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by Charles River (Author)
*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the ships and their histories written by crewmembers *Includes online resources and bibliographies for further reading *Includes a table of contents On March 8, 1862, the newest era of naval warfare began. That day, the CSS Virginia, an ironclad created out of the hull of the scuttled USS Merrimac by the Confederates, sailed down the Elizabeth River to Hampton Roads, where a Union blockade fleet was anchored. The wooden ships of the North were no match for the ironclad, which quickly rammed and sank the USS Cumberland, and as it trained its sights on the USS Congress, one Union officer noted the former Merrimac fired "shot and shell into her with terrific effect, while the shot from the Congress glanced from her iron-plated sloping sides, without doing any apparent injury." The Merrimac had overwhelmingly demonstrated the superiority of the ironclad over the traditional frigates and gunships of the time, but it met its match the following day. On March 9, the North's ironclad, the USS Monitor, arrived to challenge the Confederate ironclad, setting off the most famous naval battle of the war. Throughout the war, the Confederate Navy tried to fight off the Union blockade but was seriously outgunned. Confederate blockade runners, independent operators with fast ships, became national heroes for their daring races across the ocean with Union warships hot on their heels. While their adventures made for good headlines, the goods they slipped through the blockade weren't nearly enough to solve the chronic shortages. The South needed a different solution. It needed some sort of vessel that could defeat the blockading ships and yet be within the financial and technological means of the Confederate war chest. It was the proposed solution to this problem that led to one of the strangest and inspiring stories of the Civil War-that of the CSS H. L. Hunley, the first submarine to successfully sink an enemy vessel. It is the story of its obsessive inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley, and his brave and determined crewmembers. It is also a story of technology well ahead of its time. However, as historic and groundbreaking as the Hunley and its mission was, all of that may be overshadowed by the lingering debate over just what happened to the submarine, which never made it back to port after the attack. Among all the Confederate commerce raiders, by far the most famous was the CSS Alabama. The Alabama attacked American ships and eluded the U.S. Navy around the globe for more than two years, all without ever having docked at a Southern port. The Alabama conducted seven expeditions, raiding commerce in locations as diverse as the Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean, capturing dozens of prizes across tens of thousands of miles of water. In fact, the Alabama would meet its demise as a result of having to head into port in France to refit and repair the ship after so much heavy use. While the Confederates tried to rely on blockade runners, the Union Navy assigned many ships the task of tracking them down and stopping them. One of these ships, the USS Kearsarge, would face off against the Alabama off the French coast. Unaware the Union ship was partly fitted with the armor of an ironclad, the Confederates decided to attack, and after the Alabama was escorted out of the French harbor by French ships, the Alabama and Kearsage dueled with each other in full view of hundreds of Frenchmen gathered on the coast. The battle lasted about an hour until the Alabama was headed to the bottom and dozens of its sailors were killed or wounded. The Most Famous Ships of the Confederacy: The History of the Merrimac, CSS Alabama, and CSS Hunley looks at the unique history of these legendary ships and the battles they fought. Along with pictures, you will learn about these Confederate ships like never before.
