Suggested Readings on Civil War Naval History and Related Topics.
(By no means all-inclusive)
1-Sailor Life on Man-of-War and Merchant Vessel: Charles Norduff;N.Y., Dodd and Mead;1883. Although out of print these are quite common in old book stores.
2-White Jacket;Herman Melville(Melvilles account of his own naval service in 1848 aboard the USS United States). Reprints available in any good bookstore in paperback.
3-A Year on A Monitor and the Destruction of Ft. Sumpter; Alvah Hunter; University of North Carolina Press; 1987. Hunter was an enlisted man from New Hampshire.
4-A Sailor’s Log: Robley D. Evans; NY;D. Appleton & Co.; 1901. Robley’s account details his forty years in the naval service beginning with his accelerated graduation from the Naval Academy in 1863. Most of his service is obviously post-war but his Civil War service is quite descriptive especially his first-hand account of the disastrous assault on Ft. Fisher by the Naval Brigade. This is out of print but is quite common in old book shops.
5-Yankee Whalers in The South Seas; A. Whipple; Charles Tuttle & Co.; 1973. A good account of life aboard a whaling ship.
6-Twenty Years Before The Mast; Charles Erskine; Smithsonian Institute Press; 1983.
7-American Military Equipage Vol. 3;Frederick P. Todd & Company of Military Historians, 1978.
8-The Blockade, Time-Life Series, the Civil War; 1985.
9-The Making Of A Sailor; Frederick Pease Harlowe; Dover Publications; 1988.
10-The Civil War Sketchbook Of Charles Stedman, Lt. USN; Presidio Press, San Rafael, Calif.; 1967. Great sketches by a naval officer and amateur artist.
11-Hardluck Ironclad; Edwin C. Bearss; Louisiann State University Press; Baton Rouge, La.1966 and 1980.
12-The Old Steam Navy, Vol. 1, Frigates, Sloops and Gunboats (1815-1885); Donald L. Carey; U.S. Naval Institute Press, Anapolis. Md.;1990.
13-The Old Steam Navy, Vol. II, The Ironclads (1842-1885); Donald L. Canney; US Naval Institute Press; 1993.
14-Echoes of Glory, Arms and Equipment of the Union;Time-Life Books 1991.
15-The Ashley Book of Knots; Clifford W. Ashley; Doubleday; 1944. The definitive answer on knots.
16-The Marlinspike Sailor; Hervey Garrett Smith, John DeGraff Inc. 1960, 1986. This is the lite version of the Ashley Book of Knots.
17-What Finer Tradition; The Memoirs of Thomas O. Selfridge jr.(1836-1924); University of South Carolina Press 1987. Selfridge was Captain of the Cairo. He also was the gunnery officer of the Cumberland when sunk by the C.S.S. Virginia. He also commanded the Conestoga when it was rammed and sunk by a transport vessel giving him the dubious distinction of the only U.S. Naval officer to have three ships sunk out from under him in the Civil War.
18-The Kedge Anchor or the Ypung Sailor’s Assistant; First published in 1847, 16th edition published in 1864. These books are extremely rare. It is basically a text book for naval officers on how to sail a ship and is incredibly detailed.
19-Ironclad Captain,Seth Ledyard Phelps and the U.S. Navy, 1841-1864; Jay Slagle; Kent State University Press; 1996. A midshipman in 1841, Phelps was a flag captain in 1864.
20-Benjamin Franklin Isherwood, Naval Engineer; Edward William Sloan III;US Naval Institute Press; 1965. Isherwood is an unsung hero of the Civil War. He was the man who built the Civil War Steam Navy and was responsible for standardizing propulsion machinery.
21-Confederate Goliath, the Battle Of Fort Fisher; Rod Gragg; Harper Perennial Publisher; 1991. This is a great book and well written. It details the combined assault on Ft. Fisher which was an overall success but a disaster for the naval landing force.
22-Rocks and Shoals, Naval Discipline in the Age of Fighting Sail; James E. Valle; Naval Institute Press;1980. This is the definitive book on punishment in the naval service starting with its early origin through the Civil War.
