Last Flag Down: The Epic Journey of the Last Confederate Warship

by John Baldwin, Ron Powers

As the Confederacy felt itself slipping beneath the Union juggernaut in late 1864, the South launched a desperate counteroffensive to shatter the U.S. economy and force a standoff. Its secret weapon? A state-of-the-art raiding ship whose mission was to prowl the world’s oceans and sink the U.S. merchant fleet. The raider’s name was Shenandoah, and her executive officer was Conway Whittle, a twenty-four-year-old warrior who might have stepped from the pages of Arthurian legend. Whittle would share command with a dark and brooding veteran of the seas, Capt. James Waddell, and together with a crew of strays, misfits, and strangers, they would spend nearly a year sailing two-thirds of the way around the globe, destroying dozens of Union ships and taking more than a thousand prisoners, all while continually dodging the enemy.

Then, in August of 1865, a British ship revealed the shocking truth to the men of The war had been over for months, and they were now being hunted as pirates.

What ensued was an incredible 15,000-mile journey to the one place the crew hoped to find sanctuary, only to discover that their fate would depend on how they answered a single question. Wondrously evocative and filled with drama and poignancy, Last Flag Down is a riveting story of courage, nobility, and rare comradeship forged in the quest to achieve the impossible.

Genres: History, Civil War, Nonfiction, American History, Military Fiction, American Civil War, Military History

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

You get a good idea of the story here by reading the blurb on the cover – Confederate ship harassing Federal maritime industry doesn’t know the war has ended. That is a good, short description. The book adds a lot to this story, but also misses some opportunities. The main source for the book is the diary/ship logs of Executive Officer Conway Whittle, who comes across as a true Southerner in manner and temperament, charming the occasional woman while pining for his true love, and planning a duel for honor near the end of the book. After learning of Whittle’s work with the Confederacy, we learn about the ship procured for the Confederacy and of the efforts to sneak away from Britain. We then follow Whittle and his ship the Shenandoah on a year long voyage with stops in Australia and Pacific islands, and capturing US whaling ships in the Arctic Ocean. And then, we follow them back to Britain, their choice of venue to lower the odds of being hung as pirates. Their tour was a mix of terror from weather issues, visits to ports where the crew is treated quite well, capturing and firing whaling and other merchant vessels, and typical boredom from many long and continuous days at sea. You learn a lot about sailing and cruising during the war years, and you understand how difficult the work could be. Missing from the story was additional context that would have analyzed the place of the Shenandoah in the strategy of the Confederacy, summarized the impact of the ship on the war, and positioned the story of the warriors fighting beyond the end of their war with other examples from history.

One story, from near the end of the book, was an example of how the author approached this material. Sailors on the boat were held captive by the British government after they surrendered their ship at the completion of their voyage. The British decided to free the sailors, unless they were British citizens who had, in effect, joined a foreign Navy. Those sailors would be put to death. The crew, many of whom were British, according to the author had no time to collaborate, yet all answered under interrogation that they were Southerners. The author expresses surprise that this has happened, and stretches this section out to draw out some drama. Yet it seems to me that the best explanation is that all these British sailors knew this was the case, and had talked about this during the long trip back to Britain. No surprise. But it was a kind of obvious attempt at drama by the author that wasn’t necessary.

Overall, I enjoyed learning about the voyage of the Shenandoah, and getting to know and to understand some of the sailors and officers. It is quite a story, and the Executive Officer’s diary was a great source to mine.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

By 1864, the tide of the Civil War was turning in favor of the Union and the Confederacy, in an effort to break the blockade of southern ports and to attack Union merchant ships, commissioned some state-of-the-art ships in England and set them loose on the high seas. This book is the story of the Shenandoah, which sailed around the world, captured and destroyed dozens of Union merchant and whaling ships, and took over 1,000 prisoners. Unfortunately, the captain and crew discovered in August 1965 that the war had ended in April and that the Shenandoah was now being sought by the United States Navy as a pirate ship. In an effort to avoid capture by U.S. forces, the Shenandoah, which had traveled around Africa, visited Australia, wiped out almost an entire fleet of New England whaling ships in the north Pacific, narrowly avoided being trapped in an ice-field, and fired the last shots in the Civil War, sailed to England to surrender. A fascinating book about a little known episode in the Civil War.

[Paul Pessolano · Rating 3 out of 5]

”Last Flag Down” by John Baldwin and Ron Powers, published by Crown Publishers.

Category – History (Civil War) Publication Date – July 22, 1944.

