Cindy Vallar's Blog - Posts Tagged "civil-war"

Sinking the Sultana: A Civil War Story of Imprisonment, Greed, and a Doomed Journey Home by Sally M. Walker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


On 27 April 1865, Frances Ackley joins her husband on deck of the USS Tyler in the wee hours of the morning. The Mississippi River, where the gunboat is docked, runs higher than normal because of the winter thaw. At 2:30 in the morning, the sky should be dark, but glows orange. All around them, voices plead for help. Two navy cutters quickly launch and, despite her husband’s objections, Frances climbs aboard one. For the next hours, she helps rescue man after man. For each man saved, dozens more float past, too far to reach with the boat hook. Sinking the Sultana recounts the nightmare of that night, as well as the days and months before, and the terrible tragedy that killed so many who had endured so much, but were finally going home.

Walker begins this story by first laying the groundwork so readers understand the river, the evolution of travel on the Mississippi, and time period. Then she introduces some of the men who joined the Union Army, were captured by Confederate forces, and ultimately found themselves aboard the Sultana. Michael Dougherty was a recent emigrant from Ireland. Robert Hamilton came from Tennessee, but fought for the North because he opposed secession. Too young to fight, Stephen Gaston became a bugler. A lawyer in civilian life, J. Walter Elliott had to lie about his identity to stay alive. John Clark Ely, a teacher, kept a record his life in the army and in prison.

The next four chapters examine what life was like inside the notorious prisoner of war camp known as Andersonville, as well as the less familiar, but equally horrendous, Cahaba in Alabama. It quickly becomes apparent why so many died, but readers also learn how the five men mentioned above managed to survive until the war ended and were transferred to Camp Fisk in Vicksburg, Mississippi until transportation home could be arranged. Also covered are the use of steamboats during the war; the building and fitting out of the Sultana (including her lifesaving equipment); a problem that developed with her boilers; and how more than 2,000 POWs ended up aboard a boat that was only supposed to carry 376 passengers.

The final five chapters cover the explosion and its aftermath, how individuals reacted, rescue efforts, and the investigations into what happened and who was found culpable. Walker also discusses the rumors of sabotage, as well as what scientists of today believe caused the accident. To reinforce the magnitude of how many lost their lives, she compares the sinking of Sultana with the sinking of Titantic. Equally revealing are the reasons why the former tragedy isn’t as well known as the latter. In addition, she shares efforts by survivors, and later their descendants and interested parties, to make certain that no one forgets this tragedy. In her epilogue, Walker informs readers what happened to the five men she introduced early in the book, where the steamboat is now, and how the Mississippi has changed in the years since that fateful day.

Aside from Walker’s chronicling of events, what makes this book come alive are the passages from primary documents, such as Ely’s diary, and the many contemporary illustrations. Not only do these put faces to names, they vividly portray the realities of the prisons and the horror of that night. Two particularly poignant photographs show the effects of illness and starvation on an Andersonville prisoner, and the soldiers packed tighter than sardines on Sultana’s decks, while an engraving from Harper’s Weekly’s illustrates the burning inferno and survivors floating in the river. Also included are several maps, a glossary, source notes, a bibliography, and an index. Interspersed throughout the book are several special sections (pages with gray borders) that cover key points that require greater explanation than can be revealed in the normal telling of the story. These are explained in clear language that middle grade readers will readily understand without feeling as if they are being talked down to.

Walker’s depiction of this historical event is powerful, moving, and horrifying. After experiencing this book, readers come away with a better understanding that it’s never a single event that leads up to the crisis and that when the worst happens, people with disparate beliefs and life experiences willingly set aside their differences to help others, regardless of whether the disaster occurs today or in the past. Sinking the Sultana is a compelling retelling that graphically and realistically portrays the consequences of decisions made and the price paid by innocent people because of “fraud, greed, and clout.” (64)




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Harbor of Spies: A Novel of Historic Havana by Robin Lloyd

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


At the end of January 1863, the Laura Ann arrives at Havana, but is unable to enter the bay because night has fallen. Nor can she return to open waters because a Confederate gunboat is out there hunting merchant ships flying the Stars and Stripes of the United States. Acting captain Everett Townsend is debating what to do when he hears shouts coming from the shark-infested water. He rescues an injured man named Michael Abbot, who has just escaped from El Morro Castle.

Cuba is an enticing mystery to Everett because it is the homeland of his mother, but once she left the island, she refused to speak of it or her family. Helping the injured fugitive comes naturally to him since his family aids runaway slaves passing through Maryland. But Cuba is a far cry from the United States, and being a Good Samaritan sets in motion a series of falling dominos with dire consequences for Everett.

