Gray Raiders of the Sea: How Eight Confederate Warships Destroyed the Union's High Seas Commerce

by Chester G. Hearn

Looks at the Confederate strategy to destroy Union commerce and the Southern blockade

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Civil War Navy

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

A 1954 graduate of Allegheny College, Chester Hearn served in the U.S. Army and worked in industrial management before becoming an author of books on the American Civil War in his retirement.

Reviews

[Brian]

A well written book that provides a nice narrative history of eight Confederate commerce raiders. Hearn does a nice job weaving in short bios of key figures and challenges and opportunities the commerce raiders faced. I appreciated his discussion of the challenges of ship procurement, outfitting, recruiting, supply, and maintaining crew levels. Hearn discusses the attributes that made a particular ship more or less suited to commerce raiding. He also discusses tactics and approach and strategy. This book looks at the economic and diplomatic aspects that shaped commerce raiding. Hearn also has a good discussion of the ultimate impact of the raiders - in his view, they likely benefitted the UK merchant marine more than any other party.