Download or read book Civil War Blockade Running on the Texas Coast written by Andrew W. Hall and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2014-06-10 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Waters of Discord written by Rodman L. Underwood and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2008-03-18 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Schooner Sail to Starboard written by William Theo Block and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Civil War Adventures of a Blockade Runner written by William Watson and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Schooner Sail to Starboard written by William Theo Block and published by Eliot Werner Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Introduction to the Dogwood Press Edition . . . The writer is fully aware that several books already exist about Confederate blockade-running, enough so that one might think there is nothing new to be written, but many of those books deal solely with the Atlantic seaboard. Nevertheless, it was the author's desire to write a story devoted solely to blockade-running in the Western Gulf of Mexico, that is, the Louisiana-Texas coast lines. Over a long period of years, the author collected a long bibliography of blockade-running stories, devoted to the heroism and ingenuity exhibited by both the Confederate blockade runners and the West Gulf blockading Squadron. . . The names of Admiral David Farragut and Raphael Semmes will always adorn Civil War naval history books. Much less known were the wiles, skills, ingenuity, and derring-do exhibited by the western Gulf of Mexico blockade runners. . . . The writer believes there is something of special interest and intrigue between the covers of this book for every Civil War buff to enjoy. This republished edition includes six first-hand accounts as appendixes, 56 new figures, and a new introduction putting the work in the context of the Denbigh Shipwreck Project.

Download or read book Lifeline of the Confederacy written by Stephen R. Wise and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 1991 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the finest original works on the Civil War. -- Civil War News

Download or read book Cottonclads written by Donald Shaw Frazier and published by State House Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Narrative of a Blockade Runner written by J. Wilkinson and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2019-12-04 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Narrative of a Blockade-Runner" by J. Wilkinson is a story about a Confederate Naval Officer that spent some time as a Commanding Officer of two different blockade runners during the American Civil War. These personal accounts are still engaging and relevant over 150 years after they were first written. Though everything in this book is factual, it reads like an adventure novel that could be complete fiction.

Download or read book The adventures of a blockade runner or Trade in time of war written by William Watson (of Skelmorlie.) and published by . This book was released on 1892 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Adventures of a Blockade Runner written by William Watson and published by Рипол Классик. This book was released on 1898 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Reckoning written by Bob Larranaga and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Reckoning" is the first-person account of one man, who answered duty's call during the Civil War, despite suffering from what doctors in that era called "soldier's heart" (PTSD). It's part history, part war-time romance and all non-stop action as army veteran Ed Canfield battles his own demons and deadly foes on every side. The action begins in 1861, the same year that Abe Lincoln wins the presidency with only 39.8 percent of the popular vote. The South prepares for war against the North. But, in Florida, ex-army sharpshooter, Ed Canfield, and his hotheaded son, Jesse, are already at "war" with each other. Ed bars Jesse from joining the rebel army because Ed is haunted by what he saw and did during the Mexican-American War. Then, a Yankee warship attacks their harbor and Ed and Jesse must take up arms. In a daring escape, the blockade runners dodge the Yankee shelling and head for the graveyard of the sea with its deadly shoals, smugglers, cutthroats and spies. They race down the gulf coast looking for a refugee camp where Ed hopes his girl friend, Maureen, has found safety. But, as they enter the steaming Everglades, the deadliest foe of all strikes.

