James Barnes, author of David G. Farragut, Naval Actions of 1812, Yank ee Ships and Yankee Sailors, Commodore Bainbridge , The Blockaders, and other naval and historical works, The Photographic History of The Civil War: in ten volumes, Thousands of Scenes Photographed 1861-65, with Text by many Special Authorities, Volume 6: The Navy.
Francis Trevelyan Miller, Ed.

[38] following their success, had built the Gloire. The British were building four large broadside shins of the Warrior type; others were to follow in the Confederate navy, the Tennessee at Mobile, the Atlanta in Wassaw Sound, the Albemarle in the North Carolina sounds, and the formidable French-built Stonewall; but it was the Monitor which was to give the standard for future types. Said the London Times after the Hampton Roads fight, “Whereas we had one hundred and forty-nine first-class war-ships, we have now two, [the large broadside ships Warrior and Black Prince] . . . There is not a ship in the English navy apart from those two that it would not be madness to trust to an engagement with that little Monitor.” The type of hull of the latter has now been wholly discarded, but the revolving turret remains the basic principle in the mounting and protection of heavy guns. Notwithstanding the defects of the system, the Monitor was the forerunner and type of fifty-eight turreted vessels built or laid down during the Civil War.

The Federal navy during the war rose to a force of five hundred and sixty-nine steam vessels and over fifty thousand seamen. Three hundred and thirteen steamers had been purchased and two hundred and three had been built or were well advanced to completion. Over seven thousand five hundred volunteer officers from the merchant service, many of great ability and value, were employed, some of whom, at the end of the war, were taken into the regular service, rising to the highest ranks and filling with credit most important posts.

The fight of the Monitor and Merrimac, the passage of the Mississippi forts (April 24, 1862), Port Hudson (March 14, 1863), Mobile (August 5, 1864), the fight between the Weehawken and Atlanta, the destruction of the Albemarle, and the duel of the Kearsarge and Alabama were notable battles, three of which rank in the forefront of naval actions in daring and in effect. It is not too much to say that Farragut's deeds in the Mississippi and at Mobile have not their parallel in