The cruise of a ship is a biography; wrote the Confederacy's foremost sailor; Raphael Semmes. A ship can be; therefore; a central character in a life story through which we view the momentous past more clearly. From October 1864 to November 1865; the CSS Shenandoah carried the Civil War around the globe to the ends of the earth through every extreme of sea and storm. Her officers represented a cross section of the Confederacy from Old Dominion first families through the Deep South aristocracy to a middle-class Missourian: a nephew of Robert E. Lee; a grandnephew of founder George Mason; a son-in-law to Raphael Semmes; grandsons of men who fought at George Washington's side; an uncle of Theodore Roosevelt. They considered themselves Americans; Southerners; rebels; and warriors embarking on the voyage of their lives; defending their country as they understood it; and pursuing a difficult; dangerous mission in which they succeeded spectacularly after it no longer mattered. Shenandoah was a magnificent ship. Her commerce-raiding mission was a central component of U.S. Navy heritage and a watery form of asymmetric warfare in the spirit of John Mosby; Bedford Forrest; and W. T. Sherman. She contributed to the diplomatic maelstrom of the Civil War; as evidenced by a contentious visit to Melbourne; Australia. Later; at the Pacific island of Pohnpei; Southern gentlemen enjoyed a tropical holiday while their country lay dying; mingling with an exotic warrior society that was more like them than they knew. Their observations looking back from the most remote and alien surroundings imaginable; along with the viewpoints of those they encountered; provide unique perspectives of the conflict. Finally; Shenandoah invaded the north; the deep cold of the Bering Sea. She fired the last gun of the conflict and set crystal waters aglow with flaming Yankee whalers. Seven months after Appomattox; Shenandoah limped into Liverpool. Captain Waddell lowered the last Confederate banner without defeat or surrender. This is; as Admiral Semmes describes; a biography of a cruise and a microcosm of the Confederate-American experience. See aconfederatebiography.com
#4479038 in Books 2014-04-04Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.34 x 1.59 x 6.41l; .0 #File Name: 1611494877568 pages
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. A REVELATION FOR HISTORIANS A TREAT FOR MELVILLEANS AND OLD MID-ATLANTIC FAMILIESBy Hershel ParkerHere is a more extended version of my dust-jacket blurb quoted on .This book about Henry Lockwood (and his brother John Alexander Lockwood) is a prodigious record of an important clan which will be extraordinarily interesting to military historians and to hundreds of Chesapeake Bay families. Admirers of John A. Munroe's biography of Louis McLane will relish seeing more of the history of great Delaware families; including a McLane daughter. Historians and history-addicts everywhere will read it with astonishment and delight; for Lloyd J. Matthews tells important new stories; some of which I specified in the blurb. Melvilleans will love it; for the book intersects with the life and writings of Herman Melville; who observed Henry Lockwood from his vantage as ordinary seaman in the Pacific and who sought out the older brother John Alexander Lockwood as a boon companion in 1857.This is a brilliantly researched contribution to the history of the American army and navy. Because the Lockwood brothers were in the right places at the right time and lived so long and because they were remarkable men; this book provides insiders' histories on an astonishing range of American experience such as the early years of West Point; the Florida War (which by coincidence I have just been researching in newspapers; so I know how thorough Matthews is!); the founding of the Naval Academy; the strategic importance of the Pacific; and the history of major Civil War campaigns and battles. This is not an exhaustive list by any means.GENERAL HENRY LOCKWOOD OF DELAWARE is a long book. That is not a fault. In this book Matthews expatiates at times; but every time the expatiating is justified by his demonstrating how one or another of the brothers' experiences directly or indirectly affected an episode of history. To expatiate as Matthews does is not to digress. He never gives background details without a fresh payout. An impatient reader could object that the book is leisurely. Well; Matthews takes the space he needs; but he is never lax; never self-indulgent. This is a man with a big story to tell; one he has done the research on all by himself most of the time; including sifting through newly-available Lockwood family records and interviewing living Lockwoods. He has not just mastered the standard historical sources and cited them properly. Because he is himself a noted military historian; he regularly supplements those sources with new and highly relevant information. Regularly he enriches what had been accepted as a standard historical account; He never leaves any previously-known episode unimproved and surprisingly often writes what amounts to a whole new episode of history. Superficial reviewers like to say (they think wittily) that long books are "exhaustive and exhausting." Not in this case. This is an exhaustive and steadily enthralling book. Its value lies in its comprehensiveness. No one else could have told this story; and as teller of it Matthews is masterful in deploying its parts. Terms from successful military strategy are called for! Outside Maryland and Delaware this book may not be a runaway bestseller; but it's big; important; masterfully told--a great success.
