War on the Waters

Starred review from June 4, 2012
McPherson, professor emeritus of Princeton and dean of Civil War historians, enhances our knowledge with this history of the conflict’s naval aspects. As definitive as it is economical, the work establishes beyond question the decisive contributions of maritime power to Union victory. The Confederate Navy, though materially outnumbered tenfold, was technologically advanced in such fields as mines and ironclads. Its commerce raiders devastated Union merchant shipping. Nevertheless, on the sea, along the coasts, and on the inland river systems, the North’s warships and landing parties independently achieved politically and strategically important victories: Port Royal, S.C., and Fort Henry, Tenn., Memphis and New Orleans. The fleet synergized with the army in combined operations from North Carolina to the Mississippi River and Texas. The Union Navy established and sustained a blockade without which “the Confederacy might well have prevailed,” These achievements were above all a product of pragmatism. From Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, through admirals like David Farragut and D.D. Porter, to the seamen and rivermen who joined for the duration, the Union Navy designed ships and developed doctrines to fit circumstances. Not everything worked. But as McPherson indisputably shows, the Civil War’s outcome was in good part shaped by Northern naval power A Main Selection of the History Book Club and a selection of the Military Book Club, BOMC, and BOMC2 online,

July 15, 2012
Pulitzer and Lincoln Prize winner McPherson (Abraham Lincoln, 2009, etc.) displays his massive knowledge of the Civil War, this time specifically concerning the naval battles. The Union Navy far outnumbered the Confederate, but it was still much too small to effectively blockade the coastline from Chesapeake Bay to Texas. In addition, the forces were required to patrol in the rivers, which were so vital to transportation. Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles was lucky in that Congress quickly eliminated the requirement to promote according to seniority of service before older leaders did too much damage. Cooperation with the Army was another hurdle, as traditional rivalry between forces made teamwork difficult. Samuel Francis Du Pont managed to take Port Royal in South Carolina without help from the Army, and other actions at Hatteras Inlet, New Orleans and Memphis proved the Navy's value. Actions in North Carolina in 1862 and on the Southern coast, especially Mobile Bay, were examples of the most successful combined operations. David Farragut's success in taking New Orleans enabled his push up the Mississippi in order to connect with Andrew Foote's Western Flotilla. These two navies opened the Mississippi and aided Grant's attack on Vicksburg. The use of ironclads, timberclads and even tinclads proved to be of more use in defending the Union ships and ramming the Confederates. However, when they met up with each other, it was usually a draw. While the navies may not be on the top of the list for most Civil War enthusiasts, this is a solid contribution to Civil War scholarship.

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September 1, 2012

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian McPherson (history, emeritus, Princeton Univ.; Battle Cry of Freedom), who has written extensively on various aspects of the American Civil War, now turns his authoritative attention to the naval campaigns that played a crucial but underappreciated role in the war's outcome. He provides thorough analyses of Union and Confederate strategies and detailed descriptions of pivotal battles in Memphis, New Orleans, Charleston, and elsewhere. His concise but comprehensive account includes explanations of how the Union navy and army cooperated, sometimes reluctantly and clumsily, to win the war's most critical sea battles, while the undermanned Confederates used torpedoes and tenacity to try to thwart their opponent's mostly successful attempts at blockading Southern ports. VERDICT McPherson's well-researched book is too dense and detailed for general readers, who would benefit from William Fowler's more accessible Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War, but this important addition to scholarship on the naval aspects of the Civil War is recommended for academic audiences. With maps of several key battle sites clearly depicting ship and fort locations.--Douglas King, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
The author of Battle Cry of Freedom (1988), a superlative single-volume account of the Civil War, argues here that the naval war had more importance in the Union victory than tends to be acknowledged by historians. Certainly by 1865, the North's maritime blockade was effective, but that achievement entailed years of operations to defeat the South's navy, which developed into a redoubtable organization, considering its meager resources. Attributing its successes in part to its secretary, Stephen Mallory, McPherson recounts his administration along with that of Gideon Welles, Lincoln's navy secretary. Both identified the importance of ironclads, which factored into many of the battles McPherson narrates, most famously the draw between the Monitor and the Merrimac in 1862. And each secretary had to find intrepid commanders, whose names (e.g., Raphael Semmes, David Farragut), though now known from Civil War annals, initially meant nothing. With martial verve, McPherson's prose dramatizes their battles and places those within strategic contexts, such as the U.S. Navy's campaigns to control the Mississippi River. As always, McPherson's latest is a sound collection-development investment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)