Book excerpt: "After thirty years of research, this book presents, for the first time, a comprehensive study of the battleships and cruisers of the conflict. It looks at the ironclads of the North and South, the Union sloops and gunboats that blockaded the Confederacy, and Confederate raiders and privateers who destroyed the Union's merchant marine. An in-depth examination is made of the secret weapon that could have tipped the scales for the South -- the submarine."--Jacket