Abbot has been investigating the murder of an English diplomat that was swept under the rug, but there are those with power and influence who don’t want the matter reopened. They become aware of Everett’s assistance and, soon, he finds himself imprisoned and unable to contact anyone. The Spanish officials believe him to be a spy, an executable offense. Don Pedro Alvarado Cardona offers him a lifeline. The cost, however, is almost as disgraceful and distasteful as when Everett was booted out of the US Naval Academy. If he wishes to live, he must become a Confederate blockade runner. Havana is nominally a neutral seaport; in reality, it is a depot where Confederate ships can load British armament to smuggle into the South or unload cotton and other goods that would otherwise rot in blockaded Southern ports.

Everett reluctantly accepts Don Pedro’s offer, but vows to escape at the first opportunity. That chance doesn’t come. Instead, he is offered a chance to visit the plantations where he comes face-to-face with the realities of slavery and people who knew his mother. A foreign diplomat offers Everett a way to change the current path his life is on, but it requires him to gain the trust of Don Pedro, a suspicious and mysterious man who has many secrets.

Harbor of Spies takes place over a span of six months – a time that may seem short for the reader, but is an eternity for the characters. Lloyd has crafted an intricate web of interconnected subplots and enigmas that subtly ensnare those who venture into the past that was Old Havana, where societal disparities were rampant and no one trusted anyone. A real diplomatic murder serves as the catalyst and the depth of Lloyd’s historical research is evident throughout. He provides vivid portrayals of slavery, human trafficking, manipulations, crime, blockade running, corruption, espionage, jealousy, and romance. This is a story where everyone wears a mask and nothing is as it seems.




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Commissar: A Novel of Civil War Russia by D.V. Chernov

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Delivery of a dispatch leads to the Romanovs’ executions. The messenger is Anna Sokolova, a young woman whose brother died in a demonstration at the Winter Palace and who believes that choices made are always black or white. Knowing she plays a role, however minor, in the murders causes her to transfer into the counterterrorism branch of the Cheka, the Bolshevik security agency. In 1918, she hunts for an elusive spy, who goes by many names and may be in league with the British. With talk of guns and an underground army, as well as an influx of Allied troops and two assassination attempts, stopping the spy becomes paramount. Anna teams up with an American Army captain tied to the American Red Cross, but the pursuit requires an alliance with an anarchist who has vowed to kill all White Russians, Allies, and Bolsheviks. It also requires Anna to choose between blindly following orders or staying true to her principles.

Chernov adroitly depicts the complicated factions threatening Russia. He shows the brutality of war and how the policy of Red Terror came to be. Commissar centers on the hunt for Sidney Reilly, and is the first book in the Anna Sokolova series. It also incorporates a significant laying of groundwork for future titles. There are some editing issues that still need resolving and there are times when the many characters, both historical and fictional, become muddled, but the various points of view emphasize the period’s confusion and convolution. The story isn’t as engrossing as other novels set during this time, but readers are invested in the characters and what happens to them by the story’s close. Loose threads are tied up, and the end twist will intrigue readers to see how Anna deals with a personal dilemma.

(This review originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of Historical Novels Review: https://historicalnovelsociety.org/re...)



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Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana: The Worst Maritime Disaster in American History by Gene Eric Salecker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


And those poor fellows who died in that awful catastrophe! They had gone through four long years of war, had undergone countless hardships, and suffered hunger, pain, and sickness, on the battlefield, and in the prison, and after all these, they were now going home to loved ones, their hearts filled with a great shout of joyous thanksgiving that all war and strife and danger were over, and that they could once more greet the dear ones at home who they knew were waiting anxiously for their return. (387) -- James R. Collins, survivor

We sometimes come across a disaster of the past that strikes a particular chord within us. For me, Sultana is one such episode in American history. Twenty-twenty hindsight suggests any number of ways in which the calamity might have been avoided, but the dominos of greed, arrogance, shoddy construction, avoidance, weather, and conditions on the Mississippi led to disaster a mere eighteen days after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. More than a century and a half have passed since that fateful morning of 27 April 1865, and yet what occurred in the wee hours of that day remains the most wretched disaster in America’s maritime history.

