Gunfire around the Gulf : the last major naval campaigns of the Civil War / Jack D. Coombe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Coombe, Jack D.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Naval operations.

United States.

History.

Sea control.

Gulf Coast (U.S.)--History, Naval--19th century.

Gulf Coast (U.S.).

America, Gulf of--History, Naval--19th century.

America, Gulf of.

Physical Description:

xii, 239 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Bantam Books, 1999.

Summary:

The area of the Gulf of Mexico, stretching from Florida to Texas and including the garrisons at Pensacola, Galveston, New Orleans, and Sabine City, was one of the most important regions, strategically, of the Civil War. The Confederacy, recognizing the only weak link in the Union blockade, furiously controlled this land arc which, by the midpoint of the war, was home base to the only points of ingress for vital supplies. However, by 1863, following the long and bloody battles on the Mississippi and subsequent to the capture of New Orleans by Farragut, the Confederate navy had been beaten down.

In August 1864, Admiral Farragut received permission to invade Mobile Bay, an overt move by the Union to take the region and stem once and for all the hemorrhage of supplies. Yet a Confederate naval detachment charged with preventing a sea-borne assault and led by wily rebel Admiral Frank Buchanan, would prove to be a surprise to Union forces. The savage battle that ensued, encompassing a flotilla of ironclad monitors and wooden warships, was the last major naval campaign of the Civil War and one which accelerated the final defeat of the Confederacy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [225]-231) and index.

ISBN:

0553107313

OCLC:

40631988