The Monitor and the Merrimac and Other Naval Battles

U.S. Landmark Books #16

by Fletcher Pratt, John O'Hara Cosgrave II (Illustrator)

This story covers the ironclad naval battles between the North and South during the Civil War. It starts off with the Monitor and the Merrimac and then follows the battles until after the war was over.

Genres: History, American History, War, Nonfiction, Military History, Civil War, Historical

185 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Murray Fletcher Pratt (1897–1956) was a science fiction and fantasy writer; he was also well-known as a writer on naval history and on the American Civil War.

Pratt attended Hobart College for one year. During the 1920s he worked for the Buffalo Courier-Express and on a Staten Island newspaper. In the late 1920s he began selling stories to pulp magazines. When a fire gutted his apartment in the 1930s he used the insurance money to study at the Sorbonne for a year. After that he began writing histories.

Wargamers know Pratt as the inventor of a set of rules for civilian naval wargaming before the Second World War. This was known as the "Naval War Game" and was based on a wargame developed by Fred T. Jane involving dozens of tiny wooden ships, built on a scale of one inch to 50 feet. These were spread over the floor of Pratt's apartment and their maneuvers were calculated via a complex mathematical formula. Noted author and artist Jack Coggins was a frequent participant in Pratt's Navy Game, and L. Sprague de Camp met him through his wargaming group.

Pratt established the literary dining club known as the Trap Door Spiders in 1944. The name is a reference to the exclusive habits of the trapdoor spider, which when it enters its burrow pulls the hatch shut behind it. The club was later fictionalized as the Black Widowers in a series of mystery stories by Isaac Asimov. Pratt himself was fictionalized in one story, "To the Barest", as the Widowers’ founder, Ralph Ottur.

Pratt is best known for his fantasy collaborations with de Camp, the most famous of which is the humorous Harold Shea series, was eventually published in full as The Complete Compleat Enchanter. His solo fantasy novels Well of the Unicorn and The Blue Star are also highly regarded.

Pratt wrote in a markedly identifiable prose style, reminiscent of the style of Bernard DeVoto. One of his books is dedicated "To Benny DeVoto, who taught me to write."

Reviews

[Rodney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is number 16 in the Landmark US history series. It tells the story of ironclads use during the Civil War by both Union and Confederate naval forces. Americans were not the first to build ironclad ships but due to the war we were the first conflict involving ironclad ship versus another ironclad ship. The book starts with the story of John Ericsson who was the inventor of the Monitor which was a completely different ship with lots of new inventions and designs. The book then continues with the story of the blockade of the south and why the Confederacy built ironclad ships. The Confederacy did not have an equivalent inventor or the resources to build effective ironclads so their ships were defeated. The book details the battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia commonly known inaccurately as the Merrimack. The book also tells the details of the name change. The other naval battles are blockade assaults and the battles for New Orleans and Mobile Bay. I enjoyed reading this book and learned many facts I was not aware of previously.

[Carson Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was great! I didn't know much at all about the naval battles at the time of the Civil war, and just recently found out about this topic. I was fascinated by the Civil war Ironclads. This book was very informative, although I was a little disappointed, as I was also looking for a little more information on private William Cushing. I would definitely recommend this landmark.

[Joshua Horn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book to my kids. I'd say about half the book was on the Monitor vs the Merrimac, and the rest on various other aspects of the Naval Civil War. It was a bit disjointed for this reason, but overall I think it was a good read aloud.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very informative book. I found out things I never knew about.

[Bryce Bodily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book when I was twelve. I started reading this again because of a class on YA novels. I wanted to read something that was intended to be informative from the 1950's. It was interesting to go through it again and be able to read it with a different viewpoint.

The narrative seems pretty one sided for trying to be historical. It was written in the 1950's so I guess I need to let it go, but it tells the story mostly from the side of the North during the Civil War. It goes on to talk about the blockade that the North created in order to keep the South from getting supplies. This blockade led to the creation of Ironclad ships by the South to try and break it. Luckily the North was creating them as well and was able to have an Ironclad there to fight the first battle. This is the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac. The narrative continues to follow the battles through the rest of the war with the South losing every time. It was super interesting mostly because of the perspective and the age of the book.

I'd recommend this to anyone age 10 and up that would be interesting in Naval stuff or the Civil War. I think this would be slightly more interesting to young boys just because it's about explosions and the like.

Warnings
Mild Violence

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like reading about the monitor a lot because it is the first submarine but on the other hand, I would never read this book for pleasure. I read it for school this time. My grandpa keeps sending this kind of books and this is the best one I have read so far. I would rate the Barbary Pirates about a three like this on too.