On the evening of February 17, 1864, the Confederacy’s  H. L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic and became the first submarine in world history to sink an enemy ship. Not until World War I—half a century later—would a submarine again accomplish such a feat. But also perishing that moonlit night, vanishing beneath the cold Atlantic waters off Charleston, South Carolina, was the Hunley and her entire crew of eight. For generations, searchers prowled Charleston’s harbor, looking for the Hunley. And as they hunted, the legends surrounding the boat and its demise continued to grow. Even after the submarine was definitively located in 1995 and recovered five years later, those legends—those barnacles of misinformation—have only multiplied. Now, in a tour de force of document-sleuthing and insights gleaned from the excavation of this remarkable vessel, distinguished Civil War–era historian Tom Chaffin presents the most thorough telling of the Hunley’s story possible. Of panoramic breadth, this Civil War 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. Beyond his thorough survey of period documents relating to the submarine, Chaffin also conducted extensive interviews with Maria Jacobsen, senior archaeologist at Clemson University’s Warren Lasch Conservation Center, where the Hunley is now being excavated, to complete his portrait of this technological wonder. What emerges is a narrative that casts compelling doubts on many long-held assumptions, particularly those concerning the boat’s final hours. Thoroughly engaging and utterly new, The H. L. Hunley provides the definitive account of a storied craft. Tom Chaffin is a professor of history and the director/editor of the James K. Polk Correspondence Project at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His books include Sea of Gray and Pathfinder , both published by Hill and Wang. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, Time, and other publications. He lives in Knoxville. On the evening of February 17, 1864, the Confederacy's H. L. 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. Not until World War I—half a century later—would a submarine again accomplish such a feat. But also perishing that moonlit night, vanishing beneath the cold Atlantic waters off Charleston, South Carolina, was the Hunley and her entire crew of eight, three more men than had gone down with the Housatonic. For generations, searchers prowled Charleston's harbor, looking for the Hunley. And as they hunted, the legends surrounding the boat and its demise continued to grow. Even after the submarine was definitively located in 1995 and recovered five years later, those legends—those barnacles of misinformation—have only thickened.  Now, in a tour de force of document sleuthing with insights gleaned from the excavation of this remarkable vessel, the distinguished Civil War-era historian Tom Chaffin presents the most thorough possible telling of the Hunley's story. 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. Beyond his exhaustive survey of period documents related to the submarine, Chaffin—to complete his portrait of this technological wonder—also conducted extensive interviews with Maria Jacobsen, senior archaeologist at Clemson University's Warren Conservation Center, where the Hunley is now being excavated. What emerges is a narrative that casts compelling doubts on many long-held assumptions, particularly those concerning the boat's final hours—including the storied blue light that it allegedly flashed to signal its triumph over the Housatonic. Thoroughly engaging and utterly new, The H. L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy provides the definitive account of a fabled craft. "Tom Chaffin's The H.L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy is a captivating history of the Civil War-era Confederate submarine. The book follows the secret weapon from its planning stages in New Orleans to its sinking of a Union ship in Charleston Harbor to its own fateful sinking. The H.L. Hunley also chronicles archaeological work being done on the ship at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston."—Myles Hutto, Charleston City Paper
"After the Confederate capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861, President Lincoln ordered a naval blockade of all Southern ports. The Confederacy's response was to commission swift, yachtlike vessels to outrun Union warships. The South also engaged in a do-or-die effort to break through the naval blockade using mines, torpedoes and one of the earliest fully operational submarines, the H.L. Hunley—the first submarine to sink an enemy ship. Tom Chaffin, professor of history at the University of Tennessee, has written an exciting, exhaustively researched history of a marvelous technological innovation in The H.L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy. Chaffin paints a descriptive portrait of antebellum New Orleans and the entrepreneurial denizens of Canal Street, among them Francis Hanson Hatch, a Customs House agent, and his assistant, Lawson Hunley. Through a series of transactions involving gun-running and blockade-busting, Hatch and Hunley became partners with James McClintock, a machine designer. They then attracted the interest of the Confederate military with their idea of a 'fish-boat.' Building it was a daunting engineering feat. Speed, directional control, air supply, diving, ascending, torpedo delivery, firing safety, escape for the crew—these were all complete technological unknowns at the time. The 40-foot Hunley sank on its first two demonstration voyages, drowning 13 crew members. On Feb. 17, 1864, the twice-resurrected ship, carrying a torpedo on its spar, slipped across the harbor of Charleston, S.C., toward the USS Housatonic, a 207-foot Union sloop. The ship went down. But so did the Hunley . . . Chaffin's chronicle of the H.L. Hunley belongs on the bookshelf of every military history aficionado."—Chris Patsilelis, St. Petersburg Times
"The story of the Hunley has been explored in articles, books, and TV movies, but historian Tom Chaffin has produced what may be considered the most exhaustive and accurate account of the submarine and the men who built her in his new book The H. L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy. Given the iron-fisted control the Confederacy exerted over the media to preserve its military secrets and a dearth of official or personal correspondence on the matter, Chaffin faced a daunting task in piecing together his history, but his hard work pays off here in a rich and lively book about visionaries, mercenaries and a technological marvel . . . Chaffin's painstaking history of the Confederate submarine initiative is rich in character studies, from Hunley's friends and family, deeply divided over the rightness of the cause of secession, to the generals and admirals of the Rebel forces. Such flamboyant personages include General P. T. Beauregard, the dashing commander of the Charleston redoubt, and Lt. Geor

