-taught military scientist whose inventions included the Brooke Deep-Sea Sounding Lead. In addition to his achievements as an inventor, Brooke was a draftsman, diarist, and inveterate letter-writer. His copious correspondence about military and personal matters from the war yields detailed and often unexpected insights into the Confederacy's naval operations. Charged with developing a vessel that could break the Union blockade, Brooke raised the Merrimack, a wooden vessel scuttled by the Union Navy, and outfitted it with armor plates as the CSS Virginia. Brooke's papers trace his conception of the plan to create the first Confederate ironclad warship and offer insight into other innovations, revealing a massive amount of factual information about the Confederacy's production of munitions.

His copious correspondence about military and personal matters from the war yields detailed and often unexpected insights into the Confederacy's naval operations."--BOOK JACKET.

Hampered by lack of materials, shipyards and experienced shipbuilders, even so the South managed to construct 34 iron-armored warships during the Civil War, of which the Confederate Navy put 25 into service. The stories of these vessels illustrate the hardships under which the Navy operated--and also its resourcefulness. Except for the Albemarle, no Confederate ironclad was sunk or destroyed by enemy action. Overtaken by events on the ground, most were destroyed by their own crews to prevent them from falling into Union hands. This account covers the design and construction and the engagements of the Confederate ironclads and describes the ingenuity and courage, as well as the challenges and frustrations of their "too little, too late" service.

The development of steam propulsion machinery in warships during the nineteenth century, in conjunction with iron armor and shell guns, resulted in a technological revolution in the world's navies. Warships utilizing all of these technologies were built in France and Great Britain in the 1850s, but it was during the American Civil War that large numbers of ironclads powered solely by steam proved themselves to be quite capable warships. This book focuses on Confederate ironclads with American built machinery, offering a detailed look at marine steam-engineering practices in both northern and southern industry prior to and during the Civil War. It gives a contextual naval history of the Civil War, the creation of the ironclad program, and the advent of various technologies. The author analyzes the armored warships built by the Confederate States of America that represented a style adapted to scarce industrial resources and facilities.

While the Monitor and Merrimack are the most famous of the Civil War ironclads, the Confederacy had another ship in its flotilla that carried high hopes and a metal hull. The makeshift CSS Arkansas, completed by Lt. Isaac Newton Brown and manned by a mixed crew of volunteers, gave the South a surge of confidence when it launched in 1862. For 28 days of summer, the ship engaged in five battles with Union warships, falling victim in the end only to her own primitive engines. The saga of the CSS Arkansas represents the last significant Rebel naval activity in the war's Western theater.

ALSO AVAILABLE TO BUY AS AN E-BOOK. The Ironclad was a revolutionary weapon of war, the first modern, armoured, self-propelled warships. During the American Civil War the South used ironclads to protect their ports from the Northern blockade. Impressed with their superior resistance to fire and, the North developed its own rival fleet of ironclads. Eventually the two products of this modern arms race duelled at the battle of Hampton Roads in a clash that would change the face of naval warfare. Fully illustrated with cutting-edge digital artwork, rare photographs and first-person perspective gunsight views, this book allows the reader to discover the revolutionary and radically different designs of the two rival Ironclads – the Merrimac and USS Monitor – through an analysis of each ship's weaponry, ammunition and steerage.

The battle between the Confederate ship Merrimac and the Union’s Monitor at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on March 9, 1862, introduced the age of the ironclads and ended the dominance of wooden warships forever. This fascinating book shares the behind-the-scenes drama of both the battle and the development of the ships that transformed naval warfare and changed the course of the Civil War.