A History of the Confederate Navy

A History of the Confederate Navy PDF

Author: Raimondo Luraghi

Publisher: US Naval Institute Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13:

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Pushing aside the long-held belief that the answers went up in flames when the Confederate Navy archives were torched during the evacuation of Richmond, Luraghi combed fifty archives in four countries and uncovered information that shattered prevailing myths about that service's contributions.

Navy Gray

Navy Gray PDF

Author: Maxine T. Turner

Publisher: Mercer University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 9780865546424

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The story of the Confederate Navy been told less often than the spectacular history of the armies, but many of the familiar elements are there: the exuberant hopes of the Confederacy, the risk in spite of very long odds against success, the basic deficits in resources becoming desperate needs, and the dogged, exhausted persistence in the face of certain defeat. The story is epic in its importance to a nation and a people. New strategies and developing technology, however, introduce new elements into this story of the Civil War. The officers and men of the Confederate Navy were defeated at every turn by a national policy and a local tangle of political, economic, and social issues. Southern officers resigned their Union Navy commissions to fight for principle -- and soon found themselves enmeshed in construction schedules and bureaucratic delays. All too often, naval officers on both sides found themselves engaged in what is now termed "modern warfare". In this story of the Civil War, the phrase "arms and the man" begins to take on the contemporary ring of man and machine and man within and against the system.

War on the Waters

War on the Waters PDF

Author: James M. McPherson

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2012-09-17

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0807837326

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Although previously undervalued for their strategic impact because they represented only a small percentage of total forces, the Union and Confederate navies were crucial to the outcome of the Civil War. In War on the Waters, James M. McPherson has crafted an enlightening, at times harrowing, and ultimately thrilling account of the war's naval campaigns and their military leaders. McPherson recounts how the Union navy's blockade of the Confederate coast, leaky as a sieve in the war's early months, became increasingly effective as it choked off vital imports and exports. Meanwhile, the Confederate navy, dwarfed by its giant adversary, demonstrated daring and military innovation. Commerce raiders sank Union ships and drove the American merchant marine from the high seas. Southern ironclads sent several Union warships to the bottom, naval mines sank many more, and the Confederates deployed the world's first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. But in the end, it was the Union navy that won some of the war's most important strategic victories--as an essential partner to the army on the ground at Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Mobile Bay, and Fort Fisher, and all by itself at Port Royal, Fort Henry, New Orleans, and Memphis.

Sea Wolf of the Confederacy

Sea Wolf of the Confederacy PDF

Author: David W. Shaw

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2004-03-24

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0743267508

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In June 1863, just days before the epic clash at Gettysburg ended the last rebel land invasion of the North, a small party of the Confederate Navy mounted a devastating series of raids on the New England coast, culminating in a battle off Portland, Maine. Veteran author David W. Shaw brilliantly re-creates this almost forgotten chapter of the Civil War in rich narrative detail drawn from accounts of the participants. At the center of the conflict were two men: the hotheaded young adventurer Charles W. Read, who resigned his commission as a Union midshipman to become a lieutenant in the Confederate Navy; and Secretary of the United States Navy Gideon Welles, a well-connected politician who ably oversaw the explosive growth of the fleet -- including the revolutionary ironclads -- during the war despite his lack of maritime experience. Serving aboard CSS Florida off the coast of Brazil, Read hatched a daring plan to sail a captured brig directly into the Union's home waters and wreak havoc on their shipping lanes. Burning or capturing more than twenty merchant vessels in less than three weeks, and switching ships several times to elude capture, Read's rampage caused widespread panic in Northern cities, made headlines in the major daily newspapers, and brought enormous pressure on Welles to "stop the rebel pirate." At one point there were nearly forty Union ships sent to hunt down Read in a cat-and-mouse game that finally led to his dramatic capture off the coast of Maine. Sea Wolf of the Confederacy brings to light this fascinating yet little known episode of the war, combining Shaw's flair for powerful storytelling with extensive research culled from contemporary newspapers, journals, and official war records. Taking readers to the heart of the action on the decks of the burning ships, Shaw offers a compelling portrait of the complex Read and an insightful new perspective on the divisions splitting North and South during this dark time in American history.

British Ships in the Confederate Navy

British Ships in the Confederate Navy PDF

Author: Joseph McKenna

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2010-03-08

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 0786458275

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During the American Civil War, British-crewed warships harassed Union merchantmen, sinking a total value of more than $15,000,000 in ships and cargo. Considered pirates by the federal government, these ships and crew were at the center of a largely unknown but fascinating struggle between Commander James Dunwoody of the Confederate Navy, U.S. Ambassador Charles Francis Adams, and Consul Thomas H. Dudley. This history of British assistance to the Confederate Navy covers that story in full and provides a close look at the British seamen who manned warships and blockade runners.

France and the Confederate Navy 1862 - 1868

France and the Confederate Navy 1862 - 1868 PDF

Author: John Bigelow

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-09-18

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9781517409883

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John Bigelow's "France and the Confederate Navy" is a contribution of great value to the history of this country's international relations during and for a few years subsequent to the Civil War. Mr. Bigelow has an interesting story to tell of the efforts of Confederate agents to build and fit out in the ports of France and with the connivance of the French Government, several heavily-armed vessels-of-war. His narrative is unconventional in form and lively and entertaining in matter. As the representative of this Government in France he learned of all the steps that were taken to make the French ports the base of naval operations for the Confederates, and he gives a readable account of his moves to checkmate this scheme. The escape of one of the vessels, the "Stonewall," brought matters to a crisis, but happily the war was ended before she reached an American port. Mr. Bigelow's narrative, which has much of the interest of a romance, is supplemented by documents from both Union and Confederate sources. -The Book Buyer, Vol. 5 [1888]