Confederate Ironclad vs Union Ironclad Hampton Roads 1862

The Ironclad was a revolutionary weapon of war, the first modern, armoured, self-propelled warships. During the American Civil War the South used ironclads to protect their ports from the Northern blockade. Impressed with their superior resistance to fire and, the North developed its own rival fleet of ironclads. Eventually the two products of this modern arms race duelled at the battle of Hampton Roads in a clash that would change the face of naval warfare. Fully illustrated with cutting-edge digital artwork, rare photographs and first-person perspective gunsight views, this book allows the reader to discover the revolutionary and radically different designs of the two rival Ironclads - the Merrimac and USS Monitor - through an analysis of each ship's weaponry, ammunition and steerage. "The strength of any Osprey book is the illustrations. This volume is no exception. The artwork and photographs are superbly reproduced... If you are looking for a concise, well illustrated history of the Battle at Hampton Roads and the history of the development of the ironclad warship, this is the book for you." - Mike Cavanaugh, Blue & Gray Magazine

"The Duel series follows a well planned and somewhat set design. There is a section on the design and development of the weapons, technical specifications, a look at the combatants involved and the strategic situation at the time of the event. Then the book gets into the combat itself and once that has been described goes into a statistical analysis of the event. This is followed by how the event may have altered future design and development. In this case, it covers some of the other ironclad vs ironclad battles, few though these actually were. Finally, there is a section on how the type was further developed, including post war use... an excellent read and one that I am confident you will enjoy as well. Highly recommended." -Scott Van Aken, "modelingmadness.com "(December 2008)