The Civil War Naval War It was an unorthodox and often wild
naval war, that of the rebellion. The Civil War was waged at sea
with more massed violence and with more diversity of ships and
weaponry than any previous, sustained naval action. It was
pressed with at least the same vigor and passion as on land, and
with considerably more improvisation. Ferryboats were turned by
edict into men-o'-war. China and upholstered furniture were
trundled off ocean liners as they were converted into warships.
To compensate for a lack of naval guns, army field pieces were
snatched from forts and wheeled onto tarred deckings, then
lashed down. Iron or tin plating was nailed onto wooden
steamships to make them "ironclads" or "tinclads." Still, they
took their knocks from Confederate shore batteries and from
ingenious mines (or "torpedoes"), since they were not armored
below water line. A revolutionary little gunboat flush with the
water and sporting but one turret would prove a nemesis for the
ponderous Confederate ironclads,