April 2, 1863: it was a dark and stormy night. A green, cigar-
shaped, 47-foot-long submersible warship was being towed behind
the USS Sumpter on its way to help capture Charleston, South
Carolina. The fierce winds and high seas, however, cut its
mission short. In order to save the endangered Sumpter, the USS
Alligator was cut loose. It sank off the North Carolina coast,
in an area known as "The Graveyard of the Atlantic," and was
never seen again.  Alligator? 1863? Subs? Yes, one of the
lesser-known stories of the Civil War is that of the submarines,
both Confederate and Union. Research in this field is on-going
and fascinating. One of the great difficulties in finding
information about Civil War-era submarines is because at that
time sub records were considered classified information. On the
Southern side, many subs operated under the Secret Service,
rather than the Navy. The use of submarines during the war was
top secret and almost legendary. The South destroyed almost all
records of the submarines, becaus