Download or read book Confederate Torpedoes written by Gabriel J. Rains and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hoping to deter the Union navy from aggressive action on southern waterways during the Civil War, the Confederacy led the way in developing "torpedoes," a term that in the nineteenth century referred to contact mines floating on or just below the water's service. With this book, two little-known but important manuscripts related to these valuable weapons become available for the first time. General Gabriel J. Rains, director of the Confederate Torpedo Bureau, penned his Torpedo Book as a manual for the fabrication and use of land mines and offensive and defensive water mines. With 21 scale drawings, Notes Explaining Rebel Torpedoes and Ordnance by Captain Peter S. Michie documents from the Federal perspective the construction and use of these "infernal machines." A detailed accounting, by the editor, of the vessels sunk or damaged by Confederate torpedoes and numerous photographs of existing specimens from museums and private collections complete this significant compilation.
Download or read book Civil War Torpedoes and the Global Development of Landmine Warfare written by Earl J. Hess and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-01-30 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A unique recounting of the Confederate use of landmines during the American Civil War. Hess uses multiple archival sources to tell a compelling narrative that stresses not only the tactical and technological challenges but also considers the moral stigma attached to this new weapon of war"--
Download or read book Civil War Heavy Explosive Ordnance written by Jack Bell and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most up-to-date and definitive reference guide on Union and Confederate large caliber projectiles, torpedoes, and mines, profusely illustrated with more than 1,000 photographs of 360 specimens.
Download or read book Confederate Saboteurs written by Mark K. Ragan and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Facing an insurmountable deficit in resources compared to the Union navy, the Confederacy resorted to unorthodox forms of warfare to combat enemy forces. Perhaps the most energetic and effective torpedo corps and secret service company organized during the American Civil War, the Singer Secret Service Corps, led by Texan inventor and entrepreneur Edgar Collins Singer, developed and deployed submarines, underwater weaponry, and explosive devices. The group’s main government-financed activity, which eventually led to other destructive inventions such as the Hunley submarine and behind-enemy-line railroad sabotage, was the manufacture and deployment of an underwater contact mine. During the two years the Singer group operated, several Union gunboats, troop transports, supply trains, and even the famous ironclad monitor Tecumseh fell prey to its inventions. In Confederate Saboteurs: Building the Hunley and Other Secret Weapons of the Civil War, submarine expert and nautical historian Mark K. Ragan presents the untold story of the Singer corps. Poring through previously unpublished archival documents, Ragan also examines the complex personalities and relationships behind the Confederacy’s use of torpedoes and submarines.
Download or read book Gabriel Rains and the Confederate Torpedo Bureau written by William Davis Waters and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells the remarkable story of Gabriel J. Rains, a Confederate Brigadier General who was more than a military officer--he was a scientist appointed to develop explosives.
Download or read book Damn the Torpedoes Naval Incidents of the Civil War written by A. A. Hoehling and published by Gramercy. This book was released on 1998 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book tells of the Civil War's naval actions which were pressed with at least the same passion as the battles on land and with considerably more improvisation.
Download or read book Confederate Submarines and Torpedo Vessels 1861 65 written by Angus Konstam and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2004-08-20 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The primary Union strategy during the American Civil War was a massive naval blockade of the entire Southern coastline of the Confederacy, and it was in the effort to counter this blockade that the Confederates developed their first submarines and torpedo boats. This book traces the development of these new technologies, including the CSS 'Little David' and 'Hunley' - respectively the first torpedo boat and submarine to sink an enemy warship. The wreck of the 'Hunley' was raised in 2000, and this is the first book ever to integrate details of its recovery with an account of Confederate submarines in action.
Download or read book Confederate Underwater Warfare written by Louis S. Schafer and published by McFarland. This book was released on 1996 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though the Union Navy held a numerical advantage over its Confederate counterpart, the South's forces had one weapon that was not readily available to the North -- underwater mines, known at the time as torpedoes. More Union ships were destroyed by torpedoes than by all other means combined. The South's superiority in underwater weaponry can be directly traced to the work of an oceanographer named Matthew Fontaine Murray. Recognizing the South's limited capabilities, Murray persuaded its leaders to develop underwater weapons. This is the first detailed history ever of the South's development and deployment of both offensive and defensive underwater weaponry. Included are many photographs of actual salvaged Confederate mines.
