Confederate Raider in the North Pacific: The Saga of the C.S.S. Shenandoah in the North Pacific (review)

BOOK REVIEWS85 past" (169). Goree's published Civil War letters bring those days back; days that were not always great, but days of significant interest to modern readers. Lesley J. Gordon Murray State University Confederate Raider in the North Pacific: The Saga ofthe C.S.S. Shenandoah in the North Pacific. By Murray Morgan.(Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1995. Pp. 336. $19.95) In the autumn of 1 864, as Grant pushed toward Richmond and Sherman battered Confederate forces in Georgia, Southern agents in England acquired the Sea King, a new, fully rigged, 1,160-ton vessel that had been built for service as a troop transport between the British Isles and India. On October 8, the ship dropped down the Thames and put to sea, ostensibly bound for Bombay. However, when out of sight, she set course for Madeira to rendezvous with Laurel, a steamer laden with the cannon, ammunition, and stores needed to convert the Sea King into a Confederate commerce raider. Embarked in Laurel were Lt. James I. Waddell, C.S.N., the prospective commanding officer of the cruiser-to-be; the officers who would fill her wardroom; and a complement of enlisted men, many of whom had served on Raphael Semmes's spectacularly successful, but ill-fated, Alabama. The two ships met near Funchal, and soon Sea King 's prospective crew left Laurel, clambered on board Sea King and set to work arming their new warship. On October 19 the new cruiser was commissioned in the Confederate navy and began a cruise during which she would prey upon U. S. merchant ships and whalers. Her predatory efforts soon shocked Northern maritime circles and prompted the Union Navy Department to withdraw several of its warships from blockade duty and send them to sea in the hope of finding and destroying this new scourge to Union shipping. Yet none managed to intercept the ship, and she continued to exact a frightful toll on Northern vessels—even for several months after the collapse of the Confederate government and the surrender of the last Southern troops. When he was finally informed by British authorities that the war was over, Waddell ceased hostile operations, dismounted the ship's guns, boarded over her gun ports, and headed back toward the British Isles. She finally reached Liverpool on November 6, 1 865, ending a circumnavigation of the world that had lasted almost thirteen months. There, Waddell turned the former raider over to the British, who in turn placed her in custody of the United States. While stationed in the Aleutians during World War II, the young historian Murray Morgan began gathering material on that bleak island chain and, in the process, learned of the Shenandoah' s fascinating adventures in that region. He was captivated by the Southern warship's swashbuckling activity and began a quest for every scrap of evidence that might shed light on her brief career. The 86CIVIL WAR HISTORY reading public became the beneficiary of his research in 1948 when E. P. Dutton published Dixie Raider: The Saga ofthe C.S.S. Shenandoah. The volume was well received immediately—despite the fact that it was the third book on the ship to appear in a little over a year—and it has been the standard reference work on the subject ever since. Its long-overdue republication by the Washington State University Press in 1995 is a most welcome event for Civil War scholars. A copy of the volume belongs in the library of everyone interested in the naval aspects of our most bloody and costly conflict. James L. Mooney Naval Historical Center Dictionary ofTransports and Combatant Vessels, Steam andSail, Employedby the Union Army, 1861-1868. Compiled by Charles Dana Gibson and E. Kay Gibson. The Army's Navy Series (Camden, Maine: EnsignPress,1995. Pp. lxvi, 348. $43.00.) In order to win the Civil War, the Federal government commandeered or leased virtually everything afloat. Over four thousand vessels—about halfofthem sail and half steam—served the army on rivers, sounds, and oceans. Certainly any volume that attempts to compile those vessels has a daunting task, but Charles Dana Gibson and E. Kay Gibson have successfully taken up the challenge...