Download or read book The Blockade Runner Denbigh and the Union Navy written by J. Barto Arnold III and published by . This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To effectively study the Civil War blockade-runners, we must consider the perspective of their opposition, the Union blockading fleet. The purpose of the Union blockade was to choke off the supplies brought in by the runners supporting the Confederacy and the cotton shipped out in order to pay for these supplies. This book is number seven in a series presenting the results of the Denbigh Shipwreck Project. There are four sections in this book, all providing context for the blockade-runner Denbigh and the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. First is a history and analysis of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron by Robert W. Glover covering mostly the Union's activities off Texas. Glover concentrates on the Union activities against the runners rather than that fleet's extensive initiatives on the Mississippi River. Context is also provided in section two with memoirs by several Union naval officers. There are also official reports to the Navy Department, and Union vessel log entries that deal directly with the Denbigh. Section three presents archival documents concerning payment of prize money generated by capturing cotton bales jettisoned by the Denbigh in escaping capture. We trace the present the prize court documents and the Navy Department records down to the exact prize money payments to individual Union officers and crewmen of two blockading ships at Galveston showing how the calculations were made. The fourth and last section presents the numerous prize case documents of a particularly nasty squabble between several Union captains involved in the capture of merchant steamer Alabama on a run from Havana to Mobile. The Alabama was thought to be a sister ship of the Denbigh owned by the same blockade-running firm in England. The Denbigh was an iron-hulled paddle steamer. A Liverpool coastal passenger ship built by Laird's shipyard in 1860, she was noted for her speed. As a blockade-runner in the Gulf of Mexico from 1863-1865, she was one of the most successful and famous of the Civil War. Mobile and Galveston were the Confederacy's ports of call for the blockade-runner Denbigh, a shipwreck excavated by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. The Denbigh ran aground entering Galveston in late May 1865 and was destroyed by the Union blockading fleet. This book considers the activities of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron of the Union navy in taking captive as prizes of war vessels that ran the blockade. It discusses the Union navy's modus operandi and attempts to address the behaviors of the opposing sailors and the how's and why's thereof. Detailed examples are provided for a few particular ships taken off Galveston and Mobile. Archival documents are extensively illustrated and transcribed. Some of the incidents and documents in the present book reference the Denbigh herself and the rest help explain the activities of this ship and her sisters in the runner's trade. Understanding the prize game enhances greatly the understanding of blockade-running. We find it particularly important and interesting to combine historic overviews like Glover's with illustrating examples of archival documents generated by the activities of both sides The most basic context for the Denbigh is the 1863-1865 activities of the blockade-runners going to and from Galveston and other western Gulf ports. One important question is how and why the blockaders and the runners did their respective jobs. It was an intricate and complex game of cat and mouse. The operational behavior of both groups was largely influenced by the law of prize. The result is important both to those generally interested in the Civil War and especially to those interested in the history and nautical archaeology of blockade-runners.

Download or read book Battle on the Bay written by Edward Terrel Cotham and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Civil War Scoundrels and the Texas Cotton Trade written by Walter E. Wilson and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-07-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Civil War at Sea written by Craig L. Symonds and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2012 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Continuing in the vein of the Lincoln-prize winning Lincoln and His Admirals, acclaimed naval historian Craig L. Symonds presents an operational history of the Civil War navies - both Union and Confederate - in this concise volume. Illuminating how various aspects of the naval engagement influenced the trajectory of the war as a whole, The Civil War at Sea adds to our understanding of America's great national conflict. Both the North and the South developed and deployed hundreds of warships between 1861 and 1865. Because the Civil War coincided with a revolution in naval techonology, the development and character of warfare at sea from 1861-1865 was dramatic and unprecedented. Rather than a simple chronology of the war at sea, Symonds addresses the story of the naval war topically, from the dramatic transformation wrought by changes in technology to the establishment, management, and impact of blockade. He also offers critical assessments of principal figures in the naval war, from the opposing secretaries of the navy to leading operational commanders such as David Glasgow Farragut and Raphael Semmes. Symonds brings his expertise and knowledge of military and technological history to bear in this essential exploration of American naval engagement throughout the Civil War.

Download or read book Jenkins written by A.V. Harrison Publishing and published by AV Harrison Publishing. This book was released on 2011-02-14 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born into a prominent Baltimore family in 1811, C.T. Jenkins defies his father's demands that he continue the Jenkins' family enterprise and makes a dash into the pages of Confederate history. After his capture by Union forces off Florida's Gulf Coast for the crime of blockade running and facing a life sentence, Jenkins realizes that to survive his ordeal he must face the challenge of realigning with his Baltimore family.

Download or read book War on the Waters written by James M. McPherson and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2012-09-17 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.