From 1861 to 1865, some of the most horrific land battles in history were fought at places called Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. But while the soil ran with blood, it was the lesser-known naval battles raging for control of the Gulf of Mexico--the lifeline of supplies and weapons to the Confederacy--that would determine the outcome of the Civil War. In this vivid and powerful account, acclaimed historian Jack D. Coombe combines meticulous research with a breathtaking narrative to re-create the fierce naval battles for the ports around the Gulf, including those at New Orleans, Mobile Bay, and Vicksburg, with all the adventure and immediacy of a great novel. This is an extraordinary story of the ingenuity, daring, courage, and--all too often--human folly upon which the fate of a nation rested. Coombe takes us inside the suffocating hulls of steam-powered ironclads shuddering under the impact of cannonballs and battering rams, into nights lit by the fires of burning ships, and into harrowing battles as gunships hammer away at each other from virtually point-blank range, often unable to tell friend from foe. From the politicians, industrialists, and engineers on both sides who scrambled to build navies almost from scratch, to daredevil blockade runners and privateers, and from wily Confederate commanders such as Raphael Semmes, who bagged sixty-nine Union ships, to a virtually forgotten old naval officer from Tennesse named David Glasgow Farragut, whose bold and courageous leadership on behalf of the Union would become the stuff of legend, here are the stories of the men who made history. Here, too, is a compelling look at the ships, strategies, and pioneering technology that proved the difference between victory and defeat: the potentially invincible Confederate ironclad Tennessee; the squat, ugly, much-feared Manasses; the South's explorations into torpedoes, fire rafts, and even the first successful submarine; and the Union's relentless drive upriver, braving hazards both natural and manmade to run a fearsome gauntlet of stone citadels bristling with firepower. Filled with colorful historical characters and unparalleled battle scenes, Gunfire Around the Gulf is an important addition to the history of a little-known but crucial theater of the Civil War as well as a gripping and unforgettable read.

Gunfire Around the Gulf: The Last Major Naval Campaigns of the Civil War

History

Coombe, Jack

Americas

Bantam]

A new kind of war In 1861 the Confederacy was protected on its flank by the Mississippi River. And the Mississippi was protected by a devil's gauntlet of Rebel fortresses and shore batteries, preventing the Union from sending troops and supplies up and down the river. With Grant determined to strike a land blow through Vicksburg, the Mississippi had to be won. To achieve its goal, the Union forces unleashed a deadly new breed of fighting ships, and a desperate Confederacy answered back. For a year and a half the Mississippi and its tributaries and bayous ran with blood, as ironclads and wooden-hulled vessels clashed in a maelstrom shot through with cannon, mortar, and gunfire from the shore. A meeting of raw human courage with advancing naval technology, the battles of the Mississippi, from the Gulf of Mexico to Vicksburg, were some of the fiercest--and least known--in American naval history, yet some of the most crucial of the Civil War. Now Jack D. Coombe tells the thrilling story of the men, the vessels, and the battles that would help decide the fate of a nation.

Thunder Along the Mississippi: The River Battles That Split the Confederacy

On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began when shots were fired on an unfinished fort in Charleston Harbor. From that thunderous opening salvo, the naval battles to control the Atlantic coast that followed–daring, savage, and often deadly–were not only crucial in determining the outcome of the war and the fate of a nation, but would change the face of naval warfare forever. GUNSMOKE OVER THE ATLANTIC Historian Jack D Coombe, author of the critically acclaimed Thunder Along the Mississippi and Gunfire Around the Gulf, combines brilliant research with a novelist’s flair for re-creation to put us directly into the action of the Civil War on river, on shore, and at sea. In this vivid account, we experience the soul-gnawing terror of a bombardment, the claustrophobic confines of a still-unproven submarine, and the smoke-choked chaos of a harbor in the grips of a full-bore naval engagement between two desperate enemies. Coombe focuses on the Civil War as it was fought along the Atlantic coast, a fierce contest of blockaders and blockade-runners, ironclads, wood-hulled battleships, land cannon, submarines, and the first underwater antiship weapons. For the North, the challenge was to implement a blockade over 3,500 miles of Confederate coastline, from Virginia to Texas. To do so, they would have to modernize an ineffective and outdated U.S. Navy fallen into incompetence and disrepair. For the South, the challenge was to create a fledgling navy from whatever meager resources were at hand. The Confederacy patched together a navy of river runners and converted battleships, turned cornfields into shipyards, and put the first ironclad battleship into action. And it was the South that introduced the new concept of underwater weaponry, sending spar torpedoes, mines, submarines–and a few incredibly brave men willing to deploy them–into battle against the North. Gunsmoke over the Atlantic chronicles the key engagements, from the Monitorand the Virginia dueling at Hampton Roads to the ill-fated campaign against Fort Fisher. Along the way, we meet a remarkable cast of naval strategists and warriors on both sides of the battle, witness the crucial, often deadly role played by the weather and the sea itself, and get a vivid view of such important events as the first amphibious landing in history, at Cape Hatteras in 1861. An important work for students of the Civil War and of naval history, this book fills in missing pieces of America’s most tragic war and shows why, when the guns finally fell silent, a new era had begun. Four years after the fall of Fort Sumter, a once divided country had the beginnings of the most powerful navy in the world.

Gunsmoke Over the Atlantic: First Naval Actions of the Civil War

A study of the naval campaigns of the Civil War examines the last great naval battle of the American Civil War, the 1864 invasion of Mobile Bay, which signaled the final triumph of the Union blockade. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.

Gunfire Around the Gulf : The Last Major Naval Campaigns of the Civil War

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Books by Coombe, Jack

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Coombe, Jack. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Gunfire Around the Gulf: The Last Major Naval Campaigns of the Civil War

Thunder Along the Mississippi: The River Battles That Split the Confederacy

Gunsmoke Over the Atlantic: First Naval Actions of the Civil War

Gunfire Around the Gulf : The Last Major Naval Campaigns of the Civil War

Gunsmoke Over the Atlantic: First Naval Actions of the Civil War