Sultana, a sidewheel steamboat, was launched on 2 January 1863. She measured 260 feet in length and 42 feet wide. The diameter of each of her two paddlewheels was 34 feet, and she could carry up to 1,000 tons of cargo safely. Her original owner sold her the following year to four residents of St. Louis, Missouri. One of these became her captain, James Cass Mason. At the time of the explosion, she carried nearly 2,000 Union soldiers who had recently been released from prisoner of war camps, including the most notorious one, Andersonville. After time spent in horrendous conditions, these men were finally going home to reunite with loved ones. There were also around forty civilian passengers aboard – including a minstrel company, a couple returning from their honeymoon, children – and about eighty-five men and women who worked on the vessel. She also carried cargo – more than 200 hogsheads of sugar and almost 100 boxes of wine, sixty hogs, and forty to fifty horses and mules – and the sidewheeler’s mascot, a live alligator in a wooden box. Two years after her launch, Sultana exploded, caught fire, and sank. Many on board died. Some survived and lived to share their stories.

Twenty-nine chapters comprise this account of the Sultana and those aboard her at the time of her demise. In addition to the who, what, when, where, and why, Salecker shares what happened afterward and what became of her survivors. He provides extensive notes, a bibliography, an index, maps, and photographs of people and steamboats connected to this story.

In the intervening years, much has been written about the disaster, but as often occurs over time, legend and myth have crept into the historical details. One might wonder why another book needs to tell this story, but what sets The Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana apart is two-fold. First, the author undertook a deep-dive into many different archives to provide the first exhaustive study of the subject that relies principally on primary documents. Secondly, Salecker is a leading authority on what occurred and is the Sultana Disaster Museum’s historical consultant. He also owns the largest collection of materials pertaining to the event. In writing this book, he set out to answer four specific questions:

What caused the explosion?
Exactly how many people were on board at the time?
How many people survived, and how many died?
Who were these people?

He succeeds in doing this and, in the process, separates the wheat (the facts) from the chaff (the myths and legends). He uses the actual words of those involved to relate the truth about what transpired.

Witness and survivor accounts vividly bring the events into focus. Details that the study unearthed are enlightening. Salecker has been able to identify beyond a doubt the majority of people who were aboard Sultana during her three-day voyage upriver. Equally telling is the fact that when compared with the number of dead in Civil War battles, this disaster ranks twelfth. Nearly half of those aboard lost their lives.

This is far more than just an examination of the sidewheeler and those aboard. Salecker also delves into the people ashore who were involved in the overloading of Sultana, as well as local residents who went above and beyond to help the survivors, including Southerners who had spent the last five years fighting the North. The condition of the POWs upon their release, as well as what they had endured, is also recounted.

If you just want a book that recounts the story of the Sultana and what happened, any number of books will fulfill that desire. If, however, you want an in-depth analysis that relies chiefly on firsthand evidence, The Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana is the volume to read. You will come away knowing what happened, but, more importantly, remember the people, the sacrifices they made, and their determination to survive.

(This review originally appeared at Pirates & Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/Salecker.html)




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The Lion and the Fox: Two Rival Spies and the Secret Plot to Build a Confederate Navy by Alexander Rose

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When civil war comes to the United States, the Union possesses forty-two warships of various sizes. The Confederate States of America have one. Their attorney general, Judah Benjamin, wants to change this and he knows just the man to accomplish this, James Bulloch is not your run-of-the-mill sea captain; in addition to the usual skills of an officer, he is knowledgeable about the latest nautical technology (steam) and has helped to build ships. More importantly, he is least likely to be seen as someone the Union should be leery of. He works for a Northern steam company. He’s a civilian. He has no land in the South. He seems innocuous, because he keeps personal opinions to himself. In reality, he is Southern born and bred and he possesses just the right traits to make him the right man for the job: guile, cunning, restraint, and obscurity.

Late in 1861, Thomas Dudley and his family arrive in Liverpool, England. It is a city with a vicious and volcanic reputation, teeming with people of ill repute. It is the last place the devout Quaker wants to be, but he has little choice. He is the new American counsel and is determined to do whatever he can to abolish slavery. One of his tasks is to doggedly pursue Bulloch and prevent him from carrying out his mission for the Confederacy.

Lacking the necessities to build their own navy, the Confederacy must go overseas to gain a fleet of modern, deadly vessels. To that end, Bulloch and Benjamin devise a three-point plan. Bulloch’s first objective is to purchase blockade-runners that will smuggle in needed weaponry and ammunition. Then he will acquire commerce-raiders capable of harassing Union merchant ships to such an extent that President Lincoln will have to reassign vessels currently on blockade duty to hunt down enemy ships. Finally, Bulloch will design and have built two ironclad warships capable of causing untold damage and confusion to the United States Navy. The ultimate goal is to gain British support as a Confederate ally. He and Benjamin think these are highly achievable outcomes. There is just one flaw: the Union knows the who and what. They just don’t know where Bulloch is. But Dudley is determined to thwart them no matter what.

