I will contribute to this interesting topic, but to avoid the risk of boring anyone I will do it with some images.

For the moment I quickly took them from a single encyclopedia that deals with ships and sailing ships, naval battles and naval techniques from all over the world.
Then if I can I'll look for something else better.

The first image represents the Union's main strategy against the secessionist states of the South and is the one implemented first.
The strategy essentially consisted of a total naval blockade of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, aimed at preventing the export of typical southern products such as cotton and the import of materials essential to the war and the survival of the southern economy.
This strategy, despite the successful attempts by small British commercial ships to trade with the south, was overall successful.
As can be seen on the map there was no shortage of naval clashes, however the naval supremacy of the Union was never questioned.

The second image represents the other naval strategy of the war, namely the control of the Mississippi basin. The strategy began in 1862 with the Union Army and Navy.
The strategic importance of the Mississippi and its tributaries as communication routes was known to all.
All naval battles must be framed in these two strategic areas, except for the racing war waged by a few warships such as the CSS Alabama which tried to damage the Union's commercial traffic.

The third image shows this ship which successfully completed several privateering cruises before being confronted and sunk by the USS Kearsarge.

The fourth and fifth images depict the sail plan of the CSS Alabama.

The sixth image depicts CSS Alabama Commander Raphael Semmes posing in front of the 68-pounder gun. Cape Town, South Africa, August 1863.

The seventh image depicts the Confederate privateer Sumter capturing two Union merchant ships, off Gibraltar in 1862.

In the two main strategic frameworks there was no shortage of naval battles in which new weapons and new tactics were tested.

The eighth image is a detail of J.O. Davidson's painting of the battle of New Orleans in 1962, framed in the strategic chessboard of the control of the Mississippi.

In the ninth image we see the Union fleet under Farragut passing the forts downstream of New Orleans, April 24, 1862.
The fort seen at the bottom left is Fort San Philip.

The tenth image shows Rear Admiral David Farragut, standing on the ratlines of the corvette USS Hartford. He led the battle of Mobile Bay with the cry "to hell with the torpedoes, full force ahead".

Eleventh image. The Union fleet under Charles H. Davis destroys the Confederate river defense fleet on the Mississippi at Memphis in June 1862.

In the twelfth image is the wreck of the CSS Albermale.
She was sunk on October 27, 1864 by a Union launch armed with a torpedo.

In the thirteenth image you can see the Union fleet departing from Hampton Roads in December 1864 to attack the ports of Charleston and Wilmington.

The Merrimack Indendium is represented in the fourteenth image. She burned on April 17, 1861 when the state of Virginia left the union but she was salvaged and became the CSS Virginia.

I must say that on the web (including Wikipedia) there are many images of the naval battles fought in this war.

I mentioned the "Old Navy" in my starting post on this subject. (They are located in California.) I have a printed copy of their book "Modeling Civil War Ironclad Ships" and that is available on line (link below).

If you want to build an ironclad, this is a very handy book to have, either in print or download. The 170 page book (although printed in 2007), not only covers the various ironclads, details, photos, and information, but also how they operate (internal electronics and components), some in confined spaces. This could be informative to other era builds, especially when struggling with confined spaces. The book also has a section on making those miniature guns operate and fire.

Lew
Florida, USA

Free download link (no sign up):

https://walternelson.com/ironclads.pdf

I see some interaction on American Civil War (ACW) canons going on. I thought that a new Forum Topic might be an interesting, a stand-alone subject focusing on this. (Might be easier for others in the future to find information on Civil War (north and south) naval ships and artillery should the need to arise.

OVERVIEW:

The US Navy had about ninety warships before the war started (early 1861) and that grew to over ten times that number in four years. Many people know about the great land battles of the ACW but the Union (north) and Confederate (south) navies played a significant role in the war. The "Anaconda Plan" blockade of the south by the north totaled about 3,000 miles (4,800 KM), requiring a significant growth in US Navy ships, both for combat and support.

There was no formal naval ship types structure like you see today, frigates, destroyers, cruisers, carriers, etc. During the Civil War new ships were built (like Alessandro's model of the USS Unadilla, based on a Russian design) as well as commercial ships converted to warships (like the two dozen New York ferry boats converted to gunboats) and everything in between.

Add these to the Confederacy's ships, many built overseas, especially in the UK, many designs were used encompassing new ideas. During this four year period there were advancements in guns, especially because of the change in shipbuilding from wood to iron.

Many know about the first "Battle of the Ironclads" at Hampton Roads, but that was in March, 1862. In the next three years there would be many more battles between ironclads as well as with wood ships.

My interest in the ACW ignited my involvement by being a "reenactor" for twenty years. During that time I did a lot of research on the naval aspect of the ACW as well as visiting participating at various museums that focused on this period. For a number of years I had a 4-inch mortar which we used at various reenactments.

Below I am posting on a few of the photos that I hope that at least some of you might enjoy, giving many members overseas (as well as some in the US) a look into the living history aspect of this subject.

So I had to give up this hobby and that is when I got even more involved in operating scale model boat building. It was meeting up with Steve Lund of the "Old Navy" and his collection of RC Civil War ironclads that gave me a lot of motivation to do this.

If you have any interest in modeling this period, questions, statements or you have already built a model or models I invite you to post away!

Lew
Florida ⚡🌧️, USA

Video Link: My video of the firing of a 7 inch Brooke gun at Port Columbus:
Video Link: I met "Lincoln" on the deck of the USS Monitor:
Video Link: The "Old Navy" RC model ironclads: