another good book selection;

[Dave the plumber]

      Since Ed McCaul's book went over so well with all of you who had not read it yet, I want to suggest another great book. I'd like to say that it is wonderful that now we have Mr McCaul as an active participant on these forums too.
     I highly suggest, " Ironclads and Big Guns of the Confederacy'. Sounds boring but what the book is, is a compulation of John Brooke's ledgers, notes and letters during the war. This was all compiled by George Brooke Jr, and released in 2002.
      John Brooke was quite a talented man, an excellent engineer and forward thinker. Besides the book dealing with the development of his famous Brooke cannon, shells, fuzes and bolts, there is ample correspondences from other ordnance people to weave the book into a good journal of the day to day trials and tribulations of devolping ordnance. Plus, he was responsible for working on the devolpment of armor for the first ironclads.
          He probably did more for the Confederacy than 99 % of the other men in uniform. I think if you read the book you will find it fascinating to realize what he accomplished in those short years, under the pressure the South was in with a meager supply and industrial base, compared to the might of the North.
    I'm sure if you pick it up, you will find it a fascinating read.
                                          Enjoy, and let us know what you think     David  
 

[scottfromgeorgia]

Ironclads and Big Guns of the Confederacy is on my side table in my library, and I read bits of it whenever I go in there. Packed full of information on design and performance that is invaluable. Good rec, Dave.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Dave and All,
     I received my copy yesterday and have read five chapters.
 Let me preface my comments by saying I cannot read books normally due to my impaired vision and use an electronic reader that takes an image of the pages and converts it to OCR then reads it to me audibly. It is not perfect in that sometimes it will skip a line or so.
      This book is actually a reprint of Brooks journal.  It reads like a diary.  One moment  he speaks of his wife and family and in the next sentence he is describing his problem with obtaining armour plates from Richmond to put on the CSS Virginia (Merrimack) so it makes it difficult to followa thought through to completion.
     His illustrations are really small, 1/2 x 1 inch, with no detail.
    He describes the battle with the USS Erickson and unable to sink it.   Is this another name for the USS Monitor?

  He mentions a Prussian Percussion Fuze, does anyone have data about this fuze.  Could it be a Krupp fuze in use during the 1860s?

    If it mention the battle with the Monitor while he was at Norfolk then I must have fell asleep.
All for now.
Regards,
John
  

[emike123]

Based on David's recommendation I sought out this book a month or two back.  When I went to look for it, our resident Brooke devotee Bill L. pointed me at another work of this author and I got it instead I guess by accident. I have not read the book Scott and David say is so good.

What I did read was:

JOHN M. BROOKE: Naval Scientist & Educator
Confederate Civil War Naval History & Biography
Hardcover book, "John M. Brooke: Naval Scientist and Educator" by George M. Brooke Jr.; University Press of Virginia; Charlottesville, VA: 1980, 372 pages.

I skimmed all the personal stuff and found the war-related 40% or so to be interesting.  John Brooke missed personally participating in the CSS Virginia v. USS Monitor battle John, by the way.

It seems like the author has made a career out of publishing books based on his forefather's letters and experiences.  I am glad he did chronicle all this even though most of us could care less about the personal bits such as how attractive Brooke's first wife was (NOT by the way IMO but perhaps by the standard of the day).

I have loaned it out, but if anyone wants to borrow it, eMail me and I'll have the guy who is currently reading it send it directly to you when he is finished.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Mike,
   Yes, the book you mentioned was the first in the seriews written by geo. Brooke.
 The one Dave and I have is the second one..
John