By James M. McPherson
Although previously undervalued for their strategic impact
because the 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.
ISBN 978-0807835883, The University of North Carolina Press,
© 2012, Hardcover, 304 pages, Maps, Photographs, Illustrations, End Notes,
Bibliography & Index. $35.00
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