War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861–1865 by James M. McPherson (review)

For readers interested in action-packed narratives of Civil War battles, the naval war may well disappoint. Indeed, nearly any major Civil War battle featured more casualties than all of the naval battles combined. This might in part explain why there has been much less scholarly work done on the topic than others. But there is much to learn about the Civil War from examining its naval aspects. Among the appeals of James McPherson’s new book is that readers will learn about life aboard the ironclads.

McPherson’s effort in highlighting the naval aspects of the Civil War is welcome. He opens War on the Waters with an overview of the main events in the naval war, which he explores in greater detail in subsequent chapters. The chapters are essentially chronological, although topical. McPherson judiciously balances all of the theaters of the naval war, from the freshwater Mississippi and coastal-river campaigns to the saltwater Gulf and Atlantic campaigns.

McPherson adroitly weaves the fresh- and saltwater aspects of the naval war. While, by necessity, examining Lincoln, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, and naval leaders’ actions, he devotes adequate coverage to the sailors by briefly discussing aspects of life aboard the ironclads and a major incentive for joining the navy—the lure of prize money. He does not, however, discuss other advantages, such as a much lower mortality rate from disease among sailors than for soldiers. As always, McPherson’s writing style is enjoyable and accessible. The general reader will find a lot of solid information about an oft-neglected aspect of the Civil War.

McPherson has uncovered some anecdotal gems. He tells the familiar story of Robert Smalls, a slave and steamboat pilot, who commandeered a Confederate side-wheel steamer, turned it over to the Union, and provided useful information to naval officers during the Charleston campaign. In McPherson’s hands, Smalls’s story is a plot worthy of a movie.

McPherson made extensive and thorough use of primary sources, such as the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies; The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; diaries; and other personal papers, almost to the exclusion of secondary sources. For anyone researching aspects of the naval efforts, he provides a handy trove of sources—a valuable service, indeed. McPherson uses secondary sources sparingly, but he conveniently includes a lengthy list in the bibliography.

McPherson covers much of the same ground as Craig L. Symonds has, and with his extensive knowledge of the period, this reader was hoping to hear him weigh in on some aspects of the professional debate. Sometimes he begins to but then pulls back, as when he states that the Union navy’s officers were more professional and disciplined than the army’s or when, in discussing the feasibility of the Laird rams, he states that the rams “would have been capable of wreaking havoc on the Union blockade” (202). Both claims are provocative, but he does not follow through on them.

Perhaps more important missed opportunities occur in McPherson’s discussion of the blockade’s effectiveness. He obliquely refers to the ongoing historical debate concerning this question, but he does not weigh in on it. Frank Owsley’s 1931 King Cotton Diplomacy was influential in arguing that the blockade was not very effective. In it, Owsley dismisses the blockade’s impact with the pithy remark, “Old Abe sold America’s birthright for a mess of pottage.”¹ Though perhaps beyond the scope of the book, McPherson does not follow scholars who note the teeter-totter effect of the Union navy’s blockade upon prices in the Confederacy and who demonstrate that the purchasing power of southern staple products fell throughout the war as a result of it. This effect upon prices surely reflects the stringency of the blockade, regardless of how...