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CSS Stonewall
The Confederacy almost turned the naval
balance of power around when it was the first to commission an operational
ironclad. On the morning of March 8, 1862, the CSS Virginia (Merrimack)
sailed toward the entrance of the James River, attacking the wooden ships of
the Union fleet. Panic spread throughout Washington as news of the destruction
of the wooden ships flowed into the city. Washingtonians waited to be shelled by
the ironclad monster. An officer asked President Lincoln, “Who is to prevent
her from dropping her anchor in the Potomac…and throwing her hundred pound
shells into this room, or battering down the walls of the Capitol?” Lincoln
replied, “The Almighty,” but together with members of his cabinet continued
looking anxiously down the Potomac for a sign of the CSS Virginia.
Actually the heavy, ponderous Virginia, with its deep draft, was probably incapable of sailing up the Potomac. The more seaworthy CSS Stonewall, purchased in Europe and commissioned late in the war, was the type of ocean going ironclad cruiser that could have destroyed the Union blockade and bombarded Washington, Philadelphia and New York.
Actually the heavy, ponderous Virginia, with its deep draft, was probably incapable of sailing up the Potomac. The more seaworthy CSS Stonewall, purchased in Europe and commissioned late in the war, was the type of ocean going ironclad cruiser that could have destroyed the Union blockade and bombarded Washington, Philadelphia and New York.
A brief look at love, sex, and marriage in the Civil War. The book
covers courtship, marriage, birth control and pregnancy, divorce, slavery and
the impact of the war on social customs.
In 1860, disgruntled secessionists in the deep North
rebel against the central government and plunge America into Civil War. Will
the Kingdom survive? The land will run red with blood before peace comes again.
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