A history of the American Civil War naval battle, the first confrontation between two Ironclads, featuring accounts from men who lived through it. “Ironclad against ironclad, we maneuvered about the bay here and went at each other with mutual fierceness,” reported Chief Engineer Alban Stimers following that momentous engagement between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (ex USS Merrimack) in Hampton Roads, Sunday, March 9, 1862. The day before, the Rebel ram had obliterated two powerful Union warships and was poised to destroy more. That night, the revolutionary—not to say bizarre—Monitor slipped into harbor after hurrying down from New York through fierce gales that almost sank her. These metal monstrosities dueled in the morning, pounding away for hours with little damage to either. Who won is still debated. One Vermont reporter could hardly find words for Monitor: “It is in fact unlike anything that ever floated on Neptune’s bosom.” The little vessel became an icon of American industrial ingenuity and strength. She redefined the relationship between men and machines in war. But beforehand, many feared she would not float. Captain John L. Worden: “Here was an unknown, untried vessel . . . an iron coffin-like ship of which the gloomiest predictions were made.” The CSSVirginia was a paradigm of Confederate strategy and execution—the brainchild of innovative, dedicated, and courageous men, but the victim of hurried design, untested technology, poor planning and coordination, and a dearth of critical resources. Nevertheless, she obsolesced the entire U.S. Navy, threatened the strategically vital blockade, and disrupted General McClellan’s plans to take Richmond. From flaming, bloody decks of sinking ships, to the dim confines of the first rotating armored turret, to the smoky depths of a Rebel gundeck—with shells screaming, clanging, booming, and splashing all around—to the office of a worried president with his cabinet peering down the Potomac for a Rebel monster, this dramatic story unfolds through the accounts of men who lived it in Unlike Anything That Ever Floated. Praise for Unlike Anything That Ever Floated “Hughes’s blow-by-blow account of the March 8–9 fighting at Hampton Roads can be considered among the finest short-form narrative treatments of those events. . . . [It] resides in the top rank of ECW series volumes.” —Civil War Books and Authors “What makes Hughes’s account so engrossing is that it is written in much the way as a novel.” —Civil War News

"Ironclad against ironclad, we maneuvered about the bay here and went at each other with mutual fierceness," reported Chief Engineer Alban Stimers following that momentous engagement between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (ex USS Merrimack) in Hampton Roads, Sunday, March 9, 1862.The day before, the Rebel ram had obliterated two powerful Union warships and was poised to destroy more. That night, the revolutionary--not to say bizarre--Monitor slipped into harbor after hurrying down from New York through fierce gales that almost sank her. These metal monstrosities dueled in the morning, pounding away for hours with little damage to either. Who won is still debated.One Vermont reporter could hardly find words for Monitor: "It is in fact unlike anything that ever floated on Neptune's bosom." The little vessel became an icon of American industrial ingenuity and strength. She redefined the relationship between men and machines in war. But beforehand, many feared she would not float. Captain John L. Worden: "Here was an unknown, untried vessel...an iron coffin-like ship of which the gloomiest predictions were made."The CSS Virginia was a paradigm of Confederate strategy and execution--the brainchild of innovative, dedicated, and courageous men, but the victim of hurried design, untested technology, poor planning and coordination, and a dearth of critical resources. Nevertheless, she obsolesced the entire U.S Navy, threatened the strategically vital blockade, and disrupted General McClellan's plans to take Richmond.From flaming, bloody decks of sinking ships, to the dim confines of the first rotating armored turret, to the smoky depths of a Rebel gundeck--with shells screaming, clanging, booming, and splashing all around--to the office of a worried president with his cabinet peering down the Potomac for a Rebel monster, this dramatic story unfolds through the accounts of men who lived it in Unlike Anything That Ever Floated: The Monitor and Virginia and the Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8-9, 1862 by Dwight Sturtevant Hughes.

Finding God in the Graffiti encourages church educators, youth ministers, and students of ministry to connect the living reality of God through the use of powerful stories and narratives that will engage the youth in their church or Christian organization. It will inspire readers with many ways in which stories can engage youth educationally; provides a conceptual map of discipline for teaching and learning purposes; equips youth workers to practice a repertoire of narrative methods with young people; and gives practitioners conceptual tools to reflect on their practice with insight and precision.

