Able, courageous, and experienced, Franklin Buchanan was perhaps the most aggressive senior officer to join the Confederate Navy. His strategic flair, discipline, and heroic qualities made him respected and admired by all those around him. After being put in command of CSS Virginia, Buchanan led efforts that resulted in the Confederacy’s greatest naval victory before being appointed as the first Admiral in the Confederate Navy and selected to command the naval defenses in Mobile Bay, Alabama. As Admiral, he oversaw the construction of multiple ironclads and was on board CSS Tennesee during its battle against David Glasgow Farragut’s Union Fleet in 1864.

Major changes to 19th-century seaboard weaponry forced the transition from wooden ships to armored vessels. By the dawn of the 20th century, every major warship would be made of steel – steam-powered and armed with rifled guns – a new way of waging war at sea.

The brig-of-war USS Somers is one of the most ill-fated ships in US naval history. Its story is filled with powerful politicos, mutiny at sea, executions, and famous authors.

The Union flotilla steamed downriver after its repulse at Drewry’s Bluff to City Point, Virginia. Commander John Rodgers, the flotilla’s leader, recognized that his ships, USS Monitor, USS Galena, USS Naugatuck, USS Port Royal, and USS Aroostook, were needed to support Major General George B. McClellan’s operations against Richmond.

Just as the smoke cleared from the scene of the first Confederate victory at Big Bethel, onto the battlefield rapidly marched what would become one of the most colorful, daring, and poorly disciplined units of the Army of the Peninsula: Coppens’ Battalion.

The capture of Fort Pulaski on the mouth of the Savannah River had many significant implications. When the fort surrendered on April 11, 1862, it closed the port of Savannah. Accordingly, cotton exports had to be transported to Charleston or Wilmington to reach European markets

Samuel Chapman Armstrong was the founder of Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University). A native of Hawaii, he fought with the Union army during the Civil War.