Customer Reviews

Battle on the Bay: The Civil War Struggle for Galveston

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I am a civil war re-enactor who lives in the Houston/Galvestion area. I have found Edward T. Gotham's book "Battle ON The Bay" a very thoughtfull read. He not only gave the history of the battle of Galveston, but throughly developed the main charactures in this battle which occured New Years day; 1863. I could not put this book down. every page held my attention, and i wondered what the next page contained. Not only did it inform me about the history of the area where i live, but i felt as if i were there living it. i am proud to have this book in my library.

I have found Edward T. Gorham's book "Battle ON The Bay" a very thoughtful read. He not only gave the history of the battle of Galveston, he also informed you on the accounts of all the events leading up to Siege of Galveston. But also thoroughly developed the Commanding Officers of both the Union and Confederacy, in this battle, which occurred New Years day, 1863. "BATTLE ON THE BAY" also informs the reader of the accounts from the Confederatec victory to the end of the war. This book had humor as well as excitement. I could not put this book down. Every page held my attention, and I wondered what the next page contained. This book did a good job on informing me about the history of the area where I live.

A very detail oriented and illuminating book. I have no trouble recommending this book to any serious student of american history.

My great-great grandfather and his son died of Typhoid fever as Confederate Soldiers on Galveston Island during the time frame of this historical record. This book gave great insight into the situation they faced and how they might have been infected with typhoid.
Having grown up on the Texas coast I never really new of the Civil War history that had transpired so near my home. Good read!!

"Gen. Magruder will attack the Yankees at Galveston by water and land tommorrow night...If the Yankees fight well it will be a desperate affair & our loss maybe terrible, but if we succeed entirely of which I think there are reasonable hopes it will be a brilliant affair. Galveston will certainly suffer great injury, and may be entirely destroyed. I don't care for this if the enemey can be capture. "
William Pitt Ballinger, December 30, 1862

I bought this book last August (2005) while on vacation to Galveston. A shop (on the Strand) in one of the buildings that survived. I walked the down town area and there are few marks that a battle was fought there. Some bullet holes and marks on walls can be found. There are Historical markers but I wish there was more. Like maybe the smoke in the air from cannons and Men rushing the docks with bayonet musktes :) Galveston does have awesome beaches and this is a very fun book. I could not put the book down once I started reading! Included are good maps and photo's of what happen.
What would you do as Gen. Magruder as you face a superior enemy fortified on Kuhn's Wharf (and with control of the city/island) with the USS Navy backing him up in the bay? The outcome of Texas is in your hands!

Don't let the title mislead you, "Battle on the Bay" is much more than a battle monograph. It is a thorough retelling of the actions of the important gulf port city of Galveston, Texas throughout the war. Author Edward Cotham reviews the politics and early war action. He then takes the reader through the 1862 Federal seizure of the port and the brilliant cottonclad attack that recovered the city for the Confederacy. He also reviews the naval and blockade running activity through the end of the war.

Cotham's narrative is very entertaining and easy to read while at the same time providing the reader a wider understanding of Galveston's place in the war. Despite his obvious enthusiasm for the subject, the author maintains a balanced tone. I especially enjoyed the amusing anecdotes about "Prince John" Magruder's colorful and at times brilliant actions. Cotham does a great job of reviewing anecdotes and events from Galveston's wartime history that provide good sense of the problems facing a city under friendly and enemy occupation.

The book is well illustrated and has some useful maps of the outlines of fortifications by Don Frazier. Frazier's map of the fight at Kuhn's wharf is helpful and critical to understanding the unique battlefield, but it might have been more so if it had some unit labels on the CSA side as well as a wider view of the surroundings as well as a scale. Lacking in the text itself is a detailed order of battle for the CSA units engaged, commanders, and a breakdown of each unit's substantial casualties.

I recommend this book to those interested in understanding the Civil War in Texas and particularly to anyone trying to understand the very important strategic coastal war. As a detailed military study, I found Cotham's work about Sabine Pass more compact and focused, while this text about Galveston will appeal to those interested in a wider overview of the war along the Texas coast.

This is a true, factual account of how a handful of Texans recaptured the Port of Galveston during the Civil War. But it is a book intended, or at least should be intended, for local consumption only.

I do not want to denigrate the heroic bravery of the Northern and Southern soldiers who fought and died in this engagement. Men did fight and die here, ships were captured and some prisoners were taken. But really, to subtitle this book The Civil War Struggle for Galveston is silly. There was no struggle; it was over in an hour. This wasn't Shiloh, Chickamauga, Vicksburg or Gettysburg. Four Union ships stopped by, landed a hundred or so soldiers and got gobbled up due to inadequate support. This happened thousands of times to both sides during the four years of the war.

Nothing of significance happened in Texas during the Civil War. It was just too far from the scene of the contest to have an overland impact. The capture of New Orleans and Vicksburg rendered Texas completely unnecessary as a theater of operations. The actions at Galveston and Sabine Pass were local victories yes, but they only amounted to repulses of minor Yankee probes which subsequently proved unnecessary Union blunders. Sabine Pass: The Confederacy's Thermopylae is another local bombastic claim to fame. Four wooden ships were pushed back.

If you want to focus on a serious and all but forgotten trans Mississippi Confederate victory try Confederate General Richard Taylor's Red River Campaign throughout Louisiana. It defended the critically important supply centers of Shreveport, Louisiana and Jefferson, Texas from a substantive, amphibious Union thrust. An entire Union Division was involved, thousands and thousands of men. Out manned and out gunned, Confederate forces dealt the Union a horrific defeat and almost captured the Union's entire Mississippi River ironclad fleet at Alexandria! It was a most singular campaign. After this engagement Union General Nathanial Banks, a close confidant and personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, never held another command. Red River Campaign: Politics and Cotton in the Civil War by Ludwell H. Johnson is quite excellent.

I realize no Texan will like this review. If you are a Galveston resident or area re-enactor, you may find this book of interest.