Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads

<p> A Scottish immigrant to Illinois Joseph Brown made his pre-Civil War fortune as a miller and steamboat captain who dabbled in riverboat design and the politics of small towns. When war erupted he used his connections (including a friendship with Abraham Lincoln) to obtain contracts to build three ironclad gunboats for the U.S. War Department--the <I>Chillicothe Indianola</I> and <I>Tuscumbia</I>. Often described as failures these vessels were active in some of the most ferdocuments the life and career of Joseph Brown a miller and steamboat captain who built three ironclad gunboats for the US War Departmentocious river fighting of the 1863 Vicksburg campaign. After the war Captain Joe became a railroad executive and was elected mayor of St. Louis. This book covers his life and career as well as the construction and operational histories of his controversial trio of warships.</p>