The strength of any Osprey book is the illustrations. This volume is no exception. The artwork and photographs are superbly reproduced... If you are looking for a concise, well illustrated history of the Battle at Hampton Roads and the history of the development of the ironclad warship, this is the book for you.

Mike Cavanaugh, Blue & Gray Magazine

The Duel series follows a well planned and somewhat set design. There is a section on the design and development of the weapons, technical specifications, a look at the combatants involved and the strategic situation at the time of the event. Then the book gets into the combat itself and once that has been described goes into a statistical analysis of the event. This is followed by how the event may have altered future design and development. In this case, it covers some of the other ironclad vs ironclad battles, few though these actually were. Finally, there is a section on how the type was further developed, including post war use... an excellent read and one that I am confident you will enjoy as well. Highly recommended.

Scott Van Aken, modelingmadness.com (December 2008)