The CSS Arkansas
The CSS Arkansas

Author: Myron J. Smith, Jr.

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2011-08-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780786447268

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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.

The CSS Arkansas
The CSS Arkansas

Author: Myron J. Smith, Jr.

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0786484853

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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.

The Fight for the Yazoo, August 1862-July 1864
The Fight for the Yazoo, August 1862-July 1864

Author: Myron J. Smith, Jr.

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 461

ISBN-13: 0786491108

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Following the loss of the CSS Arkansas in early August 1862, Union and Confederate eyes turned to the Yazoo River, which formed the developing northern flank for the South's fortress at Vicksburg, Mississippi. For much of the next year, Federal efforts to capture the citadel focused on possession of that stream. Huge battles and mighty expeditions were launched (Chickasaw Bayou, Yazoo Pass, Steele's Bayou) from that direction, but the city, guarded by stout defenses, swamps, and motivated defenders, could not be turned. Finally, Union troops ran down the Mississippi and came up from the south and the river defenses and the bastion itself were taken from the east. From July 1863 to August 1864, sporadic Confederate resistance necessitated continued Federal attention. This book recounts the whole story.

A Confederate Girl's Diary
A Confederate Girl's Diary

Author: Sarah Morgan Dawson

Publisher:

Published: 1913

Total Pages: 490

ISBN-13:

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Sarah Morgan Dawson lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at the outbreak of the American Civil War. In March 1862, she began to record her thoughts about the war in a diary-- thoughts about the loss of friends killed in battle and the occupation of her home by Federal troops. Her devotion to the South was unwavering and her emotions real and uncensored. A true classic.

Engines of Rebellion
Engines of Rebellion

Author: Saxon Bisbee

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2018-08-07

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0817319867

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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.

War on the Waters
War on the Waters

Author: James M. McPherson

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2012-09-17

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0807837326

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Although previously undervalued for their strategic impact because they represented only a small percentage of total forces, the Union and Confederate navies were crucial to the outcome of the Civil War. In War on the Waters, James M. McPherson has crafted an enlightening, at times harrowing, and ultimately thrilling account of the war's naval campaigns and their military leaders. McPherson recounts how the Union navy's blockade of the Confederate coast, leaky as a sieve in the war's early months, became increasingly effective as it choked off vital imports and exports. Meanwhile, the Confederate navy, dwarfed by its giant adversary, demonstrated daring and military innovation. Commerce raiders sank Union ships and drove the American merchant marine from the high seas. Southern ironclads sent several Union warships to the bottom, naval mines sank many more, and the Confederates deployed the world's first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. But in the end, it was the Union navy that won some of the war's most important strategic victories--as an essential partner to the army on the ground at Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Mobile Bay, and Fort Fisher, and all by itself at Port Royal, Fort Henry, New Orleans, and Memphis.

Iron Afloat
Iron Afloat

Author: William N. Still

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 1988-12

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780872496163

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Everyone knows the story of the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack. But how many people know the story behind the Confederacy's attempt to build a fleet of armorclad vessels of war? When the Civil War began, the South had virtually no navy, few seamen, and limited shipbuilding facilities. In order to defend its ports against a well-established Northern navy, the South had to resort to innovation, and the Confederate ironclad navy was born. The Confederate government commissioned and put into operation twenty-two armorclad vessels of war. This is their story. From the inception of the program, through the problems of building the vessels, through the careers of the vessels themselves (including gripping battle descriptions), to their eventual destruction or surrender, it is all here. Iron Afloat is history that reads like a novel and will appeal to readers interested in the Civil War and Confederacy as well as to military and naval historians.

A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country
A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country

Author: Halbert Eleazer Paine

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2009-05

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0807135011

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General Halbert Eleazer Paine, commanding officer of the 4th Wisconsin Regiment of Volunteers, took part in most of the significant military actions in the lower Mississippi Valley during the Civil War. Nearly forty years after the conflict's end, Paine -- a former schoolteacher and attorney who would become a three-term congressman -- penned recollections of his wartime exploits, including his involvement in the Vicksburg campaign, the operations that resulted in the capture of New Orleans, the Battle of Baton Rouge, the Bayou Teche offensive, and the siege of Port Hudson. Now available for the first time, A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country provides Paine's reflections and offer his excellent eyewitness account of the complexities of war. Paine describes in detail the antiguerrilla operations he coordinated in southern Louisiana and Mississippi and his role in the defense of Washington, D.C., where he commanded a portion of the line during Confederate General Jubal Early's 1864 movement against the city. His experiences shed light on the daily struggle of the common solider and on the political and legal debates that dominated the times. In one striking episode, he describes his arrest for refusing to return to their masters fugitive slaves who entered his lines. He discusses the occupation of New Orleans and the relations between Federal soldiers and local slaves and provides definitive commentary on dramatic incidents such as the burning of Baton Rouge and the destruction of the ironclad ram C.S.S. Arkansas. A departure from most accounts by Union army veterans, Paine's story includes less celebration of the grand cause and greater analysis of the motives for his actions -- and their inherent contradictions. He sympathized with the many "contrabands" he encountered, for example, yet he callously dismissed a reliable servant for suggesting that the rebels fought well. Despite expressing kind feelings toward certain southern families, Paine all but condoned his troops' "excessive looting" of local homes and businesses, which he viewed as acceptable retribution for those who resisted Federal authority. After the war, Paine also served as commissioner of patents, championing innovations such as the introduction of typewriters into the Federal bureaucracy. With a useful introduction and annotations by noted historian Samuel C. Hyde, Jr., A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country reveals many of the subtle advantages enjoyed by the troops in blue, as well as the attitudes that led to behavior that left a violent legacy for generations.

Sea Wolf of the Confederacy
Sea Wolf of the Confederacy

Author: David W. Shaw

Publisher: Sheridan House, Inc.

Published: 2005-09

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1574092073

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David Shaw is the author of America's Victory and a number of other books. He lives in Maine.

The Summer of ’63 Gettysburg
The Summer of ’63 Gettysburg

Author: Chris Mackowski

Publisher: Savas Beatie

Published: 2021-06-30

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1954547048

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“An outstanding read for anyone interested in the Civil War and Gettysburg in particular . . . innovative and thoughtful ideas on seemingly well-covered events.” —The NYMAS Review The largest land battle on the North American continent has maintained an unshakable grip on the American imagination. Building on momentum from a string of victories that stretched back into the summer of 1862, Robert E. Lee launched his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia on an invasion of the North meant to shake Union resolve and fundamentally shift the dynamic of the war. His counterpart with the Federal Army of the Potomac, George Meade, elevated to command just days before the fighting, found himself defending his home state in a high-stakes battle that could have put Confederates at the very gates of the nation’s capital. The public historians writing for the popular Emerging Civil War blog, speaking on its podcast, or delivering talks at the annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge in Virginia always present their work in ways that engage and animate audiences. Their efforts entertain, challenge, and sometimes provoke readers with fresh perspectives and insights born from years of working on battlefields, guiding tours, presenting talks, and writing for the wider Civil War community. The Summer of ’63: Gettysburg is a compilation of some of their favorites, anthologized, revised, and updated, together with several original pieces. Each entry includes original and helpful illustrations. Along with its companion volume The Summer of ’63: Vicksburg and Tullahoma, this important study contextualizes the major 1863 campaigns in what was arguably the Civil War’s turning-point summer.