Glory in the Name: A Novel of the Confederate Navy

by James L. Nelson

Book Overview

April 12, 1861. With one jerk of a lanyard, one shell arching into the sky, years of tension exploded into civil war. And for those men who did not know in which direction their loyalty called them, it was a time for decisions. Such a one was Lieutenant Samuel Bowater, an officer of the United States Navy, a native of Charleston, South Carolina. Hard pressed to abandon the oath he swore to the United States, but unable to fight against his home state,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060199695
• ISBN13: 9780060199692
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Always a great read

A fascinating story and impossible to put down. Nelson once again spins a great yarn. Each Nelson book is better than the last. Great characters, unbelievable action sequences, and a fast, fun read. Nelson's books are truly the best of the genre, without exception. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

One of the Best Books You Will Read This Year

"Ironclads at sea, armies moving by rail, communicating by telegraph. Rifled cannons, rifled rifles, exploding ordinance." They were all Americans, like it or not, all children of that particular genius that was America. How apt then that in less than a year of war, Americans fighting Americans, they should forever alter forever the very nature of warfare."That paragraph, found late in this marvelous book, truly frames the story that plays out between it's covers.It comes from a perspective that many of us find at least different and sometimes uncomfortable. It is a story of the Confederate Navy and is told with sympathy and understanding as well as painstaking historical attention to fact.Samual Bowater, a former officer in the United States Navy has resigned his commission to return to his home, the Confederacy and seeks to help in the only way he knows how, by seeking to serve as a naval officer. He watches from a distance and paints the scene as Fort Sumter is fired on and the Civil War begins.Robey Paine, a man of Mississippi with three sons to send to fight for the Confederacy believes that all of them have been lost in battle. A certian madness is the result, which will find him commissioning the conversion of a ship to an ironclad and leads him to the discovery that one of his som's has survived.This is a moving story of a small part of the Civil War which shows it's horror and it's passion in way that is compelling.Although I live in Maine, as does the author - about 25 miles from me - I was unaware of his writing until this book was recommended to my wife by an insightful bookstore clerk as a Christmas present for me. It is, I believe, the best book I have read in quite some time and it has already started me ordering other books written by James Nelson and looking forward to his next effort. I would give it ten stars if I could.

Never disappointed with Nelson!

I couldn't wait for James L. Nelson's next book. I was even more pumped when I found out it was about the American Civil War. Nelson has given us the Revolutionary War at sea, which has been seldom written about, and also a great pirate series. Now for another nautical subject that hasn't been novelized very frequently.Don't miss this one! It is a fabulous adventure. Being from the "North" I was a little sorry that the protaganoist was a Confederate, but Nelson is nothing if not even handed. He gives credit where credit is due and realizes that there was honor and glory as well as shame and stupidity on both sides. It is that element that makes his books both more complex and more enjoyable than your standard nautical adventure.What also sets Nelson apart from so many historical novelists in general is a terrific sense of humor. There is blood and thunder galore, here, but also some laugh out loud moments. His characters live and breathe, and they themselves laugh as well as curse the horror and folly of war. And the main character Bowater gets into terrific situations only to think his way out of them in splendid fashion.Nelson just gets better and better, and he started out near the top of the nautical heap, to be sure. It is such a pleasure to have a contemporary author that one can follow and whose books one can look forward to.

The Second American Revolution

This is the first book in a new series about the Civil War.The Civil War, the first war of the Industrial Revolution in thiscountry, was a war of transition. The massed tactics of theNapoleonic Wars were made obsolete by the rifled musket.The U.S. Rifle Musket Model 1861, informally known as theSpringfield, because it was made at the Springfield Arsenalin Springfield, Massachusetts. It was also the Second American Revolution. At four thirty A.M., on the morning of April 12, 1861, a pull of a lanyard began the Civil War. That was the time it began. That was the time when Fort Sumterin Charleston Harbor, was attacked. However, it's not about the Confederate Army. If you want to read a series about theConfederate Army, then read John Jakes' North And South. This is a book, series, actually, about a little-known service in the Civil War, the Confederate States Navy. The CSN, according to the Historical Note at the back of the book, wasfounded in February 1861, but had more ships than it did men to serve on them. Why? Very few Southern naval officers resigned their comissions, compared to their Armybrethren. This is the story of one of them. Samuel Bowater was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy until the attack on Fort Sumter. He resigned his commission in the U.S. Navy and took command of an armed tugboat, and later, an armed riverboat. Nelson covers the problems and privations of lifein the CSN. Bowater hopes that he'll be compared to the greats of naval history, including Lord Nelson, and that theConfederate States Navy will be remembered. Well, the CSN is all but forgotten today, and the reason why is simple.Times had changed. 1861 wasn't 1775.

Great Civil War Fiction

I've been a big Civil War buff for years, and usually I am wary of fiction, but Glory in the Name is my kind of Civil War fiction! The book is very well researched and historically accurate - historical mistakes put me right off a book, but I didn't find them here. Best of all, the action is fast and unrelenting,and the characters, especially Hironymous Taylor, pull you right in. I agree with what Bernard Cornwell wrote - the best Civil War noel I have read!