Civil War Torpedoes and the Global Development of Landmine Warfare by Earl J. Hess (review)

Reviewed by: Civil War Torpedoes and the Global Development of Landmine Warfare by Earl J. Hess Charles J. Wexler (bio) Civil War Torpedoes and the Global Development of Landmine Warfare. By Earl J. Hess. (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2023. Pp. 272. Cloth, $110.00; paper, $39.00.) Earl Hess has spent his prolific writing career examining Civil War armies and their tactics. In his latest book, Civil War Torpedoes and the Global Development of Landmine Warfare, Hess focuses on the torpedo, land mines, and other land-based explosive devices. Building on Milton F. Perry's Infernal Machines: The Story of Confederate Submarine and Mine Warfare (1965) and Herbert Schiller's publishing of Gabriel Rains's "Torpedo Book" in Confederate Torpedoes: Two Illustrated 19th Century Works with New Appendices and Photographs (2011), Hess examines the moral, tactical, and technical developments behind these weapons. He also discusses how the Civil War fit within the modern procurement of land mine warfare since the 1850s. Deployed as defensive deterrents against [End Page 389] assaulting Confederate positions and as offensive explosive devices against Federal targets, Confederate torpedoes triggered a strong emotional response that overshadowed both their growing acceptance and their limited tactical effectiveness. Hess establishes a clear framework in his introduction. Looking at the recent literature, he believes previous historians have conflated land mine warfare and the use of the word "mine" with other forms of warfare and related terminology. He thus defines land mine warfare as "the use of an explosive device designed to harm people and planted a few inches below the surface of the earth" (xvii). He also notes how people in the 1860s used "torpedoes" as a catchall for explosive devices specifically designed to injure people or destroy property. This is why throughout his book he constantly uses "torpedoes" rather than "landmines" for these devices, except where directly applicable. Hess primarily provides a tactical analysis of the fifteen land-based torpedo deployments, ranging from those at Port Royal, South Carolina, in 1861 to those at Mobile, Alabama, in 1865. Throughout the book he focuses on Gabriel Rains, one of the chief architects of torpedo procurement and deployments. Responsible for deploying torpedoes at Yorktown, Virginia, during the Peninsula campaign, Rains championed their use throughout the war alongside other torpedo men such as Edgar Singer. Hess notes that many high-ranking Confederate generals and officials eventually supported their use. The list includes President Jefferson Davis, whom Hess mentions provided quiet approval of their deployment. Hess then spends significant time discussing the different types of torpedoes, mines, and detonators developed throughout the war. Rains and other torpedo developers improvised new types of torpedoes and mines from artillery shells, together with other explosives and primers. Hess takes great care in explaining these different and complex devices so readers can easily understand how they worked. Hess then addresses their expanded use beginning in the summer of 1863. Despite Confederate torpedo men deploying these devices in larger numbers, Hess argues torpedoes or land mines were tactically ineffective at slowing down Federal offensives. Hess calculates, for example, that Confederate torpedo men deployed between 1,000 and 1,250 land mines while defending Mobile in the spring of 1865. These mines did not substantially delay Federal actions. After their initial discovery often caused horrific injuries, soldiers countered their use through sapping operations and carefully removing the mines. Torpedo deployments also fueled outrage over their use from Federal officers such as General William T. Sherman. This lingering rage did not deter Federal officials from inaugurating their [End Page 390] own torpedo programs in the second half of the Civil War or the U.S. government from subsequently expanding them after 1865. Hess examines torpedo deployments beyond the battlefield. These include ones involved in attacks on supply boats and railroads and in the explosion at City Point, Virginia. The weapons Confederates deployed here were not just artillery shell–based devices placed in fields or alongside fortifications. They included the coal torpedo, a cast-iron weapon filled with a half-pound of gunpowder and covered to pass as a lump of coal. These weapons inflicted more damage on Federal positions and logistics. Hess credits a coal torpedo with destroying the army transport...