Although this book is classified as a Civil War novel, I found very little information concerning the Civil War. I believe the book deals mainly with the struggles of a ship that does not have a home port and the men that man her. It is also a story that describes the conflict between the Commanding Officer and Executive Officer.

During most of the novel the ship and its crew hold fast to their goal of disrupting ships of the Union, even though the War has ended. It is worthy to note that the crew was made up mostly of sailors that were captured from other ships and they had no affiliation to the Confederate cause. These men signed on so that they would not be put in irons and that they would enjoy the benefits of ship’s company.

The real story lies in the conflict of the Executive Officer who was a man that believed in his mission and would do anything to complete his mission. However, the Commanding Officer did everything he could to counter the orders of his Exec. This conflict lasted until the day of surrender in August of 1865.

A good read if you are looking for a story that tells a story of a ship at sea that spends months at sea and the problems encountered by the crew. If you want a story of the Civil War it is contained in just a few chapters.

[Yibbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is something haunting about this one. A few rebels far from home won friends in far-flung continents, sank dozens of ships, braved the worst of seas, and battled ice packs, all for a cause that was doomed before they started and ended before their greatest victories. For the whole book, it feels as if they are alone against the world and the ocean. Even knowing the end… you feel their hope and despair building with every chapter. It is really well done. It’s a fascinating footnote to the Civil War. The combination of history and personal reminiscence, through diaries, gives the reader a personal and a broad look at the way that war affected the whole world.
It is also an interesting look at the faith of someone who loses everything he holds dear. We may disagree with all of his political goals, but his desire to know his Savior is encouraging. Even though the author doesn’t seem to have much sympathy for this part of Whittle’s diaries, I found it fascinating. Christian biographies tend to follow the journey of Christians who ‘succeeded’ in their goals. This one though shows how that faith under the stress of losing. It was really fascinating.
I would recommend this one quite strongly.

[Clay Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book about a ship and it's mission. Excellant detail makes for riviting reading.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a bit conflicted on the rating for this one...maybe a 3.5. It is a very interesting story about a facet of Civil War history I was unfamiliar with and I did enjoy it. But I kept feeling like something was missing and I believe it was simply context. The story is told from the perspective of the ship's executive officer W.C. Whittle and is built primarily on his rather extensive journal entries. While this does provide a fascinating insight into a rather remarkable young man in what were certainly remarkable circumstances, it also narrows the scope of the story. We get a pretty good backstory on Whittle and his experiences before boarding the ship, which is good, but we don't get much backstory at all on why the C.S.S. Shenandoah was sent out on its marauding voyage and what the Confederacy hoped to achieve militarily in its commission. In my opinion, a little further exploration of the strategy of the Confederate Navy and its raider fleet would greatly benefit the story. There is some mention of fellow raider C.S.S. Alabama, but it is rather thin and no connection is drawn between it and the Shenandoah. Otherwise I think the story is well presented, though there were a couple of minor annoyances; both of which are personal things for me. The first is the degree of nautical parlance used. While I see the necessity of it as most of it came from a sailor's journal entries, if, like me, you are not a student of sailing ship terminology, it is all very confusing. Certainly the author could not begin to explain it all without bogging down the narrative, but I have to wonder if maybe it could have been pared back a little. And the second annoyance is outright nit-picking, but I have to say it: the author (or editor, maybe?) is way too fond a alliteration! Good alliteration flows in the narrative and feels kind of lyrical. Here, the many examples stick out like sore thumbs and just feel forced. Could have done with far fewer of those. All in all though, a good story and informative history lesson.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last shot of the War Between the States was fired by the C.S.S. Shenandoah in the Bering Strait between Siberia and the Russian colony of Alaska. When the officers searched the last ship, they discovered newspapers indicating that the war was going so badly that it may have ended. They didn't know. They hadn't landed in months. Avoiding U.S. naval ships, they cruised several thousand miles to get news from ships leaving San Fransisco. Off the coast of Mexico, in August 1865, they found out that the war was indeed over and that the U.S. Navy was pursuing them as pirates.

This is the story of the Shenandoah and its crew of assorted Southerners, New Englanders, Englishmen, Irishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Australians, and Polynesians, and its voyage nearly around the world from London, around Africa and the South Indian Sea to Melbourne, and then to the Arctic Circle, battling storms, spies, and ice, destroying Union merchant ships, and eluding the U.S. Navy. And the last leg of that journey, unarmed, from the Pacific around the horn of South America to Liverpool, where the U.S. ambassador was pulling every string he could to have them hanged.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

So if you think the causes, events, and consequences of the American Civil War can be summed up in a few words, you might do some reading to dispel that notion before reading this book. Or maybe this book might help show you it's not so simple. It surprised me to read this detailed account and to learn just when and where the last shots of the Civil War were fired.

