The Union inland navy that became the Mississippi Squadron is one of the greatest, yet least studied aspects of the Civil War. Without it, however, the war in the West may not have been won, and the war in the East might have lasted much longer and perhaps ended differently. The men who formed and commanded this large fighting force have, with few exceptions, not been as thoroughly studied as their army counterparts. The vessels they created were highly specialized craft which operated in the narrow confines of the Western rivers in places that could not otherwise receive fire support. Ironclads and gunboats protected army forces and convoyed much needed supplies to far-flung Federal forces. They patrolled thousands of miles of rivers and fought battles that were every bit as harrowing as land engagements yet inside iron monsters that created stifling heat with little ventilation. This book is about the intrepid men who fought under these conditions and the highly improvised boats in which they fought. The tactics their commanders developed were the basis for many later naval operations. Of equal importance were lessons learned about what not to do. The flag officers and admirals of the Mississippi Squadron wrote the rules for modern riverine warfare.

Includes 19 Illustrations and 6 Maps. Mr. Lincoln’s Navy, almost a non-existent force at the start of the war, achieved with marked success; the offshore blockade of the Confederacy, taking control of the Mississippi River, and the protection of Yankee commerce on the high seas. Richard West’s comprehensive and well regarded study of how a fledgling force was transformed into the ironclad terrors of the Confederate coasts and rivers. Richard West Jr. was a noted author on the Maritime side of the American Civil War, writing successful biographies of Gideon Welles, head of the Union Navy Department and Admiral David Dixon Porter.

Excerpt from Mr. Lincoln's Navy M r. Lincoln's Navy has long been IN process and owes much to many scholars and friends. To all whose information, advice, and encouragement were helpful in the production of The Second Admiral, a Life of David Dixon Porter, 1813-1893, and of Gideon Welles: Lincoln's Navy Department, the writer is happy again to acknowledge grati tude, for these earlier books were spadework for the present one. Particularly is he grateful to Charles Lee Lewis, Professor Emeritus, U. S. Naval Academy, his first mentor in the field of naval history, and to Professor Louis H Bolander, librarian of the U. S. Naval Academy, retired, whose wide knowledge and cheerful assistance in research have informed many pages in this book. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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Every aspect of the common sailor's life in the Union navy--from recruiting, clothing, training, shipboard routine, entertainment, and wages to diet, health, and combat experience--is addressed in this study, the first to examine the subject in rich detail. The wealth of new facts it provides allows the reader to take a fresh look at nineteenth-century social history, including issues like racial integration in the military. As he examines daily life in the Union navy, Dennis Ringle also calls attention to the enlisted sailor's enormous contributions to the development of the U.S. Navy as it moved from wood and sail to steam and iron. A marine engineer with more than twenty years of naval experience, Ringle describes the lives of the steam engineers whose work later proved critical to the success of the ironclad monitors and the development of the powerful predreadnought warships. His focus is on the sailors assigned to the western river vessels, the ships enforcing the blockade, and those dispatched to destroy Confederate commerce raiders. To reconstruct daily life, he draws on a large number of published and unpublished diaries, journals, and letters. To put the information in context, he compares the sailor's life to that of a soldier's, including health conditions to explain why, for example, fewer sailors died from disease than soldiers. Ringle's efforts to gain respect for the courageous Union sailors who helped save the nation are certain to bring them recognition, just as Bell Wiley's landmark studies Billy Yank and Johnny Reb did for the Civil War soldiers.

Biographies of Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy, the Assistant Secretary, and the nine most important officers of the Navy during the Civil War.