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...

  The Trent Affair: The Diplomatic Incident that Nearly Brought Great Britain into the American Civil War Historians have given the Trent Affair short shrift. This book promises new revelations about the diplomatic incident, primarily through quotations from primary sources such as letters, newspaper articles, and official documents. While it is always useful to read primary source material, the sources presented do not offer a different perspective than historians have presented. Granted, historians gloss over the nuts and bolts of the Affair, but it’s because the issue was resolved before it could impact the course of the conflict. Still, understanding these details is important for context. What if the Trent Affair hadn’t been agreeably settled? If Great Britain had entered the war on the Confederacy’s side, it was likely that the South would have won. That would have made the Trent Affair a huge deal. Jefferson Davis’s top diplomatic priority was to drag a European power into c...

Except for the Monitor vs. Virginia ( Merrimack ), naval battles get short shrift in Civil War history. James M. McPherson  fills that gap with War on the Waters, The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865.  Land battles were certainly decisive, but the Union might have lost the war without Gideon Welles and the Navy Department. McPherson even makes a strong argument that Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut deserves to be ranked with generals Grant and Sherman when giving credit for the Union victory. Inventions and innovations by both the Confederate States and the United States revolutionized naval warfare. Steam power, screw propellers, ironclads, submarines, weaponry, and naval tactics all advanced significantly during those four years. By Appomattox, the United States owned the largest navy in the world, and arguably the most technologically advanced. War on the Waters does an admirable job of describing blue-water and brown-water (river) battles and explaining the signi...