It's a fascinating read. You almost feel like you are in the head and heart of First Lieutenant Conway Whittle - the Shenandoah's executive officer - by the end of the book. You might not view the War Between the States quite the same way after reading it. Or perhaps before you've read enough already to understand just how amazingly complex this crossroads of American history really is. Anyway, what happens right at the end of the last chapter might definitely surprise you.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based primarily on the journal kept by the Executive Officer, Conway Whittle, it documents the Shenandoah's 58,000 mile journey from England to the Bering Sea and back. During the journey the ship captured 40 Federal merchant and whaling ships, burning most of them. What makes the story all the more interesting is that most of the ships were taken after the war ended. The crew was unaware of the war's end until August of 1865, several months too late. Once they found out the war had ended they sailed to England and surrendered to a Royal Navy ship at Liverpool. If you've never heard the Shenandoah's story, this is a good place to start.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually more like skimmed – slept through most of it, had an hour or two during the night, and then the end. I experienced a remarkable dream sequence where I was walking on thousands of tiny live polar bears. Like they were all squirrel size, there were thousands of them all packed together, and some of them seemed to be biting my bare feet. OK so anyway, it seems like it was a very remarkable story but not enough interest there to make me want to repeat the whole thing. It’s not like you get any sense of what was going on in the wider Civil War – it is all just about what was happening on the Shenandoah.

[Kathy Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. What an adventure... and a remarkable voyage. The book is told from the point of view of the ship's Executive Officer, and is liberally sprinkled with quotes from his log. We just can't appreciate, in the 21st century, the risks and hardships of life on the sea in the 1860's. The loneliness must have been nearly unbearable! Highly recommended.

[Robert Tupper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of deep detail concerning a mostly unknown detail concerning the American civil war. Well paced for a book of its type and not weighted down by too much detail, nice ballance.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

For any Civil War buff -- especially those who have little knowledge of the lesser-known war at sea, which truly took place on a global theater.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating tale of an aspect of the Civil War which to me was unknown until reading this book — the Confederate use of fast raiding ships as part of their overall naval strategy to try to cripple the Union supply chain.

The book focuses specifically on the CSS Shenandoah’s mission which took it around the world in search of Union merchants and whalers to destroy. It is told from the viewpoint of the Executive Officer, Conway Whittle and the narrative is cleverly woven with entries from Whittle’s official ship’s log and personal journal.

Along the way, you gain glimpses of insight into the mindset of a Confederate officer, the overall Confederate naval strategy, the behind-the-scenes wooing of Great Britain’s support by the Confederates and the counter-espionage by the Union to thwart it, as well as the daily and sometime dull life aboard a ship in the 1860s.

There is more that I could say about the book, but in the end it was a book that I greatly enjoyed and I learned something about the Civil War that I didn’t know before.

The only two negatives are minor:
1) Instead of a balanced presentation of the events, the authors’ personal perspective is interjected at times (not quite a bias against the confederates, but close).
2) The cover photo is inaccurate. It portrays the Confederate battle flag of three army of northern Virginia as the flag of the CSS Shenandoah which is incorrect. The flag flown on the Shenandoah was the naval flag of the CSA — a white field with the battle flag in the upper left corner (which is actually described in the book). A minor thing, yes. But for historical non-fiction, attention to detail in research should have corrected that.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. I have always loathed all things Confederate, but I learned a lot about the Southern men from the Civil War time period, and I can appreciate some of what contributed to their conundrum. Conway is a likeable person. It was also fascinating to read about warships - something I didn't know existed in the sense that the Shenandoah was. I learned a lot about navigation and what the men went through (navigators went blind, because they had to stare at the sun long hours at a time. You were fit to work if you could look at the sun without screaming, the coal shovelers who shoveled coal to fuel the ships in 140 degree heat. Amazing hardship), and it was interesting to learn how shipmates were just picked up from wherever to do a job. I hadn't thought much about that. The whole concept of a ship sailing over 40K miles and being a world away from everyone, only to learn that everything they had planned to fight for no longer existed, was overwhelming. This was an interesting snapshot of history, and the writing is good. What I did not care for was Baldwin's tongue-in-cheek jabs at Conway's faith. I found Baldwin's remarks about Conway's deep conviction and faith in God to come across with a piteous disdain for such childlike beliefs. It was irritating and totally irrelevant. I didn't feel the need to have Baldwin's opinion on that. I wouldn't have found it as irritating had Baldwin endorsed it, but it would have been just as irrelevant. It's supposed to be a historical account. No need for the author's editorial comments, thank you.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last shots of America’s most devastating war, the “War Between the States,” weren’t fired on a battlefield in Virginia, but by the Confederate raider C.S.S. Shenandoah, as she carved up the Yankee whaling fleet in the freezing waters off the coast of Alaska. John Baldwin tells a rousing tale of the Confederacy’s last great warship.

