Some time ago, Roger Todd came across my post on the Stevens Battery and was moved to send me some wonderful scans of British proceedings, after the Civil War, on the merits of this ironclad design. I still need to share those with you and haven't forgotten.
Roger put be in touch with a generous Dr. Bil Ragan, whose extensive collection of Stevens Battery material arrived this evening. Wow - many, many thanks Bil.
I think I now have an implied task: transcribe the Stevens material I found in Governor George B. McClellan's papers years ago and share that with my generous (new) friends.
For now, I should repeat to you Bil's reminder (to me) that the Stevens Floating Battery fought the Civil War as a modified, smaller proof-of-concept vessel, the Naugatuck (shown above).Off to the cosy chair with some very special reading. See you next week.