"Devoted to scientific agriculture, horticulture, education, and improvement of rural taste." (varies)

Abraham Lincoln knew if the Union could cut off shipping to and from New Orleans, the largest exporting port in the world, and control the Mississippi River, it would be a mortal blow to the Confederate economy. Union military leaders devised a secret plan to attack the city from the Gulf of Mexico with a formidable naval flotilla under one commander, David G. Farragut, a native New Orleanian. Jefferson Davis also understood the city’s importance—but he and his military leaders remained steadfastly undecided about where the threat to the city lay, sending troops to Tennessee rather than addressing the Union forces amassing in the Gulf. In the city, Confederate General Mansfield Lovell, a new commander, was thrust into the middle and poised to become a scapegoat. He was hamstrung by conflicting orders from Richmond and lacked both proper seagoing reconnaissance and the unity of command. In the spring of 1862, when a furious naval battle began downriver from the city at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the joyous celebrations of Mardi Gras turned into the Easter season of dread as the sound of the distant bombardment reached New Orleans, portending an ominous outcome. History has not devoted a great deal of attention to the fall of New Orleans, a Civil War drama that was an early harbinger of the dark days to come for the Confederacy. In A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy: The Fall of New Orleans, 1862, historian Mark F. Bielski tells of the leaders and men who fought for control of New Orleans, the largest city in the South, the key to the Mississippi, and the commercial gateway for the Confederacy.

“Chick does a good job of portraying [General Beauregard] as the first real hero of the Confederacy, who at times proved his own worst enemy.” —The NYMAS Review Few Civil War generals attracted as much debate and controversy as Pierre Gustav Toutant Beauregard. He combined brilliance and charisma with arrogance and histrionics. He was a Catholic Creole in a society dominated by white Protestants, which made him appear exotic next to the likes of Albert Sidney Johnston and Robert E. Lee. He was reviled by Jefferson Davis and mocked by Mary Chesnut in her diary. Yet he was popular with his soldiers and subordinates. Outside of Lee, he was the South’s most consistently successful commander, winning at Bull Run, defending Charleston in 1863, and defeating Benjamin Butler at Bermuda Hundred and Ulysses Grant and George Meade at Petersburg. Yet, he lived his life in the shadow of his one major defeat: Shiloh. Beauregard’s career before and after the war was no less tumultuous. He was born among the Creole elite of Louisiana, but rejected the life of a planter in favor of the military, inspired by tales of Napoléon. He was considered a shining light of the antebellum army and performed superbly in the Mexican-American War. Yet he complained about a lack of promotion and made a frustrating stab at being mayor of New Orleans in 1858. After the war, he was a successful railroad executive and took a stand against racism, violence, and corruption during Reconstruction, but he was ousted from both railroads he oversaw and his foray into Reconstruction politics came to naught. And though he provided for his family and left them a hefty sum after his death, the money was mostly gained by working for the corrupt Louisiana Lottery. In Dreams of Victory: General P.G.T. Beauregard in the Civil War, Sean Michael Chick explores a life of contradictions and dreams unrealized—in a biography of one of the most fascinating figures of the Civil War.

In a future where humanity has transcended the confines of Earth and colonized distant planets, an intrepid astronaut embarks on a perilous mission to explore the uncharted depths of a distant galaxy. Little does he know that this extraordinary journey will lead to a chance encounter with an enigmatic alien being, the last of her kind, whose existence hangs in the balance. As fate intertwines their paths, they forge an intergalactic bond that defies all odds, bridging the vast chasm between their worlds. Amidst the wonders of unexplored galaxies and the mysteries of alien worlds, a tale of wonder and discovery unfolds. The boundaries of language, culture, and biology blur as the astronaut and the alien being embark on an extraordinary adventure, striving to understand one another while facing the vastness of the cosmos together. In their shared quest for understanding and survival, they must confront their deepest fears, navigate through adversities, and embrace the profound wisdom hidden within the stars. The boundaries of love, friendship, and unity are tested as they discover the extraordinary potential of inter-species cooperation. "Love Beyond the Stars" is a captivating journey that delves into the depths of human and alien emotions, exploring the essence of compassion and empathy that unites beings from different corners of the universe. It is a story that reveals the resilience of the human spirit and the boundless capacity for connection, proving that even amidst the vastness of space, love knows no bounds. Join us as we embark on this epic odyssey that will forever change the course of history among the stars.