The Naval History of the Civil War

By David Dixon Porter

Book Overview

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0890095752
• ISBN13: 9780890095751
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Book Sales
• Length: 843 Pages
• Weight: 4.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Incredible detail

Like the other reviewers, its hard not to notice partisanship in this history though for a 19th century work, it escapes the depths of some other works done from the CS and US sides. The amount of information/detail in this book is astounding and even the critics note that. You get to see the commanders of every ship down to tugs in the various actions, high sea cruisers, and blockading squadrons. Tiny actions that I'd never heard of (and I'm a voracious reader of the period)are detailed down to the number of guns and sailors involved. We see policy debate at both Navy Department and the varying squadrons. We also see the varying coordination problems between Army and Navy on different operations. The ever increasing tempo of technological improvements is followed and varying counter measures to CSA defenses highlighted. There is much here to wade through and some of it is very dry. Written in the verbose 19th century style, it can be a trial to read and it took me some time to finish it. Ignoring some of the political conclusions and the oft times one sided aspects of the book, it is an excellent one volume history of the naval war and a plus to any library on the subject.

a rare view

Porters perspective of the navel operations gives the reader a rare view of history. written some years after the war to set the record of other navel histories of the day, straight. I find the detailed reports by participants and commentary by porter to be both informative and entertaining. Bias? Yes... but he gives his opinion in a straight forward manor and gives credit (both good and bad) where credit is due.

A good account of the war by a (biased) participant

First of all, I haven't fact-checked Porter's narratives and orders of battle. However, much like Churchill's WW2 histories, a politically biased account by an actor in the history can be an invaluable resource. And, like Churchill, Porter's writing style has that high style that makes for a refreshing change (in small doses) from today's more pedestrian prose.Most books on the ACW afloat are narratives, this has a lot more 'meat' due to Porter's participation in a number of the actions and his insights behind the scenes in the USN. I recommend this book, but not as an unimpeachable source.