STRANGLING THE CONFEDERACY: Coastal Operations in the American Civil War Review

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(More customer reviews)This book by author Kevin Dougherty works as a broad overview of coastal operations conducted by the Union Navy/Army during the American Civil War. I myself am not that familiar with these operations and came away with a good understanding of the decision making and planning by both governments (most of the time not so good by the Confederacy), the leadership by the commanders of both sides (again, a lot of times not that great for the South), the forces involved (unfortunately the book has no detailed Orders of Battle), and the sequence of events.
The book is divided into seven parts:
1. Short bios on Union and Confederate participants in the coastal operations, and the formation, membership and planning of the Union Navy Board in 1861.
2. The Atlantic Campaign 1861-1862
- Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina
- Port Royal Sound, South Carolina
- Fernandina and Jacksonville, Florida
- Fort Pulaski, Georgia
3. The Burnside Expedition, North Carolina, 1862
- Roanoke Island
- New Bern
- Fort Macon
4. The Peninsula Campaign, Virginia, 1862 (shows how the lack of cooperation between the Army and Navy contributed to the Union failure)
5. The Gulf Campaign 1861-1863
- Ship Island, Mississippi
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Pensacola, Florida
- Galveston, Texas
6. Tougher Challenges 1863-1865
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Mobile Bay, Alabama
- Fort Fisher, North Carolina
7. The Coastal War and the Elements of Operational Design (compares the Union's conduct of the Coastal War with the modern U.S. militaries procedures and doctrine for planning and conducting similar operations)
As can be seen, this volume pretty much covers all Coastal Operations in the American Civil War. The book is well written and concise (197 pages of text/233 pages total). But I have two major complaints about this work. First, it does not have enough maps (9 maps total) and those that are included are not detailed enough (as an example the first map, a Theater of Operations map titled "The Coastal War" does not include the Texas coast and "Galveston" is printed in the Gulf of Mexico with an arrow pointing west). There is no map for Hatteras Inlet (though there is a good Area of Operations map for the North Carolina coast), the map for Port Royal is ok, there is no map for operations in northeast Florida/southeast Georgia, etc. (there are no maps for a few coastal operations covered in the text, no maps for any Confederate fortifications, no maps for any related land battles [Roanoke Island, New Bern, Secessionville, etc.], and the map of Charleston's defenses does not even show Fort Sumter). My second complaint about this book is that after examining the Bibliography I see that this book is a combination of secondary sources only, and does not even list "The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies" (O.R.), but even more shocking to me for a book about Civil War coastal operations conducted predominately by the Union Navy, it also does not include "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion" (O.R.N) as a source!!!
The book has 20 photos of participants and locations relevant to the text, the Notes section only list sources, and there are no appendixes.
This title will give the reader an introduction to Coastal Operations during the American Civil War and the final chapter of the book is interesting and informative (turns out the Union Navy Board did a pretty good job using operational design like our modern military would today). Unfortunately, the lack of maps and primary research make this more of a book for the casual reader or someone just learning about these operations, but even they will probably want something more detailed. (I havent read that much on this subject but for further reading I recommend "The Battle of Port Royal" by Michael D. Coker, and "Civil War on Pensacola Bay, 1861-1862" by John K. Driscoll)

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