USS Monitor Captains

The American Civil War was a technology incubator. Rifled weapons, repeaters, telegraphs, trains, balloons, and more became common in the military. Naval warfare was revolutionized by steam engines, screw propulsion, iron cladding, underwater boats, and torpedoes.

When I went to school, one of my favorite history lessons was about the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack. Nowadays, it's the Monitor versus the Virginia. The Confederacy captured the Merrimack, modified it internally, clad it in iron, and rechristened it the CSS Virginia. The full story of these two ships is full of mystery, drama, and clandestine skullduggery.

In its short life span of approximately ten months, six naval officers captained the Monitor. This link takes you to the Google Books page where you can download a study of these six men. From the introduction:

One additional point is worthy of emphasis: these officers were together involved in most of the major actions of the Civil War and a large number of minor ones; they saw service in all of the geographical areas and different squadrons; and they participated in nearly every type of activity in which the navy was involved during that five-year period. In short, their combined story constitutes a "case history" of the Union Navy.

Despite appearing older, this study was published in 1988.

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