John Sledge, Mobile Press-Register (Alabama) If there is a Civil War or local history buff on your Christmas list this year, you could hardly do better than to present them with a copy of this book.” Hunley is not only the most up-to-date book about the unusual craft, it is also the most readable and accessible. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy is narrative history at its most readable and remarkable.” Hunley belongs on the bookshelf of every military history aficionado.” “Dramatic, well-written and filled-perhaps overfilled-with fascinating information, Chaffin’s chronicle of the H. Michael Christopher Tuttle, Journal of Military History “Chaffin’s skillful integration of historic documentation and the archaeological materials illuminates how vital both sources are in gaining a clearer understanding of the past. The preeminent volume on the subject.” -Mike Bunn, Alabama Review “Combining a masterful command of his subject with a novelist’s flair for weaving a good story, Chaffin takes readers on an intriguing journey centered on one of the landmark events in maritime history. “To Chaffin’s credit, he tells his tale with great gusto, using a highly readable narrative style. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy emerges as the best.” Of the numerous books to appear in recent years, Tom Chaffin’s The H. “An excellently written and well-documented account of a piece of Civil War history. Blake Dunnavent, Journal of Southern History Doubtless this monograph will be the seminal work on the Confederacy’s legendary submersible that historians, students, and Civil War enthusiasts can equally enjoy.” He skillfully directs the reader with novel-like prose from the submarine’s origins to its cryptic final hours. “ exhaustive research in manuscript collections, archival holdings, and secondary sources. “Tom Chaffin’s study is the most thorough treatment of the subject … detailed and entertaining book about early naval submersibles will inform students, scholars, and general readers.” Kurt Hackemer, South Carolina Historical Magazine “Chaffin’s research is impeccable…the author has clearly spent long hours in multiple archives around the country tracking down any relevant materials…All readers benefit from his lucid and engaging prose, which makes this a tough volume to put down.” Hunley is a classic of Civil War history.” Each detail is sharply etched and dramatically told for a compelling read. “The boldest and most powerful book yet written on the saga of the H. “The best book on the role of the submarine is Tom Chaffin’s The H.L Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy Altogether, “the secret hope of the Confederacy” is now a good deal less secret, and Civil War collections can fill many gaps with a single purchase.” The research that went into this book was also exhaustive (it is also unbiased), but it doesn’t make the book exhausting. “This outstanding piece of scholarship and clear writing will answer most questions and lay to rest most legends about the famous Confederate submarine, the first of its kind to sink an enemy warship. “Sampling from letters, articles and memoirs, the author succeeds in separating facts from legend in this engrossing examination of a pioneering weapon of war.” Insightful and intriguing, meriting a place toward the front of the squadron of Civil War, naval and aquatic archeology titles.” “Avoiding uninformed speculation, Chaffin crafts an exciting narrative of an important innovation in military technology and the political considerations that shaped its development. Hunley provides the definitive account of a fabled craft. Of panoramic breadth, this saga begins long before the submarine was even assembled and follows the tale into the boat’s final hours and through its recovery in 2000. In a tour de force of document-sleuthing and insights gleaned from the excavation of this remarkable vessel, the distinguished Civil War–era historian Tom Chaffin presents the most thorough telling of the Hunley’s story possible. Even after the submarine was definitively located in 1995 and recovered five years later, those legends have continued to flourish.

For generations, the legend of the Hunley grew as searchers prowled the harbor, looking for remains.

But after accomplishing such a feat, the Hunley and her crew of eight also vanished beneath the cold Atlantic waters off Charleston, South Carolina. Hunley sank the Union’s formidable sloop of war the USS Housatonic and became the first submarine in world history to sink an enemy ship. On the evening of February 17, 1864, the Confederacy’s H.

Hl hunley submarine rough draft