Customer Reviews

Uss New Ironsides in the Civil War: William H. Roberts

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Despite being an excellent source on the construction and operations of this unique ship, this book is also a comment on what could have been had more of this superior design been built, or the orginal not accidentally destroyed. The book does a good job of addressing the "Monitor Fever" of the time that caused many monitors to be built despite the flaws of the design. Monitors appeared in variety from one to three turrets, while only two seagoing broadside ironclads saw service. Designed for ship to ship combat, Monitors did not have the large battery's necisary to tackle forts, the broadside ironclads did. Since forts were common, but CSN ironclads were few and far between and were broadside ships to begin with, the puzzle is why the US did not explore this design further. The answer, the author proves, was politics.