Download or read book War on the Waters written by James M. McPherson and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2012-09-17 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although previously undervalued for their strategic impact because they represented only a small percentage of total forces, the Union and Confederate navies were crucial to the outcome of the Civil War. In War on the Waters, James M. McPherson has crafted an enlightening, at times harrowing, and ultimately thrilling account of the war's naval campaigns and their military leaders. McPherson recounts how the Union navy's blockade of the Confederate coast, leaky as a sieve in the war's early months, became increasingly effective as it choked off vital imports and exports. Meanwhile, the Confederate navy, dwarfed by its giant adversary, demonstrated daring and military innovation. Commerce raiders sank Union ships and drove the American merchant marine from the high seas. Southern ironclads sent several Union warships to the bottom, naval mines sank many more, and the Confederates deployed the world's first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. But in the end, it was the Union navy that won some of the war's most important strategic victories--as an essential partner to the army on the ground at Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Mobile Bay, and Fort Fisher, and all by itself at Port Royal, Fort Henry, New Orleans, and Memphis.
Download or read book Confederate Coal Torpedo written by Joseph M. Thatcher and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Forged in the fires of a desperate war, these cast iron bombs were shaped like pieces of coal to explode in the boilers of Northern ships. Their sabotage was successful and spread fear through the high command causing men like Admiral Porter and General Sherman to order any Rebel caught with them to be 'shot on the spot'. Confederate President Jefferson Davis promoted their use by a little known Secret Service Corps"--P. [4] of cover.
Download or read book The Sinking of the USS Cairo written by John C. Wideman and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2009-09-28 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1862, in one of the South's most amazing secret operations, a Confederate team, using newly invented explosive mines, blew up the USS Cairo, one of the Union's most feared ironclad gunboats. It sank within minutes. The USS Cairo is the only remaining vessel from the Union navy's river fleet. For 102 years, the ironclad rested deep in the mud of the Yazoo River. In 1964 it was rediscovered and salvaged. Now the USS Cairo is one of the premier exhibits at the Vicksburg National Military Park. This historic vessel, its entire cargo of weapons and personal effects, and its role in the war continue to spark the imagination of Civil War buffs and thousands of tourists. Here, for the first time, in a carefully documented study is the entire story of the Confederate Secret Service team that sank the USS Cairo. With family oral histories never before consulted and with newly examined documents from the National Archives, The Sinking of the USS Cairo disproves some previous theories and corrects factual errors found in earlier reports. It shows conclusively that the Cairo was not sunk by “an electrically detonated mine” but by a different method. Also, it identifies the members of the Confederate crew, whose names supposedly were “lost to history.” For the first time in a book about this river war, there are illustrations of all five gunboats that were engaged in this action. Told from the Confederate perspective for the first time, this refocused story of the Cairo is a significant addition to the history of the Confederate Secret Service, to the history of the operations around Vicksburg, and to the history of the war on the western frontier.
Download or read book Gabriel Rains and the Confederate Torpedo Bureau written by William Davis Waters and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hunters of the Night written by R. Thomas Campbell and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating story of the design and development of the Confederate torpedo boats and the courageous officers who took them into battle.
Download or read book The Confederate Steam Torpedo Boat CSS DAVID written by Gerald F. Teaster and published by . This book was released on 2005-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of the small torpedo boat that helped change naval warfare during the Civil War. The book describes how it was made and operated.
Download or read book The USS Tecumseh in Mobile Bay written by David Smithweck and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-04 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In April 1861, Lincoln declared a blockade on Southern ports. It was only a matter of time before the Union navy would pay a visit to the bustling Confederate harbor in Mobile Bay. Engineers built elaborate obstructions and batteries, and three rows of torpedoes were laid from Fort Morgan to Fort Gaines. Then, in August 1864, the inevitable came. A navy fleet of fourteen wooden ships lashed two by two and four iron monitors entered the lower bay, with the USS Tecumseh in the lead. A torpedo, poised to strike for two years, found the Tecumseh and sank it in minutes, taking ninety-three crewmen with it. Join author David Smithweck on an exploration of the ironclad that still lies upside down at the bottom of Mobile Bay.
Download or read book Infernal Machines written by Milton F. Perry and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Naval Strategy During The American Civil War written by Col. David J. Murphy USAF and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The objective of the research project is to examine how the Union and Confederate naval strategies and new naval technologies affected the conduct of the American Civil War. With regard to the Union Navy’s strategy, the effectiveness of the blockade, Western River Campaign, and amphibious operations were examined. Discussions on the Union blockade also touch on the effectiveness on Confederate blockade runners. The Confederate strategies of using privateers and commerce raiders are examined. Confederate coastal and river defenses are examined within the context of new technology, specifically with respect to ironclad ships and the use of mines, torpedoes, and submarines. The paper shows how naval strategy did play a major role in the outcome of the Civil War. Although it cannot be said that naval strategies were singularly decisive, they certainly were vitally important and often overlooked in history books.
