War on the Waters, James M. McPherson
War on the Waters, James M. McPherson
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War on the Waters
The Union and Confederate Navies, 18611865

Author: James M. McPherson

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Unabridged: 7 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/17/2012


Synopsis

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. InWar on the Waters, James M. McPherson has crafted an enlightening, at times harrowing, and ultimately thrilling account of the wars naval campaigns and their military leaders. McPherson recounts how the Union navys blockade of the Confederate coast, leaky as a sieve in the wars 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 worlds first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. But in the end, it was the Union navy that won some of the wars most important strategic victoriesas 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.

About James M. McPherson

James M. McPherson is the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. He has published many volumes on the Civil War, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom, Crossroads of Freedom (which was a New York Times bestseller), Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, and For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, which won the Lincoln Prize.


Reviews

Goodreads review by robin

Web-feet In The Civil War In his breadth of knowledge, lucid writing, and passion for his subject, James McPherson remains among the best of Civil War historians, For many years Professor of history at Princeton University, McPherson has the rare gift of appealing to both academic and lay readers. In......more

Goodreads review by Porter

Decent introduction, but like many books purportedly converting both the Union and Confederate navy, this book is primarily Union. This is a factor that the Union had more ships and success, but the Confederate Navy is in some ways more fun as a result.......more