Hoping to deter the Union navy from aggressive action on southern waterways during the Civil War, the Confederacy led the way in developing -torpedoes, - a term that in the nineteenth century referred to contact mines floating on or just below the water's service. With this book, two little-known but important manuscripts related to these valuable weapons become available for the first time. General Gabriel J. Rains, director of the Confederate Torpedo Bureau, penned his Torpedo Book as a manual for the fabrication and use of land mines and offensive and defensive water mines. With 21...