Sometimes just when you think that things are going completely your way they have a habit of making a fool out of you. Such was the events during the battle of Galveston, Texas, in 1863. Galveston had been taken by the Federal troops who were occupying it. A new Confederate general, Major General John B. Magruder, had been appointed as commander of the District of Texas and Galveston was a thorn in his side that he was determined to remove. He decided that the best way to retake the city with the resources at hand was to equip two river boats with many bales of cotton which troops could hide behind and also assemble a ground force for an invasion of the city. He decided that New Year's Eve was a good time to attack because he hoped that this way he would catch the Union forces unprepared. The Union troops were commanded by Col. Isaac S. Burrell and Commander W.B. Renshaw of the U.S. Navy. Galveston was defended by three companies of the 42nd Massachusetts Volunteers and a few ships set up as a blockade. After the battle started there were a total of four Confederate gunboats that had joined in the attack along with the ground force.

History has not been kind to the two Confederate river boats, calling them cottonclads because of the bales of cotton that were used to protect the troops on board. The Confederates attacked and the Union Army began to kick their butts. It looked like beyond a doubt that the battle was to become a Union victory, especially after one of the cottonclads had been sent to the bottom. Battles have a way of bringing out desperation in troops and the Confederates were desperate. Somehow the other cottonclad, the Bayou City was able to circle around and make straight for the Union ship Lane. They made it to the Lane and overpowered the crew.

Commodore Renshaw of the Union navy saw what was happening in disbelief. He took his flagship Westfield and headed toward the Lane to help her, but became grounded. He tried everything he knew, but he couldn't get his ship afloat. During a short truce he decided that all he could do was blow up his ship to stop it from falling into Confederate hands. He and his men planted explosives all around the ship and rowed to a safe distance. There was a problem, the ship didn't blow up. He had his men row furiously back to the ship to find what was wrong and fix it, but as luck would have it, the ship decided to blow up when he got there. He was killed along with many members of his crew. The rest of the Union ships set out to sea during the truce and were able to save themselves. There are many different reports of causalities and deaths. Some say that the Confederates lost 50 men and the Union army lost their entire three companies of men, who were killed or captured, except for one officer, while others say that about twenty plus Confederates were lost and about 40 Union soldiers lost with hundreds being captured. The battle of Galveston was a strange battle that seemed to be headed for a Union victory, but in the end was a Confederate one.

During the Civil War, one of the pieces of technology that stirred the hearts of the troops was the USS Monitor. Sailors lined up to sign up for duty on the ship. Landing a spot on this vessel was considered a great honor, after all, it was felt that you would be serving on the most modern ship afloat. This was pretty amazing because this happened before the ship was even completed. Word of it had spread like a wildfire through the Union forces. The Monitor had originally been named Ericsson Battery. The crew was composed of seven officers and 56 seamen. The volunteers had far outweighed the amount of crew so many sailors were disappointed because they couldn't get a place on the ship. The crew became so close, they they called each other the Monitor boys. Some of the crew were from Europe because the Union had to draft immigrants, because it didn't have enough qualified seamen. There were three Swedes in the gun turret crew during the battle of Hampton Roads in 1862. Some of the officers had hired black servants who were onboard. These men had been freed from the south. The officers each had their own room and a ward room and enjoyed much better food than the enlisted men and almost never mixed with them. Everyone lived below the water line since the Monitor only stood out of the water a couple of inches except for the turret.

The Big Duel Between ironclads

There was no getting away from it, the Monitor was probably the most uncomfortable ship to be on in both the Union and Confederate navies. It was hot, had no windows and there was a ventilation system, but it was not proficient enough. It was hotter inside the ship than it was outside, thanks to the iron body. If possible the crew preferred to sleep on the deck. There is a story that said that a blower belt had broken once and the crew saw the temperature rise to 132 degrees. This might be exaggerated, unless the crew had got up on deck when that happened. It was said that any sailor that was on an ironclad in either navy suffered from extreme heat and cold. As strange as the craft looked, she had some real advantages over other ironclads. Her turret contained two large naval guns that could be turned to fire at any target. The other ironclads had to turn their entire ship to aim at different targets. The Monitor also presented a much smaller target. Her round turret reflected shells as they hit. The turret would become the model for all future turrets on ships of war.

The American Civil War was really the first modern war. It saw many new weapons that would be adopted in later conflicts. It had machine guns (The Gatling Gun), Iron battle ships and even a submarine (the CSS Huntley). When the Gatling Gun first was invented the Union forces didn't want to use it because it used up too much ammunition. Maybe if there hadn't been an American Civil War, the first World War wouldn't have had such fierce weapons. Even balloons were used to spot enemy positions, so it had the beginnings of an aerial quality to it. Ericsson didn't invent the revolving turret, he only used it on his ship. The revolving turret was invented by Theodore R. Timby. Many more Monitor ships were built and all went on to serve the Union navy well.