Civil War Torpedoes

One of the best-known quotes of the American Civil War is Admiral David Farragut's defiant order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" Farragut was not referring to a self-propelled underwater missile. By the time of the Civil War, the term torpedo was used for any unusual explosive device, including what today we call naval mines, land mines, booby-traps, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs). This war saw the invention, proliferation, and application of a remarkable variety of these weapons, with land- and water-based mines and other exploding devices used for sabotage and terror--notably against railroad bridges--all coming of age during the conflict. Confederate engineers and individual citizens were responsible for many innovations and applications of torpedoes since they were ideal for defence. The Union developed a range of countermeasures, from mounting "rakes" on vessels to driving livestock across mined fields, but to no avail as more Union