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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN num: 9781846032325
ISBN number: 1846032326
Label: Osprey Publishing
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 80
Printing Date: November 18, 2008
Publishing house: Osprey Publishing
Release Date: November 18, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 89700
Studio: Osprey Publishing
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The Ironclad was a revolutionary weapon of war. Although iron was used for protection in the Far East during the 16th century, it was the 19th century and the American Civil War that heralded the very first modern armored self-propelled warships. With the parallel pressures of civil war and the industrial revolution, technology advanced at a breakneck speed. It was the South who very first utilized ironclads as they attempted to protect their ports from the Northern blockade. Impressed with their superior resistance to fire and their ability to ram vulnerable wooden ships, the North began to develop its own rival fleet of ironclads. Eventually these two products of this very first modern arms race dueled 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 gun sight views, this book allows the reader to discover the revolutionary and radically different designs of the two rival Ironclads - the CSS Virginia and USS Monitor - through an analysis of each ship's weaponry, ammunition and steerage. Compare the contrasting training of the crews and re-live the horrors of the battle at sea in a war which split a nation, communities and even families.
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"At this time, we noticed a volume of smoke coming up from the opposite side of the Minnesota and there emerged the queerest looking craft afloat. Through our glasses we could see she was ironclad, sharp at both ends and appeared to be almost awash. Mounted amidships was a turret with ports and, as we looked, the turret began to revolve until her forward gun bore directly on us and, run out, it resembled a cheese box on a raft." So began one of the strangest sea battles in history.
Although there is much more to "Confederate Ironclad vs Union Ironclad: Hampton Roads, 1862," this book's pivotal moment is the duel between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. This is not the very first time this peculiar story has been told, but there's nothing stale about this book.
Ron Field, the former Head of History at Cotswold School, very adeptly sketches the suffocating technology of these floating ironclad behemoths. These vessels are the direct ancestors of the modern dreadnaughts that we know such as Germany's fearsome Bismarck, and Japan's monstrous Yamato.
No wonder the duel between the Monitor and Virginia has occupied a hallowed place in American naval history -- more famous than John Paul Jones's Bonhomme Richard vs Serapis in 1779 or Isaac Hull's Constitution vs the British Guerriere in 1812, but with a much different technology.
Mr. Field takes us skillfully through the prehistory of the earliest steamboats and floating batteries -- from the endeavor by Robert Fulton to develop the steam powered ironclad called the US Steam Battery Fulton, to the steam powered side-wheeler capital ships: Mississippi and Missouri in 1855. Were the Monitor and the Virginia the very first ironclads? Mr. Field points out: the French La Gloire was the very first true ironclad warship in 1860.
Mr. Field divides his story into seven thematic chapters. "Design and Development" traces engineering and construction of the two ironclads. "If the Confederacy could build a viable ironclad warship before the North, they hoped that they could smash the Union blockade and impose their own blockade in its place," explains Mr. Field, it was soon discovered that the Confederacy was ill prepared to build such a ship.
It was agreed to salvage the USS Merrimack that had been scuttled at Gosport Navy Yard. Why was that particular burned hulk a good choice? When she was launched in 1855, the state-of-the-art USS Merrimack was "considered superior to any warship in the world." In action, however, a Confederate officer describes the renamed CSS Virginia as "badly ventilated, very uncomfortable, and very unhealthy."
The Union ironclad, Monitor constructed in just 118 days featured a "120-ton revolving turret containing two smooth bore guns" covered with eight inches of armour plate was a completely new warship. Mr. Field includes nine pages of details of the Monitor's features and construction and shortcomings.
In "Technical Specifications" Mr. Field discusses the types of projectiles fired by the Monitor and Virginia's guns and shows the readers a step-by-step procedure to fire the Virginia's 6.4 inch Brook rifle.
The author introduces us to the crews of the Monitor and Virginia in "The Combatants." 320 men including 54 Marines made up the Virginia's crew. Of these only 75 had originally enlisted in the Confederate Navy. The Monitor's crew of 63 men was drawn from only four ships. Mr. Field brings them to life by sharing photographs of the Monitor's officers and crew. Snapshot biographies of many officers are weaved into the story.
President Lincoln's Anaconda Plan for the naval blockade of the Confederacy, the Virginia's initial actions against the Union blockade ships at Hampton Roads, and the Monitor's long voyage to Hampton Roads are introduced in the "Strategic Situation." Though Confederates planned to take the offensive against the Union by attacking Washington DC and the Brooklyn Navy Yard with the fearsome CSS Virginia, her deep draft prevented such operations; she would confine herself to the Hampton Roads.
The actual Hampton Roads duel between the ironclads is presented in "Combat." Artist Peter Bull adds life to the chapter with two double pages of battle action artwork. Mr. Field sprinkles intriguing ideas into the narrative not included in other Civil War histories.
"Statistics and Analysis" includes a loading procedure for the Monitor's gun turret XV-inch gun and a detailed analysis of damaged suffered by the two ironclads during the sea battle, Monitor's and Virginia's shortcomings now come into play. Virginia ran aground and took a heavy shelling from a circling Monitor. A malfunction of the Monitor's turret forced the gunners to fire on the fly. A poor design meant the pilothouse blocked the turret's guns so that they could not fire straight ahead. Forgetting that Virgina's ... Read More
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