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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 359
EAN: 9780553381061
ISBN: 0553381067
Label: Bantam
Manufacturer: Bantam
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: October 03, 2000
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date: October 03, 2000
Sales Rank: 1501693
Studio: Bantam
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
From 1861 to 1865, some of the most horrific land battles in history were fought at places called Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. But while the soil ran with blood, it was the lesser-known naval battles raging for control of the Gulf of Mexico--the lifeline of supplies and weapons to the Confederacy--that would determine the outcome of the Civil War.
In this vivid and powerful account, acclaimed historian Jack D. Coombe combines meticulous research with a breathtaking narrative to re-create the fierce naval battles for the ports around the Gulf, including those at New Orleans, Mobile Bay, and Vicksburg, with all the adventure and immediacy of a great novel. This is an extraordinary story of the ingenuity, daring, courage, and--all too often--human folly upon which the fate of a nation rested.
Coombe takes us inside the suffocating hulls of steam-powered ironclads shuddering under the impact of cannonballs and battering rams, into nights lit by the fires of burning ships, and into harrowing battles as gunships hammer away at each other from virtually point-blank range, often unable to tell friend from foe.
From the politicians, industrialists, and engineers on both sides who scrambled to build navies almost from scratch, to daredevil blockade runners and privateers, and from wily Confederate commanders such as Raphael Semmes, who bagged sixty-nine Union ships, to a virtually forgotten old naval officer from Tennesse named David Glasgow Farragut, whose bold and courageous leadership on behalf of the Union would become the stuff of legend, here are the stories of the men who made history.
Here, too, is a compelling look at the ships, strategies, and pioneering technology that proved the difference between victory and defeat: the potentially invincible Confederate ironclad Tennessee; the squat, ugly, much-feared Manasses; the South's explorations into torpedoes, fire rafts, and even the first successful submarine; and the Union's relentless drive upriver, braving hazards both natural and manmade to run a fearsome gauntlet of stone citadels bristling with firepower.
Filled with colorful historical characters and unparalleled battle scenes, Gunfire Around the Gulf is an important addition to the history of a little-known but crucial theater of the Civil War as well as a gripping and unforgettable read.
Amazon.com Review:
At the start of the Civil War, strategists for both the North and South understood the supreme importance of the seas. In Gunfire Around the Gulf, author Jack D. Coombe (Thunder Along the Mississippi) suggests that the War Between the States may in fact have been decided by the largely uncelebrated naval actions in the Gulf of Mexico. "One could argue that the defeats in the Gulf constituted the nadir of the Confederacy itself. The closing of such important and vital ports as New Orleans, Mobile, and Galveston isolated it from the rest of the world and kept vital sustaining material from reaching its armies and its populace," he writes. Coombe's main character is Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, the Union commander lauded as "the shining example of what a good leader should be, in the tradition of a Lord Nelson or a John Paul Jones." He credits Farragut with disproving "the old dictum that wooden ships could not go against stone forts" and win. Coombe is not a mere chronicler of men and events, but a sharp interpreter of why events unfolded the way they did. Just as Confederate troops on land benefited from exceptional military leadership, he notes, the Southern navy had innovation on its side: underwater mines (called "torpedoes") sank or damaged 33 Union vessels. But it was handicapped, too, by a debilitating command structure that crippled its ability to wage war on the seas. Elements of the Confederate navy outlasted Lee's surrender at Appomattox, but, as Coombe shows, Farragut and his Union sailors had delivered a death-blow long before then. --John J. Miller
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Sure this book has a few mistakes but the author more than makes up for it by his enthusiasm for the subject. I found this to be a very entertaining few hours of reading about a little known piece of the civil war. Don't let the previous reviewers poor comments deter you this is a worthy addition to civil war naval history
Rating:  -
I was delighted when I discovered this book - the naval side of the Civil War has been often ignored or treated as a sideshow, when a compelling case could be made that the blockade plus the gradual reduction of the Confederacy's seaports was decisive. One could even argue that barring total catastrophe on the ground or massive foreign intervention on behalf of the Confederacy, the Union dominance of the seas made eventual victory inevitable.
This book falls far short, sadly. It ... Read More
Rating:  -
This has got to be one of the worst, ostensibly "serious" history books I have ever read. Like the previous reviewer, I noticed that the author had misplaced Port Hudson. And like the previous reviewer I read on. In my case it was to find out what else was wrong. Why? Because there was so much wrong, in so many ways, that for awhile it was enjoyable to simply note the mistakes. Consider the proof reading. On page 54, the minimum number of Union troops required to take and hold New Orleans ... Read More
Rating: -
This is a very disappointing book from a well respected author who knows better. There are no maps to speak of (in a MILITARY work! ), the narrative flow is disjointed, chronology is fuzzy, descriptions are poorly drawn, conclusions jumped to, and all too much speculation. I kept telling myself it wold get better, but halfway through, it still reads like something put together from random notes culled out of a previous work.
Rating: -
I started to read this book, but the uneasiness about the author's geography was to culminate with the reading of this statement on page 11. "Earlier in May the strong Confederate fort at Port Hudson had ... located at a hairpin turn in the Mississippi, on a series of high bluffs 25 miles north of Vicksburg." In fact Port Hudson is 140 miles south in Louisiana. What else besides geography has he got wrong? I read on , ... but. I could recommend many other books but not this. Get a good editor.
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