The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Monday, December 31, 2007

New Book on Civil War Ironclads

The Civil War Book News blog reports that there is a new Civil War naval book out. It is "Clad in Iron: the Civil War and the Challenge of British Naval Power " by Howard J. Fuller.

A bit of the blurb about it:

This book addresses misconceptions of what monitors were for. Their ultimate success was not their ability to spearhead attacks on Confederate forts, but rather the "Cold War" deterrence of British military and government leaders from intervening. Fuller points out that this was a success in the Union navy's victory more than the blockade.

In other words, the monitors presence kept the British navy out of the war.

The North "succeeded through a combination of high-tech 'machines' armed with 'monster' guns, intensive coastal fortifications and a new fleet of high-speed Union commerce raiders, the North was able to turn the humiliation of the Trent Affair of late 1861 into a sobering challenge to British naval power and imperial defense worldwide."

I'm not sure about Union coastal defenses and the Union ships were not commerce raiders, but made to pursue Confederate commerce raiders.

Definitely sounds like an interesting book to read.

http://acwbn.blogspot.com.

A New Look at an Old War. --THE Old B-Rer

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