Customer Reviews

Union River Ironclad 1861-65 (New Vanguard)

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3 star:		(1)
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A number of books have been written about America's bloodiest conflict - the Civil War. This book concentrates on Union river ironclads, which formed the nation's first "brownwater navy." The book details the design and development of the ironclads, major operations involving them, and a catalog of vessels with specifications. What makes Konstam's book different is that it focuses solely on Union river ironclads and subsequently has more technical data and photos of these particular ships than any other tome that I have encountered. The book does focus on this particular class of ships somewhat in a vacuum and pays little attention to the overall strategy of the riverine campaign or wooden support vessels. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in naval warfare - especially those who enjoy reading about the transition from ships of wood to steel. Union River Ironclads has a wealth of technical information and dazzling full-color drawings and schematics of the ships. I have enjoyed both its academic utility and just looking at the pictures.

This was an adequate exposition of the river ironclads with a good cutaway drawing. I had expected more technical details, especially on the armor disposition and the engines. Some detail on the living conditions and fighting experiences of the crew would also have been nice.

An excellent illustrated 47 page booklet of Civil War Union ironclad warships used on the inland waterways of the United States. This booklet provides brief historical glimpses of a number of Union ironclads and their operations and roles in the War. This provides an excellent adjunct to the history of the USS Cairo which further details both the construction, and battle history of this specific Ironclad, and its sinking and raising some 100 years later, as well as some of the history of its six city-named sister-ships in the book "Hardluck Ironclad, the Sinking and Salvage of the Cairo" by Edwin C. Bearss (revised Edition)Hardluck Ironclad: The Sinking and Salvage of the Cairo

As well as this book may be written, there was one glaring error repeated throughout the book - that of referring to Vicksburg as Vicksburg, Tennessee. Apparently the editors and/or authors have zero familiarity with the War Between The States, because anyone who knows anything about the war knows that Vicksburg is in Mississippi. And this error was not just a one time error (as it occurred in the related work Mississippi River Gunboats of the American Civil war 1861-65) but appears repeatedly. It is truly astounding. Having said that, the book was well written and a great source of information. I would like to have given it 4 stars but the errors really detracted from an otherwise good work, making me doubt the integrity of the remaining information. Still a good volume to have in one's collection.