Abraham Lincoln: The Enigmatic President

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 Wa...

  Memoir of Ulric Dahlgren  by Admiral Dahlgren   Like A Meteor Blazing Brightly:  The Short but Controversial Life of Colonel Ulric Dahlgren  by Eric J. Wittenberg These Ulric Dahlgren biographies present the Union and Confederate views of the Dahlgren Affair.   Here is the gist of the “Affair.” In February of 1864, a Union cavalry detachment raided Richmond in the hope of releasing imprisoned soldiers captured by the Confederacy. Colonel Ulric Dahlgren led a major arm of the assault. The raid was unsuccessful, and Dahlgren was killed in an ambush. Papers were found on Dahlgren’s body that ordered the raiding party to murder Jefferson Davis and his cabinet. The Union claimed the papers were forgeries while the Confederacy insisted they were genuine. At the time, the Dahlgren Affair became a cause célèbre. The authenticity of the papers remains unresolved.   Ulric’s father, Admiral Dahlgren, called the papers forgeries and maintained that his son would...