Roger S. Durham is the director of the U.S. Army Heritage Museum in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. Durham is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Georgia Southern University. His other books include High Seas and Yankee Gunboats: A Blockade-Running Adventure from the Diary of James Dickson and Fort McAllister.

This fascinating book will be enjoyed by any student of the war." - Blue & Gray Magazine"Durham brings impressive, even impeccable, credentials to the telling of this story... no one is better qualified to do so." - Georgia Historical Quarterly"Durham has produced a readable, accessible, and highly gripping account of Fort McAllister." - The South Carolina Historical Magazine"In the winter of 1862–1863, a little-publicized duel took place along the Great Ogeechee River of Georgia, twelve miles south of the city of Savannah. The adversaries were newly constructed iron warshipspitted against a massive coast defense position built of the simplest materials: mud and sand. Roger S. Dunham has collected a large number of first-hand accounts by participants on both sides and quotes freely from many of them to narrate the story of the 'Guardian of Savannah'. Readers of Civil War history, especially naval warfare and the history of forts, will find much to savor here." - The Journal of America's Military Past