USS Dictator
Civil War Union Naval Ship

USS Dictator (1864-1883)

USS Dictator , a 4438-ton single-turret seagoing monitor built at New York City, was commissioned in November 1864. Construction problems with her powerplant kept her initial service relatively brief and inactive, and she was decommissioned in September 1865 at the League Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dictator was recommissioned in July 1869 for service with the North Atlantic Fleet, but was again laid up in June 1871. Her final period of commissioned service service lasted from January 1874 until June 1877 and was also spent in the Atlantic coast area. After six years "in ordinary" at League Island, USS Dictator was sold for scrapping in September 1883.

Watercolor by Oscar Parkes.
Courtesy of Dr. Oscar Parkes, London, England, 1936

Line engraving, published in "The Soldier in Our Civil War"

Kindle Available
Reign of Iron

Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack
The first ironclad ships to fight each other, the Monitor and the Virginia (Merrimack), were the unique products of American design genius




Confederate Subs
Confederate Submarines and Torpedo Vessels 1861-65
Interesting information and many excellent illustrations. It addresses the CSA David class torpedo boats and the Hunley (and its predecessors), as well as Union examples such as the Alligator and the Spuyten Duyvil
Lincolns Navy
Life in Mr. Lincoln's Navy
A tantalizing glimpse into the hardships endured by the naval leadership to build and recruit a fighting force. The seaman endured periods of boredom, punctuated by happy social times and terrifying bouts of battle horror








CSS Virginia
Confederate Phoenix
The CSS Virginia

The CSS Virginia of the Confederate States Navy destroyed two of the most formidable warships in the U.S. Navy. Suddenly, with this event, every wooden warship in every navy in the world became totally obsolete






Kindle Available
Naval Strategies

Naval Strategies of the Civil War: Confederate Innovations and Federal Opportunism
Compare and contrast the strategies of the Southern Secretary of the Navy, Mallory, against his rival in the North, Welles. Mallory used technological innovation and the skill of individuals to bolster the South's seapower against the Union Navy's superior numbers






Engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 3 February 1866 as part of a larger print entitled "The Iron-clad Navy of the United States.

View on deck, looking aft on the starboard side, while the ship was off an east coast Navy yard, circa the 1870s.
Note the elevated wooden wheelhouse atop the turret.
The original photograph is the right side of a stereograph pair published by the Littleton View Company, Littleton, New Hampshire, under the title "Man of War"

View on deck, looking forward on the starboard side, while the ship was off an east coast Navy yard, circa the 1870s.
Note the lightweight "flying deck" and bridge wings, wooden pilothouse mounted atop the gun turret, muzzle of a XV-inch Dahlgren gun visible in the turret gunport, davits, stanchions, and wooden boxes on deck.

Engraved plan of the ship's transverse section amidships, through the center of her gun turret.
Published in "The Artizan", 1 October 1867.
Note the XV" Dahlgren smoothbore gun in the turret, turret training gears, and the laminated iron armor on Dictator 's hull, turret and conning tower.



Civil War Replica Musket
Civil War Musket
Wood & Steel Frontier Rifle Designed After The Original Rifle





Army
72 Piece Civil War Army Men
Play Set 52mm Union and Confederate Figures, Bridge, Horses, Canon
  • 48 Union and Confederate Soldiers up to 2-1/8 inches tall
  • 4 Horses, 4 Sandbag Bunkers, 6 Fence Sections, 3 Cannon, 3 Limber Wagons (Ammo Carts)
  • Bridge, Small Barracks, 2 Cardboard buildings
  • Scale: About 1/35th

Civil War Ships and Battles


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American Civil War Exhibits

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Women in the Civil War

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History Channel Secret Missions
History Channel Civil War
Secret Missions

There are about a half-dozen different small arms types, but the Henry is the best for rapid repeating fire and least reloading. The shotgun they give you is useless: you must aim spot-on to affect an enemy, so why not just use the rifle? Grenades are useful at times.


Civil War Revolver Pistol
Civil War Model 1851 Naval Pistol


American Civil War Naval Book Titles
Civil War Marines
American Civil War Marines 1861-65
Marines wearing blue and grey fought in many dramatic actions afloat and ashore – ship-to-ship engagements, cutting-out expeditions, and coastal landings. This book offers a comprehensive summary of all such battles, illustrated with rare early photographs
Union Ironclad
Union River Ironclad 1861-65
At the start of the American Civil War, neither side had warships on the Mississippi River. In what would prove the vital naval campaign of the war, both sides fought for control of the river. While the Confederates relied on field fortifications and small gunboats, the Union built a series of revolutionary river ironclads
Kindle Available
Raising the Hunley

Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine
For more than a century the fate of the Hunley remained one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Civil War. Then, on August 8, 2000, with thousands of spectators crowding Charleston Harbor, the Hunley was raised from the bottom of the sea and towed ashore.
The Story of the CSS Hunley
The Story of the H.L. Hunley
During the Civil War, Union forces blockade the port of Charleston so the Confederate army seeks a way to attrack the Yankee Ships. George Dixon is part of the group of men given the task of creating and building the "fish boat," a submarine. The H.L. Hunley ultimately sets out on its mission to sink Yankee ships, but fails to return, its whereabouts unknown.
Civil War History Documentary DVD Movie Titles
Halls of Honor
Halls of Honor
The U.S. Navy Museum takes you on an informed and entertaining romp through one of North America s oldest and finest military museums. The museum has been in continuous operation at the Washington Navy Yard since the American Civil War
Raise the Alabama
Raise The Alabama
She was known as "the ghost ship." During the Civil War, the CSS Alabama sailed over 75,000 miles and captured more than 60 Union vessels. But her career came to an end in June of 1864 when she was sunk by the USS Kearsarge off the coast of Northern France
Civil War
The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns
Here is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one
Conflict Begins
Civil War Journal
The Conflict Begins

These four programs from the History Channel series Civil War Journal cover critical aspects of the early days of the war.

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