This is the first modern scholarly look at the little-known yet remarkable USS New Ironsides - America's first seagoing ironclad and the only one to see combat in the American Civil War. It describes the design, construction, and wartime career of the armored frigate, which included sixteen months of combat off Charleston, South Carolina, where she fired more shots than all of Rear Adm. John Dahlgren's monitors put together and caused the Confederates to offer $100,000 for her destruction.

Here, a former surface warfare commander chronicles New Ironsides's entire story, from inception as the Navy's insurance policy in 1861 through the straining urgency of construction and blockade service in the stormy early months of 1863 to the hard-fought engagements at Charleston Harbor and Fort Fisher.