Raiders & blockaders

Here are such stories as the famous battle between the Alabama and the Kearsarge off the coast of France (the last single-ship duel of the wooden-ship era); the night the war came all the way north to Portland, Maine; and, of course, the historic encounter between the Monitor and the Merrimack. Also included are accounts of Adm. Franklin Buchanan's defense of Mobile and of James Bulloch's secret negotiations to purchase Confederate warships in Britain, an examination of emergent naval technology, and an introduction to colorful personalities whose leadership affected the outcome of the…