The Shenandoah traveled completely around the globe, seeking Yankee ships to plunder and destroy, beginning its epic voyage from London in October of 1864, finally putting in at Liverpool in November, 1865, long after Lee surrendered to Grant. Baldwin’s account of the journey gives the reader a vivid picture of 19th century wartime seamanship, as it uses the actual log entries by First Officer Conway Whittle (Baldwin’s ancestor). The descriptions of the ship and its crew battling the elements and the enemy makes one wonder how they managed to survive, let alone become the scourge of the Yankee whaling fleet.

This book is very readable, hard to put down, actually. Fascinating story!

[Mh Weyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost quit this one early on because it was really dry for the first couple of chapters. But then it picked up and actually was a fascinating book. This is a nonfiction book. I loved the description of the honorable confederate captain who obviously relied on the hope of his salvation in the Lord. We see his fairness yet kindness to his prisoners. Through his journals, we see the civil war through very different eyes than most often seen. Also very fascinating. A really good book.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was moved to read this by stumbling across the Wikipedia page of the Shendandoah, and by the end wished there was something between the Wikipedia page and what often feels like a long annotated ship's log. There's a great story to be written here by someone with a better ability to convey the tragic farce of it all and to take a stronger interest in the human stories beyond the main character.

[Charlie Boardman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book shedding light on a very interesting, forgotten period of history. I learned a lot about how the world of the 1860s worked politically, industrially, commercially, and technologically, beyond just the military history at the center of the book.

[Stephen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to put this book down. Far from being a factual account, this book seems to have been written with a particular agenda. The authors revel in the successes of the Confederate ship and heap honorifics upon the officers. I just couldn't get through it.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone who understands that US history isn't this Mickey Mouse told bull that you get in elementary through high school.

[Shanna_redwind · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did, but I found myself taken in by the adventure and drama that was occuring.

[Isaac · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started so well but ended up with way too much hero worship.

[Craig McGraw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely detailed story of the CSS Shenandoah and her trip around the world

[Maduck831 · Rating 4 out of 5]

But what diplomacy! And what intelligence! Holding the fabric of British neutrality together virtually with their bare hands, tough, resourceful, and utterly inexhaustible as they were different form each other. They arrived separately in Great Britain in 1861, each appointed by Abraham Lincoln.” (5) [Prince Albert and the Confederacy] [CSS Nashville] “Thus CSS Shenandoah, even as she basked triumphantly in the cheering hospitality of Australia, a respected emissary of a noble land, was now unknowlingly and forever cut off from her home. / Not that many illusions remained. “This all looks like no end to the war,” Whittle wrote. “God alone can tell when or how it will end.” (158) “…as they headed toward the Fiji Islands, ship and crew were now almost exactly on the other side of the globe from Greenwich, England – longitudinal zero.” (188) “I must say that we are almost out of the world.” (188) “I am decided that in such a case, I will cover myself all over with coal tar, turn my hair and I might pass as an inedible Negro. With this dark bright idea, I will say bon soir and bad luck to the Yanks.” (191) [William Cowper – poet] “They were the most miserable looking set. They were perfectly naked and head bare. They had straight black coarse hair, were of copper color and looked very like the American Indian except that in the face they had few signs of intelligence. They had in their boat nothing but a few fish, some of which we bought giving them tobacco.” (195) [Hood’s defeat of Nashville] “On April 9, the day that the Cause died on the other side of the world: A day of rest. Let the port watch go on liberty in the forenoon & the starboard watch in the afternoon, each carried two plugs of tobaccos. Pleasant.” (205) “The occasion was the ship’s crossing of the imaginary line on the globe that had provoked head-scratching cogitation among sailors, philosophers, scientists, Magellan’s navigator, Edgar Allan Poe, and countless others and since its “discovery” in the fourteenth century: the International Date Line.” (236) “Covington, the latest ship taken by the raider, would bring the estimated aggregate value of these prizes to $1,399,080 – or $16,500,000 in modern dollars. Many more months of lonely patrolling lay ahead for the black rider, but Covington, burned on June 28, was to be Shenandoah’s final prize.” (255) “Whittle’s charge of “hypocrisy” had merit: the Union’s same Negro regiments that proved their bravery time and again on the battlefield (a third of them lost their lives) faced daily disdain, exclusion, even outright animosity from their white comrades in arms.” (265) “What is to keep them from starving I cannot imagine. And my poor dear father, what will be his fate? I dread to dwell upon it but I am prepared to hear the worst. I fear that they will deal but harshly.” (285) “The last entry remaining in Conway Whittle’s logbook sums up both his sense of desolation and his unquenchable determination to somehow surmount it. / “Where there is a will there is a way,” and this shall be my motto. I am sure not to starve on it.” (313) “A silence after the final name had been called. Whittle , who had wept at the lowering of the Confederate flag, must have shed some tears in the darkness for the gallantry of these men. All eyes were fixed on Captain Paynter, who was struggling to form a response to what he had just heard. / Something about these ragtag devils must have moved him, pierced through his martinet’s steeliness. Southerners, British…it no longer bloody mattered, did it? / Bugger all. He let every man-jack of them go free.” (327-28) “Whittle never reencountered Pattie. He never mentioned her in his subsequent writings, and he never spoke of her to any of his descendants. He provided no indication that she was ever found.” (329)

