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.