Civil War Blockade Running on the Texas Coast

Civil War Blockade Running on the Texas Coast PDF Author: Andrew W. Hall
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625850247
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
In the last months of the American Civil War, the upper Texas coast became a hive of blockade running. Though Texas was often considered an isolated backwater in the conflict, the Union's pervasive and systematic seizure of Southern ports left Galveston as one of the only strongholds of foreign imports in the anemic supply chain to embattled Confederate forces. Long, fast steamships ran in and out of the city's port almost every week, bound to and from Cuba. Join author Andrew W. Hall as he explores the story of Texas's Civil War blockade runners--a story of daring, of desperation and, in many cases, of patriotism turning coat to profiteering.

Civil War Blockade Running on the Texas Coast

Civil War Blockade Running on the Texas Coast PDF Author: Andrew W. Hall
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625850247
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 145

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the last months of the American Civil War, the upper Texas coast became a hive of blockade running. Though Texas was often considered an isolated backwater in the conflict, the Union's pervasive and systematic seizure of Southern ports left Galveston as one of the only strongholds of foreign imports in the anemic supply chain to embattled Confederate forces. Long, fast steamships ran in and out of the city's port almost every week, bound to and from Cuba. Join author Andrew W. Hall as he explores the story of Texas's Civil War blockade runners--a story of daring, of desperation and, in many cases, of patriotism turning coat to profiteering.

Lifeline of the Confederacy

Lifeline of the Confederacy PDF Author: Stephen R. Wise
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 9780872497993
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
One of the finest original works on the Civil War. -- Civil War News

Waters of Discord

Waters of Discord PDF Author: Rodman L. Underwood
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786437766
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
At the beginning of the American Civil War the Federal government imposed a blockade of the southern coast of the Confederate States of America, including the "dark corner of the Confederacy"--Texas. Much of the fighting in Texas during the Civil War took place in the state's coastal counties and the adjoining Gulf of Mexico waters, and nearly all of these engagements were involved in one way or another with the Union blockade of the Texas coast. This book examines all major blockade-related land and sea engagements in and near Texas, and also includes many minor ones. It begins with a discussion of the blockade's creation and then concentrates on the successful Confederate efforts to evade the blockade by shipping cotton out of Mexico and, in return, receiving materiel and civilian goods through that neutral nation. The author also covers political intrigue and the spy activity with the French who had invaded Mexico. The book concludes with an analysis of the effectiveness of the Union blockade of Texas.

Cottonclads!

Cottonclads! PDF Author: Donald Shaw Frazier
Publisher: State House Press
ISBN: 9781886661097
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
A detailed account of the innovative and daring tacticat of the Confederates as they boldly attacked the Union fleet to lift the Federal blockade of Texas.

Running the Blockade

Running the Blockade PDF Author: Thomas E. Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
A Civil War personal narrative that presents to us from the pen of a principal actor the most complete account we have of a great blockade in the days of steam.

Battle on the Bay

Battle on the Bay PDF Author: Edward Terrel Cotham
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292712057
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
The Civil War history of Galveston is one of the last untold stories from America's bloodiest war, despite the fact that Galveston was a focal point of hostilities throughout the conflict. As other Southern ports fell to the Union, Galveston emerged as one of the Confederacy's only lifelines to the outside world. When the war ended in 1865, Galveston was the only major port still in Confederate hands. In this beautifully written narrative history, Ed Cotham draws upon years of archival and on-site research, as well as rare historical photographs, drawings, and maps, to chronicle the Civil War years in Galveston. His story encompasses all the military engagements that took place in the city and on Galveston Bay, including the dramatic Battle of Galveston, in which Confederate forces retook the city on New Year's Day, 1863. Cotham sets the events in Galveston within the overall conduct of the war, revealing how the city's loss was a great strategic impediment to the North. Through his pages pass major figures of the era, as well as ordinary soldiers, sailors, and citizens of Galveston, whose courage in the face of privation and danger adds an inspiring dimension to the story.

Civil War Scoundrels and the Texas Cotton Trade

Civil War Scoundrels and the Texas Cotton Trade PDF Author: Walter E. Wilson
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476640386
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
During the Civil War, scoundrels from both the Union and Confederate sides were able to execute illicit, but ingenious, schemes to acquire Texas cotton. Texas was the only Confederate state that bordered a neutral country, it was never forcibly conquered, and its coast was impossible to effectively blockade. Using little known contemporary sources, this story reveals how charlatans exploited these conditions to run the blockade, import machinery and weapons, and defraud the state's most prominent political, military and civilian leaders in the process. Best known for his role in the romantic entanglements of his co-conspirator William Sprague, Harris Hoyt stands out due to his sharp intellect and fascinating character. Hoyt was able to draw most of Abraham Lincoln's inner circle into his web of deceit and even influenced the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. This is the first account to expose the depth and breadth of the many Texas cotton trading scams and the sheer audacity of the shadowy men who profited from them, but managed to escape the gallows.

The adventures of a blockade runner; or, Trade in time of war

The adventures of a blockade runner; or, Trade in time of war PDF Author: William Watson (of Skelmorlie.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description


"Schooner Sail to Starboard"

Author: William Theo Block
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781887745086
Category : Confederate States of America
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description


The Civil War Adventures of a Blockade Runner

The Civil War Adventures of a Blockade Runner PDF Author: William Watson
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781585441525
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
William Watson published his account of the two years he spent evading Union gunboats and dealing with the "sharpers" who fed off the misfortune of war in 1892. Using log books, personal papers, and business memoranda, he sought to write a "plain, blunt" account of "events just as they happened." Instead, he wrote a classic adventure tale whose careful description of seafaring in the 1860s gives us a glimpse into a world now closed to us. Watson is the protagonist, but he shares his story with his ship, the Rob Roy, a center-board schooner whose shallow draft and wide beam made it the ideal vessel for slipping over shoals and dashing in and out of blockaded ports. He peoples his account with the good, the bad, and the unlucky, from the likeable and irrepressible Captain Dave McLusky to the loathsome and dishonest Mr. R. M. He takes his reader from Havana, where land sharks greeted incoming sailors, to Galveston, where sharp businessmen and corrupt officials connived to confiscate both profits and ships. He stops at Matamora, a dusty place on "a bare and barren coast," and he visits General Magruder in Houston. His crew brave gales and a hurricane that drives the Rob Roy back thirty miles; and he survives plots against his ship and his life. Through it all, Watson enjoys himself. Blockade running, he declares, was not "unlawful or dishonourable." Rather, it was "a bold and daring enterprise," an "exciting sport of the higher order," like racing yachts, and an almost obligatory act of defiance of a blockade "maintained by no other right than by the force of arms." The "commission merchants" did better than the blockade runners. But Watson recalled his years dodging federal gunboats and outwitting petty officials, treacherous crew, and dishonest businessmen as "much more congenial than the extortions and deceitful wheedling and trickeries of the legitimate trade." This is an adventure story held together by the nuts and bolts of sailing. Watson's discussion of why sail was superior to steam for running blockades is superb; his detailed accounts of surviving gales and outrunning Federal cruisers are fascinating. He takes yellow fever and high sea chases in stride. Through it all, he maintains his honor and guards his profits. For the reader who wants to ply the Gulf of Mexico under sail, play the lottery in Havana, and visit Texas when it was "a new country," Watson is the perfect guide to run the blockade that time imposes on posterity.