Author: Eric Mills
Publisher: Cornell Maritime Press/Tidewater Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Get Book Here
Book Description
"At the start of the great Civil War, the Chesapeake Bay was a crucially important piece of watery real estate, with North and South struggling for its control. Up the Potomac, the Chesapeake's second-largest tributary, lay the capital of the United States; up the James, the Chesapeake's third-largest tributary, lay the Confederate capital. Whoever controlled the Bay would determine the course of the war." "On the Rappahannock and other rivers of the region, fierce and tragic battles were fought. Down the Bay, the greatest American army ever assembled waged war. In Chesapeake waters, naval warfare was transformed forever, and on the rivers and the open Bay, the Civil War was finally won." "This thoroughly readable narrative covers events in Chesapeake country, from the months preceding the conflict to shortly after the death of Lincoln. Throughout the war the Bay was a marshy danger zone crawling with privateers, smugglers, and spies. It was a place where classic army-navy operations were carried out, where runaway slaves became contraband, where brother literally fought brother, and where freedom was denied, for the sake of preserving freedom."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author: John Wennersten
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 061518250X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 166
Get Book Here
Book Description
In the decades after the Civil War, Chesapeake Bay became the scene of a life and death struggle to harvest the oyster.
Author: John V. Quarstein
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738501147
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 134
Get Book Here
Book Description
Fort Monroe: The Key to the South is a powerful pictorial portraying the exciting history of the only fort in the Upper South to remain under Union control throughout the Civil War. Strategically located on Old Point Comfort guarding the entrance to Hampton Roads and dominating the lower Chesapeake Bay, Fort Monroe quickly became a Federal bastion within the Confederacy and influenced many of the Civil War's greatest events. Known as "Freedom's Fortress" following Ben Butler's May 1861 decision to consider slaves escaping into Union lines as "contraband of war," Fort Monroe quickly became a symbol of freedom and helped to define the wartime objective to end slavery. Soldiers on Fort Monroe's ramparts witnessed first-hand several new technologies, including the first balloon launching to observe enemy operations and the first battle between ironclad warships. Fort Monroe also played a critical role in the eventual Union victory, serving as a base for amphibious operations against Southern ports as well as staging campaigns against the nearby Confederate capital in Richmond. The drama played along the parapets of Fort Monroe during the Civil War has been brought to life by this comprehensive visual history. Fort Monroe: The Key to the South features over 175 images documenting this massive fort and its role in pivotal events like the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, Monitor-Virginia (Merrimack) engagement, and the Hampton Roads Peace Conference. Whether views of famous men like Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln, and Jefferson Davis or scenes of the many soldiers and civilians serving on Old Point Comfort, this pictorial vividly chronicles Fort Monroe's tremendous Civil War heritage.
Author: Timothy B. Riordan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392
Get Book Here
Book Description
According to most historians, in 1645-46, Richard Ingle and his ship Reformation terrorized the tiny settlements on the Chesapeake Bay, bringing the violence and mayhem of the English Civil War to the New World. But did he? In this thoroughly researched tale of deception, greed, and political intrigue, St. Mary’s City archaeologist Timothy Riordan unearths new evidence—from muddy “Pope’s Fort” in St, Mary’s to the Admiralty Court records in London—to show that revolution was brewing in Maryland with or without the colorful, sometimes roguish Ingle and his crew.
Author: Jamie L.H. Goodall
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439669090
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 149
Get Book Here
Book Description
“An epic history of piracy . . . Goodall explores the role of these legendary rebels and describes the fine line between piracy and privateering.” —WYPR The story of Chesapeake pirates and patriots begins with a land dispute and ends with the untimely death of an oyster dredger at the hands of the Maryland Oyster Navy. From the golden age of piracy to Confederate privateers and oyster pirates, the maritime communities of the Chesapeake Bay are intimately tied to a fascinating history of intrigue, plunder and illicit commerce raiding. Author Jamie L.H. Goodall introduces infamous men like Edward “Blackbeard” Teach and “Black Sam” Bellamy, as well as lesser-known local figures like Gus Price and Berkeley Muse, whose tales of piracy are legendary from the harbor of Baltimore to the shores of Cape Charles. “Rather than an unchanging monolith, Goodall creates a narrative filled with dynamic movement and exchange between the characters, setting, conflict, and resolution of her story. Goodall positioned this narrative to be successful on different levels.” —International Social Science Review
Author: James M. McPherson
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807837326
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Get Book Here
Book Description
Although previously undervalued for their strategic impact because they represented only a small percentage of total forces, the Union and Confederate navies were crucial to the outcome of the Civil War. In War on the Waters, James M. McPherson has crafted an enlightening, at times harrowing, and ultimately thrilling account of the war's naval campaigns and their military leaders. McPherson recounts how the Union navy's blockade of the Confederate coast, leaky as a sieve in the war's early months, became increasingly effective as it choked off vital imports and exports. Meanwhile, the Confederate navy, dwarfed by its giant adversary, demonstrated daring and military innovation. Commerce raiders sank Union ships and drove the American merchant marine from the high seas. Southern ironclads sent several Union warships to the bottom, naval mines sank many more, and the Confederates deployed the world's first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. But in the end, it was the Union navy that won some of the war's most important strategic victories--as an essential partner to the army on the ground at Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Mobile Bay, and Fort Fisher, and all by itself at Port Royal, Fort Henry, New Orleans, and Memphis.
