Article on Confederate gunboats...

[RAFleischman]

Here's an interesting article about the Confederate's brown water navy:

The South's Gunboat War - NYTimes.com

[ct ertz]

Cool. I do believe that a nest of hornets strategy against larger ironclads or wooden steamers would have worked. By wars end, even the Union Navy had steam launches with torpedoes ready to attack Confederate ironclads en-mass, as a first line of defense against the ironclad bogymen sailing just outside the sight of the Union commanders.

[rebelatsea]

Corey, The operative word there is en-mass, but the South didn't and couldn't build enough of them to create mass attacks. But the fact remains that the best way to defend your coast is to attack the enemy's. to do that you need a seagoing fleet.

[Hudsonduster]

Corey, did you ever receive Capital Navy, the history of the James River Squadron? I just realized I never heard a confirmation--and it's about what we're discussing here.

[rocketmantan]

Haven't studied the Civil War in a bit, but I certainly do remember reading a lot on the Confederacy's gunboats! This should be an interesting read.