
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
The USS Monitor famously battled the CSS Virginia (the armored and refitted USS Merrimack) at Hampton Roads in March 1862. This updated edition of David A. Mindell's classic account of the ironclad warships and the human dimension of modern warfare commemorates the 150th anniversary of this historic encounter.
Mindell explores how marinersāfighting "blindly," below the waterlineālived in and coped with the metal monster they called the "iron coffin." He investigates how the ironclad technology, new to war in the nineteenth century, changed not only the tools but also the experience of combat and anticipated today's world of mechanized, pushbutton warfare.
The writings of William Frederick Keeler, the ship's paymaster, inform much of this book, as do the experiences of everyman sailor George Geer, who held Keeler in some contempt. Mindell uses their compelling stories, and those of other shipmates, to recreate the thrills and dangers of living and fighting aboard this superweapon.
Recently, pieces of the Monitor wreck have been raised from their watery grave, and with them, information about the ship continues to be discovered. A new epilogue describes the recovery of the Monitor turret and its display at the USS Monitor Museum in Newport News, Virginia.
This sensitive and enthralling history of the USS Monitor ensures that this fateful ship, and the men who served on it, will be remembered for generations to come.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface 2012
- Preface to the First Edition
- Introduction A Strange Sort of Warfare
- Chapter 1 Revising the Revolution, 1815ā1861
- Chapter 2 Building a Ship, Speaking Success
- Chapter 3 William Keelerās Epistolary Monitor
- Chapter 4 Life in the Artificial World
- Chapter 5 The Battle of Hampton Roads
- Chapter 6 Iron Ship in a Glass Case, AprilāSeptember 1862
- Chapter 7 Utilitarians View the Monitorās Fight, 1862ā1865
- Chapter 8 Melville and the Mechanicās War
- Conclusion Mechanical Faces of Battle
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliographical Essay
- Index