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23- Divided Waters, the Naval History of the Civil War; Ivan Musicant; Harper-Collins Publisher; 1995.
24-Constructing Munitions of War, the Portsmouth Navy Yard Confronts the Confederacy, 1861-1865; Richard E. Winslow III; Peter E. Randall Publisher;1995. An account of the activities of the navy yard during the war but it is heavy on details of the Kearsarge and many of its crew.
25-The Alabama and the Kearsarge, the Sailor’s Civil War; William Marvel, The University of North Carolina Press; 1996.
A good account of life aboard both warships with lots of detail.
26-Mutiny, A History of Naval Insurrection; Leonard Guttridge;Naval Institute Press;1992. This is a chronicle of mutiny from the 18th century to the present time. Especially interesting is the mutinous conduct aboard US Navy aircraft carriers at the close of the Vietnam War.
27-Damn the Torpedoes
A.A. Hoehling
Publisher John Blair. LOC ISBN
0-89587-073-8
28-Men and Ships of the Civil War
S. Rye, Author. Longmeadow
Publishers 1995
LOC ISBN 0-681-10264-0
30-A River Unvexed by
Jim Miles, Rutledge Hill Press
31-Naval Warfare
John C. Wideman
Metro Books
ISBN 1-56799-425-5
32-Thirty Years at Sea
Edward Shippen
ARNO Press
New York 1979
(Originally published
by J.P. Lippencott 1879)
33-The Seamen’s Friend
Richerd Henry Dana jr.
Dover Publications, Inc.
Mineola, NY
Originally published in 1841
34-The United States Marine Corps in
the Civil War. Vols. 1-5 David M. Sullivan
White Mane Publishing
ISBN 1-57249-040-3
Probably is already considered to
be the definitive work on the
Marines in the Civil War in five
volumes.
35-The Young Sea Officer’s Sheet Anchor by Darcy Lever. Originally published in 1819 this reprint presents details on practical seamanship. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-40220-7
36-Lincoln’s Navy by Donald L. Canney
This new work by th author of The Old Steam Navy has attempted to summarize and consolidate into one volume a number of subjects that have thus far been singular subjects. Naval Institute Press 1998 ISBN I-55750-519-5.
37-Thunder Along The Mississippi by Jack D. Coombe Another work on the subject of naval warfare on the western rivers. Published by Bantam Press 1998 ISBN 0-553-37967-4.
38- The Sea Hunters by Clive Cussler
The author of this work is the man who found the Hunley. This story is described as well as the wreck of the Cumberland, Congress, Carondelot et.al. Simon and Schuster 1996 ISBN 0-684-83027-2.
39- Images of War Vol 4, Fighting for Time. William C. Davis , Editor. Doubleday and Company 1983.
40-Images of War, Vol. 5, The South Besieged.
41-Life In Mr. Lincoln’s Navy
by Dennis Ringle. This author is attempting the same thing as Don Canney with Lincoln’s Navy. US Naval Institute Press 1998.
42-Diary of Contraband, the Civil War Diary of a Black Sailor William B. Gould IV Stanford University Press.
43-The Monitor Chronicles (The Diary of George Geer). Edited by William Marvel. Simon and Schuster NY, NY
44-Union Jacks Yankee Sailors in the Civil War Michael J. Bennett The University of North Carolina Press
45-Bluejackets (Uniforms of the United States Navy in the Civil War Period 1852-1865) by Ron Field Shiffer Publishing 2010
46-Mutiny at Fort Jackson( The Untold Story of the Fall of New Orleans) by Michael Pierson The University of North Carolina Press 2008
47- Jack Tar (Life in Nelsons Navy) by Roy and Leslie Adkins published in Great Britain by Little, Brown.
48-Black Jacks (African American Seamen in the Age of Sail) by W. Jeffrey Bolster published by the Harvard University Press 1997
49-Slaves , Sailors Citizens (African American in the Union Navy) by Steven J. Ramold published by the Northern Illinois University Press 2002.
50-Hurricane of Fire (The Union Assault on Fort Fisher) by Charles M. Robinson III published by the Naval Institute Press 1998