This book contains a few pictures of key people and ships, as well as a double-page spread showing 1860s’ Liverpool. Notes, a bibliography, and an index are also included. Readers get to see how Bulloch operated and how Dudley finally pierced his “wall of secrecy.” The final chapter explains what happened to each principal player.

Readers familiar with the history of the Confederate navy may know about some of the ships that Bulloch acquires. After all, one of them is the most famous and successful commerce raider CSS Alabama, captained by Rafael Semmes. What may be both new and illuminating are the behind-the-scenes sly scheming and artful trickery, or the Union’s diligent pursuit of Bulloch. Rose deftly weaves together characters and elements to craft a true account of espionage and counterespionage: a quintessential maverick, a lace-and-chandelier front man, a private investigator, a mole in the Foreign Office, a drunk captain who runs into a coal brig, a rooster that crows at a critical moment, legal manipulation, arms trafficking, racism, phantom ships, mutiny, a sea duel, bigamy, and betrayal.


(This review originally appeared at Pirates and Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/adultpirat...)




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I Am Fighting for the Union: The Civil War Letters of Naval Officer Henry Willis Wells by Henry Willis Wells

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In August 1862, twenty-year-old Henry Willis Wells joined the United States Navy. His rank was master’s mate, a position that placed him between higher-ranking officers and seamen. Several months after volunteering to serve, he explained to his mother that “I am fighting for the Union,” and he believed that serving his country was important during this time of conflict between the North and the South. (ix)

He did not enter the navy as a novice; his first sailing venture took him to the West Coast aboard a clipper ship at the age of fifteen. Between subsequent cruises in the merchant marine, he studied navigation at Boston Mercantile and Nautical College to add to his nautical knowledge learned at sea. His first posting in the navy saw him serving as an acting master’s mate aboard the Cambridge, a steam vessel that had previously seen duty as a merchantman. The ship was part of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. He would serve on other vessels that patrolled waters off North Carolina and the Florida Coast, including Key West, and several months before his death, he was finally given his own commands, first the US Sloop Rosalie and then US Schooner Annie.

Throughout his journeys, Henry wrote letters home, many of which survive and were first gathered together by his great-nephew. Now they have been published in chronological sequence as part of the University of Alabama’s Maritime Currents: History and Archaeology series, for readers and historians interested in the day-to-day life of a junior naval officer during the American Civil War. These missives provide personal glimpses into the men he served with and what transpired on each voyage from his entry into the navy until his death in December 1864. Also included are occasional official documents, such as orders and notices of his brief capture by Confederate forces and his death. Browning includes maps, a timeline of events in Henry’s naval career, and period illustrations (including a map that Wells drew of Union defenses at Washington, North Carolina). Notes, which explain or elaborate on details found in the letters, are also included, as are a bibliography and an index.

Among the war-related news that Henry shared are what he witnessed on day one of the Battle of Hampton Roads, chasing blockade runners, sleeping arrangements aboard his ships, interactions with contraband (escaping slaves) and prisoners of war being exchanged, participation on court-martials, and the effects of illnesses on himself and others.

Even though the letters shared are only his, readers still get to learn about his family and homelife during the war. Most missives are addressed to his mother, but he also wrote to his father, sisters, and cousin, Louisa May Alcott. There are several poignant stories, including one of a Rebel prisoner who shows Henry a Bible that saved his life or the wounded soldier who was sitting by an ambulance when guerrillas murdered him. There are requests for specific items in care packages and feelings of homesickness when he fails to hear from those he loves.

In addition, he shares personal opinions and thoughts on subjects pertinent to the time or his family, allowing readers to experience these from a 19th-century perspective. Although he volunteered to serve, he was not classified as regular navy personnel because his experience came more from firsthand knowledge rather than formal education by the navy. This resulted in encounters where prejudice and bias were prickly thorns for him, as was his age which was given as one reason for his not being promoted even though he was better qualified for advancement than others with whom he served. Even so, this inquisitive and determined young man eventually achieved his goal of promotion and command.

This is a highly enlightening volume that provides readers with eyewitness perspectives of what it was like to serve in the Union navy during the Civil War. If there is any drawback to this volume, it is the location of the notes. Rather than inserting the relevant information on the bottom of the pages where the mention is made or at the end of particular letters, the notes are found after the correspondence ends. This necessitates that the reader flip back and forth, which most will not do, and some of the endnote numbers are difficult to see, which means the reader may miss that there is additional information or explanations that are relevant.


(This review originally appeared at Pirates & Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/Wells.html)



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