That Anvil of Our Souls
In the third volume of David Poyer's monumental Civil War at Sea cycle, North meets South in the momentous first battle between ironclads.We first met Elisha Eaker, Theodorus Hubbard, Araminta Van Velsor, Dr. Alphaeus Steele, Calpurnius Hanks, and Ker and Catherine Claiborne in Fire on the Waters, witnessing their unwilling but inescapable choosing of sides as America split into two nations. Then, in A Country of Our Own, Ker took the war to the North, as captain of the fastest, most heavily armed Confederate commerce raider ever to put to sea.
Now, That Anvil of Our Souls takes us into the turrets and casemates of the most decisive sea engagement of the Civil War. In New York, Theo is the engineer for a revolutionary new "fighting machine" called the Monitor, and eager to become a man of means...so eager, a bribe compromises his integrity. In Norfolk, Catherine faces her husband's impending hanging for piracy, the death of their baby daughter, and the bitter realities of enemy occupation.
In Richmond, Lt. Lomax Minter is ordered to find a spy who threatens the South's ultimate weapon: a tremendous ironclad named Virginia, rebuilt from a sunken wreck in a race against time. While the aging Dr. Steele witnesses the horrors that are the aftermath of glory; and gun-captain Hanks, escaped slave, struggles with the demons of his past and the twin snakes of "freedom."Poyer's vivid characters join with meticulously researched historic figures to re-create the bloodiest conflict in American history -- one whose reverberations will endure as long as freedom, equality, and home have different meanings in proud human hearts.
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David Poyer
DAVID POYER was born in DuBois, Pennsylvania in 1949. He grew up in Brockway, Emlenton, and Bradford, and graduated from Bradford Area High School in 1967. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1971, and later received a master’s degree from George Washington University.
His active and reserve naval service included sea duty in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Arctic, Caribbean, and Pacific, and shore duty at the Pentagon, Fleet Training Center, Surface Warfare Development Group, Joint Forces Command, and in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. He retired from the Joint Forces Command as a captain, with the Defense Superior Service Medal as his highest award.
Poyer has taught or lectured at Annapolis, Flagler College, University of Pittsburgh, Old Dominion University, the Armed Forces Staff College, the University of North Florida, Christopher Newport University, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, and other institutions. He has been a guest on PBS’s “Writer to Writer” series and on Voice of America, and has appeared at the Southern Festival of Books and many other literary events. He taught for sixteen years in the Maslow MA/MFA in Creative Writing faculty at Wilkes University. He’s currently a fellow at the Virginia Center of Creative Arts and teaches at the Ossabaw Island Writers’ Retreat. He lives on Virginia’s Eastern Shore with novelist Lenore Hart.
Civil War at Sea
Civil War at Sea consists of three books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
