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Lincoln and His Admirals

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In the deluge of new books about the sixteenth president appearing in anticipation of the bicentennial of his birth, Lincoln and His Admirals stands apart. It begins to fill the void resulting from the frequent neglect of the naval aspects of the Civil War. For this reason alone, the book is worthwhile.

The book, however, is more than merely worthwhile. It is a comprehensive account of the events and personalities involved in this crucial phase of the Civil War that is told in a fine narrative style. Symonds provides a compelling story of how Lincoln's initial reluctance to command was replaced by an increasing confidence that led to his personal role in many great and small details of naval administration. This "sea change" was the product of Lincoln's perceptive intelligence and his relentless determination to preserve the Union.

Symonds includes informative portraits of many naval officers now almost lost to history and judiciously tallies their strengths and weakness. It did seem odd to me that he has comparatively little to say about Farragut or his torpedo-damning ascent of Mobile Bay. I was also surprised by the omission of the duel between Alabama and Kearsarge -- only the outcome is reported. Perhaps the author concluded that these events are already well-known. My only other criticism is that the first portion of the book would have been improved by relating the less familiar events afloat to those ashore that are much more widely known. At one point, I thought a timeline would have been helpful, but later, the author links the war at sea with the land war very well.

Finally, I have to say that this very good book has a very good dust jacket. In the foreground is a vivid image of the encounter between Monitor and Merrimack (or Virginia), but looming above it is the ghostly face of Abraham Lincoln. It is a perceptive introduction to this highly recommended book.

This book is impressive for a number of reasons. First, it is an academic work that is highly readable and will be of equal interest to readers be they scholars or general history fans. Think, James McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom," on the water.

More importantly, Craig L. Symonds manages to say something new about Abraham Lincoln, which is darn impressive. This book examines the President's role as commander-in-chief to the U.S. Navy. Lincoln's relationship with the navy has been largely ignored over the past century and a half, and it is easy to understand why. The major battles between North and South were fought on land and those engagements determined the fate of the nation. Symonds shows us, though, that Union naval dominance influenced the course of the conflict. At Fort Sumter Lincoln was initially unsure of how to use his naval power. As the war continued, he directed that the Army and Navy work together in what are now called "joint operations." This coordination became important in the capture of New Orleans and Vicksburg.

Symonds did not write an operational history of the naval war, but these actions bled into areas other than the military. The blockade of the southern coastline raised important questions involving matters of trade and diplomacy. These issues often involved disputes between Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and Secretary of State William H. Seward, which Lincoln had to adjudicate. It is a testimony to Symonds' skills as a historian that he develops both sides of the issue and presents Wells and Seward as understandably human characters.

Lincoln faced many of the same issues with the admirals that he faced with the generals. While there were no naval equivalents of political generals--influential figures who got commissions in the army because of their political connections rather than their military competence--he still had to work with ambitious officers who wanted promotions, fame, and glory. He also had to deal with a number of less than aggressive officers who had grown sluggish with the slow pace of life in the antebellum navy. The only difference between the army and the navy was the degree rather than the nature of the problems Lincoln faced.

This book raises a number of questions about how a naval power can use that dominance to influence the course of events on the land. It also shows a new side of Lincoln; a man growing into his office. It is a wonderful read, and is highly, highly recommended.

If this book is not a finalist for a major award in Lincoln and Civil War history, we will have a gross injustice. This intelligent, interesting, readable book is one of the most original informative Civil War histories I have read this year. The author is retired from the U.S. Naval Academy after 30 years of teaching. During that time, he won both the Naval Academy's "Excellence in Teaching" award (1988) and its "Excellence in Research" award (1998). This shows in his ability to construct a sentence that contains a lot of information without boring or losing the reader.
His portraits of the players are excellent. We never lose sight of the fact that they have not read the history book and do not know what is happening. Each crisis has the feel of current events unfolding as we read. Lincoln's management style is fully developed and we understand what a masterful politician he is. The fighting between the departments of State, War and Navy are fully developed and completely understandable. While the book is written from the Navy's perspective, the author never takes sides and faithfully reports the whole story.
Most Civil War history ignores the Nay's role. This book gives us a detailed history of naval operations and the development of combined Army Navy actions. Lincoln never had a quite day as President. He had just sat down when the problem of supplies at Fort Sumter dropped on him. The author provides a detailed account of the decision-making and the problems associated with that action. His account of the Trent Affair could be one of the best accounts in existence. The same can be said of his Red River Campaign and his discussion of the impact of cotton on the war.
This is not a book of blazing guns! It is a book of politics, technology and personalities interacting during war. Ambition, personal preferences and personality quirks make up the story. This is not a view of the war we often see but it is a very important view that we need to be aware of. Craig L. Symonds gives us this view in an entertaining and informative book that belongs in every library.

This book by Craig Symonds should be read alongside McPherson's work in order to understand why Lincoln was an excellent commander in chief. Lincoln had a difficult time in ordering his admirals into action. Lincoln pressured his admirals to link up with each other on the Mississippi River and also to take Yorktown in the spring of 1862. Also Lincoln's relationship with admirals DuPont and Goldsborough was very similiar to the one he had with McClellan and eventually had to replace them both for their inaction. The failure of the navy to take Fort Fisher in North Carolina was very much like the unsuccessful attempts by the Army of Potomac to destroy Lee's army. Like the Army of Potomac, Lincoln had to wait for the navy's Grant which happaned to be Admiral Porter. Porter's agressive style eventually led to the capture of Fort Fisher in 1864, and in the same year the navy subordinated itself in order to support Grant's army around Petersburg. The navy's new argressive leadership and working together with the army helped the North to acheive victory in 1865.
Symonds also describes Lincoln's pragmatic leadership when it came to avoiding a potential naval conflict with Great Britain. Lincoln returned the Confederate diplomats Slidel and Mason to Great Britain after they were captured by the Union navy. In another crisis, Lincoln forbade the reading of British mail after the capture of the British flagged steamer the Peterhoff. Both of these acts of conciliation prevented the British from interveing in the Civil War. Overall Symonds does a masterful job at how Lincoln was sucessful militarily and politically in handling of naval affairs.

I attended a lecture presented by the author on the story of the Monitor and Virginia (I prefer Merrimac). Mr. Symonds is all Navy; he taught at the US Naval Academy. He knows his material thoroughly. He is witty and engaging. