As used during the War Between the States, the term "torpedo" meant any underwater explosive device. Torpedo boats were any and all of the various designs employed to deliver the devices to the side of enemy vessels. This is the history of the design, manufacture and utilization of such boats. Unfortunately, the Confederate leadership failed to recognize the real value of this new weapon. Although the building of these boats was authorized early in the war, the actual building of them was often hindered by officials who failed to recognize their potential value. However, when available, these relatively speedy boats proved that by operating within the cover of darkness they could bring fear and destruction to a strategically overpowering and more numerous foe. They caused many a Union sailor to lie awake wondering if the bump he had just heard was a log hitting his ship or a torpedo that would blow him away. Rather than the destruction of great numbers of enemy ships, the greatest contribution made by these boats was the deterrent factor they became to the Union invaders. Vast quantities of seamen, materials, and ships had to be allocated to guard against their expected attacks. Union offensive plans were often swayed by consideration of their use against the attackers. Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard paid tribute to the torpedo boats when he commented that future Southerners would ask "how it was that with such a great discovery, offering such magnificent results, we never applied it to any useful purpose in this contest for our homes and independence." This is a welcome addition to available information on Confederate naval activity.

Joseph A. Derie - Civil War News - Prolific Confederate naval historian R. Thomas Campbell has turned his efforts to writing about the torpedo boats of the Confederate States Navy (and Army). These evolved when the South attempted to find ways to use torpedoeswhich we would call mines todayas an offensive weapon. Originally the torpedoes were kegs or casks, waterproofed, and either secured to the bot-tom or buoyed, filled with explosives and armed with a fuse set to explode when a ship's hull brushed against it. An attempt to use them offensively was made by securing two torpedoes to-gether with a piece of line about 200 feet long, then rowing to a point some distance above an enemy vessel and releasing the two torpedoes to drift with the current. The idea was for the line between the torpedoes to be snagged by the vessel and for one or both of the torpedoes to swing against the hull. This was tried against Union warships in Hampton Roads in October 1861, without success. Captain Francis D. Lee, a Confederate Army engineer working on chemical fuses for tor-pedoes in Charleston, thought that the best way to use the torpedo offensively would be to mount it on a spar forward of the bow of a boat and deliver it by ramming it into the side of its target. This vessel would obviously be a torpedo ram or torpedo boat. He convinced General Beaure-gard this was the type of quick, easy to build weapon the Confederates needed to defend Charleston Harbor against the vastly superior federal fleet and the Confederate torpedo boat pro-gram was bom. The initial type of torpedo boat was a rowboat or launch. Later, specially designed mod-els were developed, powered by steam, either with an open deck (CSS Squib class) or partially covered with wood or iron (CSS Torch class), and designed to ride low in the water to make them hard to detect. The other type was the David, a semi-submersible, with a cylindrical hull that was bal-lasted by iron or by water (via pumps) enabling them to ride low in the water. These came in a number of models with various sized torpedoes. Most were about five feet in diameter and about 48 feet long with a 14 foot long spar for the torpedo. However, one captured at the end of the war was 160 feet long and 11.5 feet in diameter. Davids were generally powered by steam but a few were powered by oars or a screw turned by the crew. The latter was also the propul-sion system of a fully submersible torpedo boat, the Hunley, which is not part of this story. Confederate successes with torpedo boats were few. The USS New Ironsides was se-verely damaged and had to be dry-docked by an attack from the original David. Unfortunately, the torpedo struck right at the bulkhead, which prevented the ship from sinking. The CSS Squib slightly damaged the USS Minnesota. Ironically, the most successful and famous torpedo boat attack was Commander William B. Cushing's destruction of the CSS Albemarle. The torpedo boats' prime contribution to the Confederate war effort was the fear they struck in the Union Navy, and the actions taken to guard against such attacks. In an appendix there is a wonderful statement by Commander William T. Glassell, the commander of the CSS David the night it damaged the USS New Ironsides. Writing after the war he described "the ironclad vessels of that fleet enveloped like women in hoopskirt petticoats of netting, to lay in idle admiration of themselves for many months." The book is very well illustrated with drawings and many pictures of torpedo boats and spar torpedoes. It is highly recommended for those with an interest in the Confederate Navy and general readers will also find it worthwhile.

The biggest problem with the WSH and VBScript is that it is marketed as being a powerful but simple "macro" language. Nothing could be further from the truth. VBScript is essentially VB without the forms and graphics. VBScript is just as powerful, has the same controlling capabilities, and uses almost all the same commands and syntax as VB. To think of writing scripts for the WSH as anything less than programming is a mistake.

When I first got this book, I read a ways into it, decided I didn't have the time or energy to go on, and put it aside. Had I written a review at that point, it would not have been favorable. Then I learned more about the WSH, what it was and what my expectations should be, what a person could do with it - and I picked it back up, and really applied myself. And apply yourself you must for this book. The first 154 pages of this 600 page book teach you the syntax and structure of VBScript (and some JScript). It's a little dry, and easy to get lost in. But once you have that down, the rest of the book can really open things up and show you quite a bit.

Besides an introduction to the language, the book covers "upgrading" your old batch files, writing logon scripts for users, automating network tasks, SQL server, IIS server, as well as showing you how to use ActiveX objects for the file system, CDO, ADO (Database), etc. The book even goes so far as to touch on ADSI scripting for Windows NT and Windows 200 Active Directory.

Even though at this point in time the book is a little out-dated (written in the Windows NT 4 time), it is still a good learning tool. Not so unlike other "... in 21 days" books, the average person won't complete the book in that time, and you learn just as much correcting the errors in the code and doing the workshop material as you do from the actual guided lessons. If you're looking for a scripting solution that is quick and easy, WSH and VBScript isn't it, and neither is this book. If you're looking for a powerful automation tool for network and services automation, and you're willing to spend the time it will take to complete this book, then this could be the title for you.

This is a great book. The examples and the amount of information covered and the clear explanations are nothing less than amazing. This is a book that will take you from having no experience with programming (vbscript/jscript), COM, WSH, etc. to using all of these too write useful scripts.

If you are network administrator using NT/2000 do yourself a favor and get this book. If you simply want an introduction to high-level programming without buying VB then get this book. What you learn in this book will provide a foundation to learning Visual Basic if you decide to go further into programming.

For a programmer who has used VB, Java, or any ASP, this book will boost your skills incredibly with a minimal learning curve. It shows the basics of the WSH objects and an overview of VBScript and JScript within the first few chapters- it is worth buying the book just for those chapters alone.

If you are not familiar yet with the concepts of OOP and looking at object models, you might need a primer found in another book before looking into WSH. It is built purely on objects that your code will refence and it can be a bear to take on unprepared.

It will be interesting to see how the .Net framework will integrate the objects in WSH- there is a significant chance that little in this book will be completely valid after Windows XP and Visual Studio .Net have become standard. Nevertheless, this book is an invaluable tool to the Windows programmer who wants to simplify life by automating as many tasks as possible.

The book gave excellant background information on the subject.

I was not looking for background, so it was not helpful to me. I believe it would be very good for someone interested in the technical aspects of the subject.

This book is just full of information about colors and gem stones. It makes you realize we live in a world that is alive with atomic particles and their vibrations and influences on the human body. It is almost like reading about magic, but without the mystery produced by illusions. Any reader interested in these subjects will enjoy reading it. Even the scientific parts are really interesting.

An engrossing and informative book that is chockful of facts and esoterica. I knew about Edgar Cayce before reading this book, but I didn't realize he covered these subjects in his clairvoyant readings. It made me realize even more how the world and everything that is in it is made up of atomic vibrations. The author covers a lot of material and keeps it in perspective throughout. I wish there had been more. Just wonderful! Mr. Cayce was a man of faith and a devout Christian.

I purchased the book as a gift for my father. Before I saw him, I picked it up, and read it in a very short time. Frankly, I was completely unaware of this aspect of the war. It almost seems as though the Confederate Navy was successfully battling the mighty Union Navy with only chewing gum, shoe strings, and cast-off wood. This was a very interesting book. The chapters are well written and easy to follow, and are written in an exciting and reader engrossing style. No technical language is necessary to understand or follow the descriptions in this book. It includes both interesting background information about key officers, and descriptions of the battles themselves. My father also liked it!

R. Thomas Campbell continues his series of anecdotal accounts of the Confederate Navy. While anecdotal books can be tiresome, Campbell's is well-written and entertaining, and taken with the other three books in the series, approaches epic proportions. Entertaining and informative.

No question exists but that the fragments woven together here are the fullest account of the Confederate Naval Academy this age will ever see. From "Civil War Book Review," Fall, 1999.

Review by James N. Vogler, Jr., editor Confederate Veteran. Most of us know the tale of that great Confederate raider the CSS Alabama and her illustrious Captain Raphael Semmes. The scourge of the Union merchant fleet, the Alabama sank over sixty Yankee vessels in her brief, but dramatic career. There have been countless books about the ship, including a fine account, Memoirs of Service Afloat by her captain. This volume provides an account of service on the Alabama from a slightly different angle. Beneath the Stainless Banner was written by John McIntosh Kell, the ship's executive officer, the man who ran the day to day operations of this deadly raider. The reader gets a feel for the inner workings of a sailing vessel on the high seas in search of its prey. While most of the book revolves around the Alabama and her exploits, Kell does write about his service on the CSS Sumter where he also served under Raphael Semmes. This book is actually a reproduction of the second volume of John Kell's memoir entitled Recollections of a Naval Life, Including the Cruises of the Sumter and Alabama published in 1900. R. Thomas Campbell has enhanced the work with footnotes and some photographs. This is an excellent account of life on a Confederate raider, and I recommend it to any of our readers whose interest is in the sea.

RAIMONDO LURAGHI, University of Genoa, Italy. As clearly stated in the preface, the objective of the author is extension. In other words, he is not looking for in-depth research but for the building of a complete scene, where no episode, no personality, no ship is forgotten or overlooked, so that his book would not 'suffer from a lack of detail concerning a particular action or an intriguing personality' (pp. x). A tremendous task, indeed, one that required painstaking reading, unlimited patience, and an almost uncanny attention to details.... Now, the question is: does Campbell succeed in achieving his goal? Is the information supplied always correct and reliable? This reviewer believes that the answer to both questions should be positive. The landscape that the author wanted to build is here: wide, informative, and as complete as human effort can make it. Direct quotations are well chosen and almost always of primary interest. As for the correctness of information, one has to congratulate Campbell because mistakes are few-mainly mis-prints. Instead the book deserves high praise because of its splendid collection of illustrations. Only researchers who, like this reviewer, know how difficult and frustrating the task of locating photographs of the Confederate Navy may be, can appreciate the magnificent patrimony of illustrations that are offered here to readers. Summing up, Campbell has succeeded in putting together a very interesting and useful book that deserves careful attention from anybody interested in the tragic and glorious story of the Confederate States Navy. From the "Journal of Southern History," vol. 65, No. 2, May 1999

With this book, R. Thomas Campbell begins his series of anecdotal accounts of the Confederate Navy. While anecdotal books can be tiresome, Campbell's is well-written and entertaining, and taken with the next three books in the series, approaches epic proportions. Entertaining and informative.

R. Thomas Campbell continues his series of anecdotal accounts of the Confederate Navy. While anecdotal books can be tiresome, Campbell's is well-written and entertaining, and taken with the other three books in the series, approaches epic proportions. Entertaining and informative.

It takes a ... what? It takes more than this book recognizes to improve education. The rhetoric here implies that the so-called "reform" movement is the way to cure school ills. To most teachers, however, this is simply another year's bureaucratic fad to morph educators into paper pushers. Although I found several insights here, and detailed information on six inner-city school districts, I was somewhat amazed by two important omissions: teachers and students. Teacher unions were trivialized by the suggestion that each little school decide, on their own, if they want to unionize.The writer recommends "hiring halls" for teachers, putting us on a level with farm workers and factory hands. This writing shows absolutely no understanding about why teachers need unions or how such organizations originated.

This writer clearly identifies a target audience -- mayors, civic leaders and school board members. By decision, it excludes teachers and students. It's sad to think -- and I've seen this happen -- that ivory tower bureaucrarts actually make decisions based on this type of dubious theory rather than getting down in the trenches with the reality of the classroom.

Content here is peppered with educratic jargon which twists other terminology into bastardized educational theories. School "incubators" make me think of premature babies."Real dollar budgets" make me wonder if bureaucrats are playing Monopoly with our taxes. "CEO Strong Schools strategy" pretends that a principal, who is middle management, is a CEO. Get real. The only CEO in the school district is the superintendent who is hired by an elected school board.

This book, to it's credit, recognizes the inability of reform to reform anything (last paragraph, page 84). Any good book offers new insights and "policy churn" gets my prize here. Teachers are jaded by bandwagon bureaucrats who recycle new versions of old ideas, one after another, never saying, "stop this" or "drop that."

Hillary Clinton quotes the African proverb, "It Takes a Village." This book spins the idea into, "a city." I'm waiting for the next trendy realization for someone to discover that, "It takes a teacher."