[Bostian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this on the discount books shelf at a big discount store, actually, which I was browsing while Laini was looking at clothes. I restrained myself from buying a copy, knowing I would likely only read it once, but I was interested in reading about the exploits of the CSS Shanendoah ever since I read the chapter about the Confederate campaign against Yankee whaling ships in the Pacific (in the non-fiction history titled Leviathan).

Anyway, I decided to stop by Peoria Public Library to pick up the copy there on the shelves (I checked their inventory on their online catalog); so, I finally have my first library card here in the Midwest since moving more than a year ago. I still keep my Portland library card in my wallet (for luck) & because I had that same account number for more than a decade & still have it lodged in my memory.

Anyway, something about 19th century nautical adventures appeal to both my historical side while also satisfying my inner sci-fi geek (I think technical descriptions of rigging & steam engines are even more interesting than vague notions of FTL engines & teleporting devices). After I finish this book I'll need to find an account of the CSS Alabama & the dramatic Captain Semmes (that ship was sunk by the US Kearsage off the coast of France while a crowd of spectators watched from the beach).

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book recounts the exploits of the last confederate warship. The ship was purchased in a British shipping yard a year before the surrender of the Confederate States. We follow the adventures of the ship and crew, as recorded in the diary of 24-year-old executive officer Conway Whittle, as it travels the world sinking Yankee ships and impressing sailors from all nations into its unhappy crew. Conway Whittle, de facto leader of the ship and its mission, has to contend with more than waves and storms (although there are plenty of both). He must also contend with the emotionally unstable James Whaddell, the ship’s actual captain. Eventually, the soldiers learn that the Confederacy has surrendered well prior to the time of the bulk of its escapes in the Bering Sea. Their sinking and plundering constitutes an act of privacy once done outside a state of declared war. So then, the Shenandoah has to race south around the tip of South America and back to English before being captured by Union ships and summarily executed.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first time I listened to this book I evidently thought it was amazing as evidenced by the 4 star rating I gave it. This time around I still think it's a great book but maybe not as good as I thought it was the first time. Also, I think I may have adopted my rating system after I my first listen.
Either way, I think this is a very interesting book that tells a great story. When I think Civil War, I think mainly of the great land battles I've heard of all my life. This book makes me realize it was a much bigger theater. And war was waged on ships that weren't necessarily involved with the war, i.e. whaling ships that provided whale fat for the Union. Something that is overlooked in this era that has forgotten about this important source of energy from a bygone time.
Anyways, it's a well told story that expanded my concept of how the Civil War was fought.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book that petered out in the last 100 pages. It's about Civil War naval history (something I didn't know much about beyond the Monitor and the Merrimac). Turns out the South tried a last-ditch effort to cripple the North's economy by sinking whaling ships in the North Pacific (that's right, the Pacific). The book is mostly derived from the ship's Executive Officer, a 24 year-old named Conroy Whittle. It's a good read, but gets repetitive when the CSS Shenandoah is on a ship-sinking spree (they sunk something like 37 ships in less than a month, all after the end of the war-whoops).

[Mathworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book right after reading Manhunt. Two civil war era books in a row gave me some much needed perspective on that time. Last Flag Down was a great read for me. It's the retelling of the story of the last Confederate warship. The fascinating bit is that it set sail from England, and continued to make war on merchant ships well after the Civil War ended. The story of the ship, which became the second most successful war ship in history, was great, and the telling of the battle between the captain and the executive office is even better. I'm a huge fan of real life stories and this one was great.