Infernal Machines: The Story of Confederate Submarine and Mine Warfare (review)

306CI VIL W AR HISTORY stantially. The oldest general officer to see service was the septuagenarian John E. Wool, who had held general rank since 1841. The youngest was twenty-year-old Gahisha Pennypacker, the only general officer in the history of the United States Army too young to vote when appointed. European emigres were well-represented. Two natives of County Cork, Ireland, for example, were Thomas A. Smyth and Thomas W. Sweeny. The former died of wounds the day Lee surrendered, while the latter survived the war and took part in the abortive Fenian "invasion" of Canada. John Basil Turchin, bora Ivan Vasilovitch Turchinoff, was a graduate of the Imperial Military School at St. Petersburg. He proved a successful commander , but spoiled his reputation by encouraging his men to rob and pillage and by taking his wife into the field with him. The only avowed Communist among the Union generals was August Willich, a former Prussian officer, who distinguished himself on several occasions. In contrast to the 8 per cent of Union generals who were foreign-born, only 2 per cent were natives of the South, and of the latter only George Thomas and Winfield Scott made any significant contribution to the northern cause. Some 70 per cent of the North's generals were bora in New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. And of the native-born generals who gained the best reputations, most were originally from areas that they later defended. Some Union generals earned distinction, some disgrace. Some had no chance to do either. Contrast, for example, the mortally wounded thirtyfive -year-old James Clay Rice who asked the attending surgeon to "Turn my face to the enemy," with the uninjured James H. Ledlie who huddled in a shelter, comforted with rum, hundreds of yards to the rear of an assault which he was supposed to be leading. And compare them both with George Wright, commander of the Department of the Pacific for four years with few troops to lead and hardly so much as a hint of combat to try his mettle. Generals in Blue is full of such examples. It is a work of considerable effort and achievement and should be a standard reference for years to come. Stanley L. Falk Industrial College of the Armed Forces Infernal Machines: The Story of Confederate Submarine and Mine Warfare. By Milton F. Perry. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1965. Pp. xi, 231. $5.95.) Every war produces its secret weapons to strike fear into the hearts of the participants as well as kill and maim them. The Civil War was no exception. Both sides encouraged inventors and scientists to develop new means of waging war. This volume by Milton F. Perry, former curator at tiie West Point Museum of the U.S. Military Academy, describes the torpedoes (mines), torpedo boats, and submarines—the unconventional weapons or "infernal machines" of the Civil War-employed by the Confederacy BOOKREVIEWS307 to harass and repel invading Union forces. In a very readable and frequently dramatic way Mr. Perry tells the story of these weapons, their inventors, and the men who risked their lives using them. Although the author does casually mention the use of mines in land warfare, the book is primarily concerned with naval affairs. Approximately two-thirds of the book is devoted to the torpedo, in many ways the most effective weapon used against Union naval forces. As Mr. Perry writes, "torpedoes were to send more Union vessels to the bottom than were all the warships of the Confederate Navy." Forty-three vessels including four monitors were sunk or damaged by Confederate mines. Matthew Fontaine Maury, Hunter Davidson, and others developed various types of torpedoes—mechanical torpedoes such as the glass demijohns filled with powder that sank the Cairo (first warship sunk by a mine during the war), "friction" torpedoes, Horological torpedoes, Fretwell Singer torpedoes , spar torpedoes, current torpedoes, keg torpedoes, "floating tin" torpedoes, and torpedoes that were camouflaged as lumps of coal. The need to find a way to take torpedoes to the enemy resulted in experiments with various types of boats. Francis D. Lee, a young army engineering officer, designed and built at...