Gunsmoke Over the Atlantic: First Naval Actions of the Civil War

by Jack D. Coombe

On April 12, 1861 , the Civil War began when shots were fired on an unfinished fort in Charleston Harbor. From that thunderous opening salvo, the naval battles to control the Atlantic coast that followed–daring, savage, and often deadly–were not only crucial in determining the outcome of the war and the fate of a nation, but would change the face of naval warfare forever.

GUNSMOKE OVER THE ATLANTIC

Historian Jack D Coombe, author of the critically acclaimed Thunder Along the Mississippi and Gunfire Around the Gulf, combines brilliant research with a novelist’s flair for re-creation to put us directly into the action of the Civil War on river, on shore, and at sea. In this vivid account, we experience the soul-gnawing terror of a bombardment, the claustrophobic confines of a still-unproven submarine, and the smoke-choked chaos of a harbor in the grips of a full-bore naval engagement between two desperate enemies. Coombe focuses on the Civil War as it was fought along the Atlantic coast, a fierce contest of blockaders and blockade-runners, ironclads, wood-hulled battleships, land cannon, submarines, and the first underwater antiship weapons.

For the North, the challenge was to implement a blockade over 3,500 miles of Confederate coastline, from Virginia to Texas. To do so, they would have to modernize an ineffective and outdated U.S. Navy fallen into incompetence and disrepair. For the South, the challenge was to create a fledgling navy from whatever meager resources were at hand. The Confederacy patched together a navy of river runners and converted battleships, turned cornfields into shipyards, and put the first ironclad battleship into action. And it was the South that introduced the new concept of underwater weaponry, sending spar torpedoes, mines, submarines–and a few incredibly brave men willing to deploy them–into battle against the North.

Gunsmoke over the Atlantic chronicles the key engagements, from the Monitor and the Virginia dueling at Hampton Roads to the ill-fated campaign against Fort Fisher. Along the way, we meet a remarkable cast of naval strategists and warriors on both sides of the battle, witness the crucial, often deadly role played by the weather and the sea itself, and get a vivid view of such important events as the first amphibious landing in history, at Cape Hatteras in 1861.

An important work for students of the Civil War and of naval history, this book fills in missing pieces of America’s most tragic war and shows why, when the guns finally fell silent, a new era had begun. Four years after the fall of Fort Sumter, a once divided country had the beginnings of the most powerful navy in the world.

Genres: American Civil War, History, Nonfiction, Naval History, Civil War

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Jim]

This book is part of a trilogy that covers the naval war on the Mississippi River, Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic coast. It's a good overview for people who don't want to read a detailed history. The captures of Hatteras Inlet, Roanoke Island and Port Royal are often treated as minor sidelights but they were necessary in order for the Union to have naval bases to support their blockade of Charleston, Wilmington and Savannah. Plus these Union victories came after the Union's defeats at First Bull Run and Ball's Bluff and were a morale booster.



This book is a pretty quick read. It's hindered by poor editing however. There are several glaring errors (e.g., saying the capture of Hatteras Inlet came after Second Bull Run instead of First Bull Run and saying that Sherman won the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign instead of Sheridan).



Still, if you want to learn more about the naval history of the Civil War, this series is a good place to start.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the subtitle, this book actually covers the entire war along the eastern seaboard. While the author covers the major campaigns and incidents well (although briefly), there were a couple small problems. There are only two maps in the entire book, both reprints from the Battles and Leaders series. There were also several small errors scattered all through the book, such as Josiah Tattnall being born in 1975.