The vast, vital, unsung but often heroic contributions of the members of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, a predecessor to the modern National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in the second world war deserve to be remembered.
Of the vaunted ironclad warships of the US Civil War perhaps the mightiest and most terrifying was the confederate ram Tennessee. On August 5, 1864, she would be put to the test in the largest naval engagement of the war, an engagement that defined the divided loyalties of the War of the Rebellion.