"Top Five ACW Naval History Books" Topic

The April 2011 issue of Naval History magazine provided this list of recommended books:

The Civil War at Sea (Virgil Carrington Jones)
Divided Waters (Ivan Musicant)
Blue & Gray Navies (Spencer Tucker)
The Civil War at Sea (Craig L. Symonds)
Lincoln and His Admirals (Craig L. Symonds)
Commanding Lincoln's Navy (Stephen R. Taaffe)
Union Jacks (Michael Bennett)
A History of the Confederate Navy (Raimondo Luraghi)
Civil War Ironclads (William H. Roberts)
Iron Afloat (William N. Still Jr.)
The H.L. Hunley (Tom Chaffin)
From Cape Charles to Cape Fear (Robert Browning)
Success is All That Was Expected (Robert Browning)
Lifeline of the Confederacy (Stephen A. Wise)
Gunboats Down the Mississippi (John D. Milligan)
Forts Henry and Donelson (B. Franklin Cooling)
The Capture of New Orleans (Chester Hearn)
Vicksburg (Michael Ballard)

Considering these books and others, which history books would be on your Top Five list?

I would have Still and Luraghi, too, along with-

"By Sea & By River" (Bern Anderson)

Warships and Naval Battles of the Civil War (Tony Gibbons) -A GODSEND for illustrations of CW vessels, after suffering for years with too many ridiculously fanciful contemporary depictions as canon ("I heard somebody say 'cheesebox on a raft'? I can do that. Generations of children will suffer my crude, fanciful artwork in their history textbooks.").

A couple on your list I need to look into, Bill.

History of the Confederate States Navy, by J. Thomas Scharf

Still for sure, Gibbons, and Luraghi.

If you can grab Luraghi do it. The English edition is OoP and also the Italian one… when I was preparing my essay for Andrew Lambert on the topic I had to settle for a second hand English copy of Luraghi… and of course after I grabbed that a friend of mine gave a me an Italian copy as a gift… ahahah.. Still the book is essential.

Browning is also good. A friend of mine who is about to publish a book on European navies of the same period (the book is coauthored by Marcus Faulkner, Alan James and Carlos Alfaro-Zaforteza in case someone is interested) recommend a lot Symonds.

Life in Mr. Lincoln's Navy, by Ringle. Just adding it to the list for nomination.

To answer the original poster, my top five would be

1. A History of the Confederate Navy (Raimondo Luraghi) – so good it inspired me to write two ACW naval games.

2. Thunder along the Mississippi (Jack D. Coombe) – a great one volume read on the Mississippi campaigns.

3. From Cape Charles to Cape Fear (Robert Browning).

4. Capital Navy (John Coski) – wonderful study of the naval war on the James River. Fabulous line drawings of the ships too! Inspired me to write my third ACW naval game. (The aptly named Anaconda: Capital Navies)

5. Lifeline of the Confederacy (Stephen A. Wise) – excellent study on blockade running during the war. There is a game in there somewhere, but I have not had the time to suss it out yet.

Also rans that could not make the top 10

Infernal Machines (Milton F. Perry) – everything you want to know about torpedoes and submaries.

Navy Gray (Maxine Turner) – a fascinating account of Confederate shipbuilding efforts on the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola rivers. Turner synthesizes ship building and the cultural background of the South and constructs an engaging narrative.

Arming the Fleet (Spencer Tucker) an encyclopedic entry into the obscure topic of naval ordnance leading up to and including the ACW.

An obscure monograph on the Confederate blockade of Washington D.C. Small battles with small guns that had a big influence.

Union Jack's and Life in Mr. Lincoln's navy provide two competing images of naval life. Ringle's seems more upbeat while Union Jack's presents a Navy that feels more human.

No one mentioned Silverstone's compilation of ship data. Without that we'd be hard pressed to generate data for some of the games.

I second the Scharf book. He was a midshipman in the Confederate Navy and describes some of the action he was in. A good read.

Not sure if it rates the top ten, but I can recommend the following for a good read:

RJ Schneller (ed) "Under the Blue Pennant" (John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1999)

… being the memoir of John W Grattan an Ensign of the USN 1863-65. Provides some great first hand accounts of the actions (brown water and blue) of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Brings to life some great encounters (naval and land and sea operations) in the James River and around Cape Fear. Good Forward too.

Alan

Naval History magazine probably wasn't thinking about wargamers, but since that's what we are (I presume!) Silverstone should be top of the list for us.

Then I'd have Smith's two books on Tinclads and Timberclads, Musicant's 'Divided Waters', and 'Naval Warfare' by Wideman, purely for the inspiring artwork.

Any love for Confederate Raider?

I can see there's none for the copy of The Last Shot I put up for sale. ;->=

I do thank you all for the list I have for next searching the local shelves!

Doug

Also

Battle Flags South (The story of the Civil War Navies on Western Waters) James M Merrill 1970 SBN 8386 7448 8

A Naval History Of The Civil War Howard P Nash Jnr
1972 SBN 0-498-07841-8

John