Ironclads and Columbiads
The Civil War in North Carolina:
The Coast

William R. Trotter

978-0-89587-088-9
0-89587-088-6
$12.95 paperback
5 1/2" x 8 1/2"
456 pages
black-and-white photos, appendixes, index


Also by William Trotter:

Ironclads and Columbiads recounts the exciting battles and events that shook the coast of North Carolina during America's bloodiest war. Throughout the Civil War, North Carolina's coast was of great strategic importance to the Confederacy. Its well-protected coastline offered a perfect refuge for privateers who sallied forth and captured so many Union merchant vessels in the early days of the war that maritime insurance companies in the North went into a panic, forcing the government to mount an expedition against Cape Hatteras. North Carolina's coastal counties and the state's coastal railroad system were vital to the feeding and resupply of Robert E. Lee's army. And even after the tightening blockade and powerful Federal assaults closed off the ports of Charleston, New Orleans, and Mobile, Wilmington continued to provide a haven for blockade runners. That city eventually became the most strategically important location in the entire Confederacy. To subdue Fort Fisher, which stoutly defended Wilmington, the Union was forced to assemble what was then the largest naval and amphibious landing force in American history.

There was so much fighting along the sounds and rivers of North Carolina that the United States Navy ordered crash courses in those Civil War campaigns when it became involved in river warfare during the Vietnam conflict.

The story of the coastal war is one of frustrations, missed opportunities for both sides, lopsided victories, and heartbreaking defeats, illuminated at every turn by flashes of extraordinary bravery and tactical brilliance. This book tells that story in more detail than it has ever previously been told.

about the author
William R. Trotter is a senior writer for Signal Research Corporation and an editor of Game Players Magazine. His other books include two additional volumes covering the Civil War in North Carolina--Silk Flags and Cold Steel: The Piedmont and Bushwhackers: The Mountains. His other published works include Deadly Kin, a book about the Newson/Klenner murders, and A Frozen Hell, a history of the Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-40. He and his wife and three children live in Greensboro, North Carolina.