On the evening of February 2, 1864, Confederate Commander John Taylor Wood led 250 sailors in two launches and twelve boats to capture the USS Underwriter, a side-wheel steam gunboat anchored on the Neuse River near New Bern, North Carolina, and then sank her. The thrilling story of USS Underwriter is one of many involving the numerous shipwrecks that occupy the waters of Civil War history. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CIVIL WAR SHIPWRECKS is the definitive account of more than 2,000 of these American Civil Warperiod sunken ships. In a remarkable feat of historical detective work, author Gaines scoured countless sourcesfrom government and official records to sports diver and treasure-hunting magazinesto compile an essential reference work for Civil War scholars and buffs, archaeologists, divers, and aficionados of naval history. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CIVIL WAR SHIPWRECKS revives and preserves for posterity the little-known stories of these intriguing artifacts of history.