
In an effort to disrupt the federal blockade, the Confederacy resorted to many ingenious plans, but perhaps the most daring of all was the attempt to build and use a submarine. The "Hunley" eventually succeeded in destroying one Union blockader, but it sank in the process. This is a sketch of how the submarine would work: eight men powered it by turning a crank attached to a propeller.
Courtesy of the Charleston Museum, Charleston, South Carolina.