"An utterly absorbing account of one of history's most momentous battles" (Forbes) that not only changed the Civil War but the future of all sea power--from acclaimed popular historian Richard Snow, who "writes with verve and a keen eye" (The New York Times Book Review).

No single sea battle has had more far-reaching consequences than the one fought in Hampton Roads, Virginia, in 1862. The Confederacy, with no fleet of its own, took a radical step to combat the Union blockade, building an iron fort containing ten heavy guns on the hull of a captured Union frigate named the...