Author: Stanley L. Quick
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612512372
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281
Get Book Here
Book Description
This is the story of the War of 1812 like no other, brought to life in narrative form with pinpoint historical details. As the War of 1812 raged on the high seas and along the Canadian border, the British decided to strike at the heart of the United States, the relatively undefended area of the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake was a fertile farm region, a renowned place of shipbuilding and an area divided along political lines over the war. Admiral George Cockburn led the British into the bay in March 1813. After a failed attempt to take Norfolk, Cockburn led the British up and down the Chesapeake. Originally a campaign to relieve pressure from other fronts, the Chesapeake theater soon became a campaign of retribution for the British, turning what had been an economic engine for America into a region of terrorized citizens, destroyed farms and fears of slave insurrection. The blockade choked American commerce and prevented privateers from taking the war to the English. Cockburn returned in 1814 and once more terrorized the residents on both shores of the Chesapeake while stoking the political divisions that also rent the country. In August, 1814, the British capitalized on the refusal of President James Madison to bolster the defenses of the waterway that led to the nation’s capital. Cockburn again led a naval force into the bay, but this time he ran into opposition from Commodore Joshua Barney and his polyglot flotilla of warships. Barney put up an heroic though doomed fight before the British landed at Benedict, Md., in August, 1814 and marched on Washington, D.C. After defeating the Americans at Bladensburg, the British burned Washington before returning to their boats and setting out for Baltimore. There, the British armada ran into Fort McHenry and a stalwart group of defenders. Despite a massive bombardment, the British could not silence the fort or the city’s other defenses, forcing them to retreat and give up their campaign to completely shut the Chesapeake. The victory at Baltimore, coupled with victories on the Great Lakes, helped turn the war in America’s favor.
Author: Stephen W. Sears
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547527551
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 521
Get Book Here
Book Description
This account of McClellan’s 1862 campaign is “a wonderful book” (Ken Burns) and “military history at its best” (The New York Times Book Review). From “the finest and most provocative Civil War historian writing today,” To the Gates of Richmond is the story of the one of the conflict’s bloodiest campaigns (Chicago Tribune). Of the 250,000 men who fought in it, only a fraction had ever been in battle before—and one in four was killed, wounded, or missing in action by the time the fighting ended. The operation was Gen. George McClellan’s grand scheme to march up the Virginia Peninsula and take the Confederate capital. For three months McClellan battled his way toward Richmond, but then Robert E. Lee took command of the Confederate forces. In seven days, Lee drove the cautious McClellan out, thereby changing the course, if not the outcome, of the war. “Deserves to be a classic.” —The Washington Post
Author: Charles W. Mitchell
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801886218
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 580
Get Book Here
Book Description
The most contentious event in our nation's history, the Civil War deeply divided families, friends, and communities. Both sides fought to define the conflict on their own terms -- Lincoln and his supporters struggled to preserve the Union and end slavery, while the Confederacy waged a battle for the primacy of local liberty or "states' rights." But the war had its own peculiar effects on the four border slave states that remained loyal to the Union. Internal disputes and shifting allegiances injected uncertainty, apprehension, and violence into the everyday lives of their citizens. No state better exemplified the vital role of a border state than Maryland -- where the passage of time has not dampened debates over issues such as the alleged right of secession and executive power versus civil liberties in wartime. In Maryland Voices of the Civil War, Charles W. Mitchell draws upon hundreds of letters, diaries, and period newspapers to portray the passions of a wide variety of people -- merchants, slaves, soldiers, politicians, freedmen, women, clergy, civic leaders, and children -- caught in the emotional vise of war. Mitchell reinforces the provocative notion that Maryland's Southern sympathies -- while genuine -- never seriously threatened to bring about a Confederate Maryland. Maryland Voices of the Civil War illuminates the human complexities of the Civil War era and the political realignment that enabled Marylanders to abolish slavery in their state before the end of the war.
Author: Peter Chaitin
Publisher: Time Life Education
ISBN: 9780809447329
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Get Book Here
Book Description
Recounts naval battles, blockades, and bombardments during the Civil War, looks at mines, shells, siege guns, and submarines of the period
