The Confederate Navy: A Pictorial History

by Philip van Doren Stern

This profusely illustrated volume describes one of the most amazing fleets in history—the hastily improvised Navy of the South. At the beginning of the Civil War, the Confederate navy was a modest collection of nearly anything that would float—mostly small, unmilitary vessels and a few captured Union ships; there was not one real warship in the fleet. The North had men-of-war and a large fleet of merchant ships that could be armed quickly. As a result, the North was soon able to blockade the southern coast and capture port after port. But the South fought back ingeniously, sending agents to England and France to have the finest warships built, innovating such modern weapons as the torpedo, the submarine, and the armored warship—all of which changed the nature of naval warfare. The Confederate Navy deals with the early ironclads; with the Trent case, which nearly brought England into the war; with the fighting on the Mississippi and James rivers; and with the flamboyant blockade-runners who could make 80,000 in profits on a single voyage. It tells about the great ships—the Alabama, the Florida , and the Shenandoah; and the great seamen—Semmes, Maffit, and Bulloch, among others. Crammed with facts, anecdotes, and exciting incidents, The Confederate Navy clarifies the complicated—and often heroic—naval operations of the Civil War.

Genres: History, War, Civil War

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Philip van Doren Stern (September 10, 1900 - July 31, 1984) was an American author, editor, and Civil War historian whose story "The Greatest Gift," published in 1943, inspired the classic Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life (1946).

Philip van Doren Stern was born in Wyalusing, Pennsylvania into a family of humble means. His Pennsylvania-born father was a traveling merchant of Bavarian descent, who came to Wyalusing from West Virginia with his New Jersey-born wife. Stern grew up in Brooklyn, New York and New Jersey, and graduated from Rutgers University.

After graduating from Rutgers in 1924, Philip van Doren Stern worked in advertising before switching to a career as a designer and editor in publishing.

He was a historian and author of some 40 books and editor most known for his books on the Civil War[1] that a New York Times obituary called "authoritative" and "widely respected by scholars". As an editor, he worked at Pocket Books, Simon and Schuster, and Alfred A. Knopf. He compiled and annotated short story collections and the writings and letters of Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau.

During World War II, he was a member of the planning board of the United States Office of War Information. He was the general manager of Editions for the Armed Services, which resized popular books so Americans serving in the military could store them in the pockets of their uniforms. He compiled and edited many collections and anthologies of short stories, pictorial books, annotations, and books on historical subjects.

Stern edited, compiled, and introduced The Viking Portable Poe in 1945, a compact collection of letters, short stories, poems, and essays by Edgar Allan Poe. Stern wrote the biographical introduction to the collection, selected the contents included, and wrote introductory essays on the varying genres. The collection became a standard single-volume anthology of Poe's works for almost fifty years.

Reviews

[Curtiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This pictorial history covers virtually every vessel in, and every engagement fought by the Confederate Navy. It is a little bit of a struggle to wade through, but is full of charts, maps, and side-bar entrees on various topics.