At the start of the American Civil War, the Confederacy was faced with an almost insurmountable problem. Using its navy, the United States was able to blockade trade, not only through coastal ports, but also the necessary interstate riverine trade on the South’s crisscrossing network of rivers, canals and lakes. For a predominately-agricultural nation like

In my ongoing research for “Infernal Machine: Dawn of Submarine Warfare,” I have made the acquaintance of a number of very interesting people, not only in my current era, but also from the American Civil War period. The mid-19th Century is one of the most interesting periods of human endeavor. The Industrial Revolution, filled with