On the evening of February 17, 1864, the Confederacy’s  H. L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic and became the first submarine in world history to sink an enemy ship. Not until World War I—half a century later—would a submarine again accomplish such a feat. But also perishing that moonlit night, vanishing beneath the cold Atlantic waters off Charleston, South Carolina, was the Hunley and her entire crew of eight. For generations, searchers prowled Charleston’s harbor, looking for the Hunley. And as they hunted, the legends surrounding the boat and its demise continued to grow. Even after the submarine was definitively located in 1995 and recovered five years later, those legends—those barnacles of misinformation—have only multiplied. Now, in a tour de force of document-sleuthing and insights gleaned from the excavation of this remarkable vessel, distinguished Civil War–era historian Tom Chaffin presents the most thorough telling of the Hunley’s story possible. Of panoramic breadth, this Civil War 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. Beyond his thorough survey of period documents relating to the submarine, Chaffin also conducted extensive interviews with Maria Jacobsen, senior archaeologist at Clemson University’s Warren Lasch Conservation Center, where the Hunley is now being excavated, to complete his portrait of this technological wonder. What emerges is a narrative that casts compelling doubts on many long-held assumptions, particularly those concerning the boat’s final hours. Thoroughly engaging and utterly new, The H. L. Hunley provides the definitive account of a storied craft. Tom Chaffin is a professor of history and the director/editor of the James K. Polk Correspondence Project at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His books include Sea of Gray and Pathfinder , both published by Hill and Wang. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, Time, and other publications. He lives in Knoxville. On the evening of February 17, 1864, the Confederacy's H. L. 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. Not until World War I—half a century later—would a submarine again accomplish such a feat. But also perishing that moonlit night, vanishing beneath the cold Atlantic waters off Charleston, South Carolina, was the Hunley and her entire crew of eight, three more men than had gone down with the Housatonic. For generations, searchers prowled Charleston's harbor, looking for the Hunley. And as they hunted, the legends surrounding the boat and its demise continued to grow. Even after the submarine was definitively located in 1995 and recovered five years later, those legends—those barnacles of misinformation—have only thickened.  Now, in a tour de force of document sleuthing with insights gleaned from the excavation of this remarkable vessel, the distinguished Civil War-era historian Tom Chaffin presents the most thorough possible telling of the Hunley's story. 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. Beyond his exhaustive survey of period documents related to the submarine, Chaffin—to complete his portrait of this technological wonder—also conducted extensive interviews with Maria Jacobsen, senior archaeologist at Clemson University's Warren Conservation Center, where the Hunley is now being excavated. What emerges is a narrative that casts compelling doubts on many long-held assumptions, particularly those concerning the boat's final hours—including the storied blue light that it allegedly flashed to signal its triumph over the Housatonic. Thoroughly engaging and utterly new, The H. L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy provides the definitive account of a fabled craft. "Tom Chaffin's The H.L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy is a captivating history of the Civil War-era Confederate submarine. The book follows the secret weapon from its planning stages in New Orleans to its sinking of a Union ship in Charleston Harbor to its own fateful sinking. The H.L. Hunley also chronicles archaeological work being done on the ship at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston."—Myles Hutto, Charleston City Paper
"After the Confederate capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861, President Lincoln ordered a naval blockade of all Southern ports. The Confederacy's response was to commission swift, yachtlike vessels to outrun Union warships. The South also engaged in a do-or-die effort to break through the naval blockade using mines, torpedoes and one of the earliest fully operational submarines, the H.L. Hunley—the first submarine to sink an enemy ship. Tom Chaffin, professor of history at the University of Tennessee, has written an exciting, exhaustively researched history of a marvelous technological innovation in The H.L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy. Chaffin paints a descriptive portrait of antebellum New Orleans and the entrepreneurial denizens of Canal Street, among them Francis Hanson Hatch, a Customs House agent, and his assistant, Lawson Hunley. Through a series of transactions involving gun-running and blockade-busting, Hatch and Hunley became partners with James McClintock, a machine designer. They then attracted the interest of the Confederate military with their idea of a 'fish-boat.' Building it was a daunting engineering feat. Speed, directional control, air supply, diving, ascending, torpedo delivery, firing safety, escape for the crew—these were all complete technological unknowns at the time. The 40-foot Hunley sank on its first two demonstration voyages, drowning 13 crew members. On Feb. 17, 1864, the twice-resurrected ship, carrying a torpedo on its spar, slipped across the harbor of Charleston, S.C., toward the USS Housatonic, a 207-foot Union sloop. The ship went down. But so did the Hunley . . . Chaffin's chronicle of the H.L. Hunley belongs on the bookshelf of every military history aficionado."—Chris Patsilelis, St. Petersburg Times
"The story of the Hunley has been explored in articles, books, and TV movies, but historian Tom Chaffin has produced what may be considered the most exhaustive and accurate account of the submarine and the men who built her in his new book The H. L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy. Given the iron-fisted control the Confederacy exerted over the media to preserve its military secrets and a dearth of official or personal correspondence on the matter, Chaffin faced a daunting task in piecing together his history, but his hard work pays off here in a rich and lively book about visionaries, mercenaries and a technological marvel . . . Chaffin's painstaking history of the Confederate submarine initiative is rich in character studies, from Hunley's friends and family, deeply divided over the rightness of the cause of secession, to the generals and admirals of the Rebel forces. Such flamboyant personages include General P. T. Beauregard, the dashing commander of the Charleston redoubt, and Lt. Geor