Existing comment:
Steam and Steel
In the decade before the Civil War, advancements in propulsion and artillery changed naval warfare forever. By the late 1850s, all new warships featured steam engines and achieved unprecedented freedom of movement. These ships also hosted larger, more accurate, and longer ranged guns. These two developments encouraged shipbuilders to improve naval ship defenses by plating them with iron or steel.
Less expensive and easier to manufacture than warships, underwater mines (then called torpedoes) were used by Confederates to defend inland rivers and coastal harbors. |