Charleston Blockade: The Journals of John B. Marchand, U.S. Navy 1861-1862

by Craig L. Symonds (Editor)

Students of the American Civil War, whose ranks are legion, have paid vigorous attention to the many facets of the Union blockade of the Southern Confederacy. Questions of its strategic and economic impact are frequently debated, as are the important problems of logistics and diplomacy. Relatively little attention, however, has been paid to the participants themselves. The men who served on the blockading ships of the U.S. Navy performed the most tedious, if not the most perilous, task of the war. This volume is about one of Comdr. John Bonnet Marchand, USN. In these edited selections from Marchand's sea journals, I have tried to allow him to speak for himself in the hope of preserving the freshness of his own narrative. For the reader's convenience, however, I have corrected Marchand's spelling, punctuation, and occasionally his syntax. In some cases I have broken unmanageable sentences into smaller, more concise units, and, in the interest of clarity, I have paragraphed long entries. Rather than use "sic," which has always distracted me in my own reading experience, I have either corrected the error myself or, when it appeared to be intentional, simply allowed it to stand without editorial comment. Abbreviations were spelled out. "Lieut. Comdg." has been translated throughout as "Lieutenant Commander" even though that rank was not officially established until 16 July 1862.

Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

About the author

Craig Lee Symonds is a retired professor and former chairman of the history department at the United States Naval Academy. He earned both his MA (1969) and Ph.D. (1976) from the University of Florida.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first glance, the journal of a blockader doesn't sound very exciting. The editor's introduction even seems try to set the bar low, telling the reader how Marchand wasn't some big hero and didn't participate in any big battles (although he did later in the war), but that he was a stead, dutiful man doing his part for the war. As often happens, there's more here than you'd expect.

While it's true that John Marchand was no Farragut or Dahlgren, there is plenty of excitement in his story. Marchands ship USS James Adger goes on a cross-Atlantic chase of a Confederate ship, and the chases after blockade runners later on are each mini-adventures (some more than others). Marchand and James Adger also take part in some operations against Confederate shore installations.

That said, Marchands story is not all excitement and daring-do. The missions he partook in often failed. James Adger was a converted merchant ship that didn't hold up well to the rigors of coursing across the Atlantic at break-neck speed, and then maintaining station on the blockade. Boredom and loneliness are constant enemies for Marchand, as well as the frustrations running his ship (and later his squadron), and this being his journal, you read about it.

All the excitement and boredom of Marchands Civil War naval service is woven together for us by the capable editor, Craig Symonds. Besides editing and explanatory commentary, Symonds adds a historical narrative that fills in the spaces between the journal entries that further clarifies and brings them life and context. Overall, this was a pleasing, surprising read!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other than some editorial errors (notable: "centimeters" rather than "hundredweight" when referring to a naval gun), this is a great collection of the thoughts and actions of an officer on the early blockade. The only major complaint I have (apart from the aforementioned) is that it ends very abruptly, when Marchand was tranfered and began the next phase of his career. I wonder if the journal entries continued after that?