It's 1861 and the secession crisis has come to a head. The people of the United States of America are divided like never before. The story begins in Norfolk, Virginia, the location of one of the largest Navy yards in the United States. Norfolk is also home to the fictional Chamberlain family. Brothers John and Richard Chamberlain, both recent graduates of the Naval Academy, are torn apart by the war. One sides with his father, George, a retired Navy petty officer. The other brother sides with his pro-Confederate mother and her extended family. With the Chamberlain house divided, one brother remains in the Union navy while the other flees in the dark of night to serve in the new Confederate navy. "Chamberlain's Navy" is historical fiction, with the events surrounding John and Richard Chamberlain related to the real people and real events of the war. Using naval records, memoirs, and archives, the author weaves narratives of two brothers. John Chamberlain joins the Union's blockading fleet and then helps develop the new ironclad, the USS Monitor. Richard Chamberlain serves aboard the CSS Sumter, the first commerce raider to break out of the Union blockade and successfully inaugurate the Confederacy's controversial campaign of commerce raiding on the high seas. With this volume, we meet our characters as the war begins and takes hold of the two opposing societies.