Engines of Rebellion: Confederate Ironclads and Steam Engineering in the American Civil War

A challenge to the prevailing idea that Confederate ironclads were inherently defective

The development of steam propulsion machinery in warships during the nineteenth century, in conjunction with iron armor and shell guns, resulted in a technological revolution in the world’s navies. Warships utilizing all of these technologies were built in France and Great Britain in the 1850s, but it was during the American Civil War that large numbers of ironclads powered solely by steam proved themse...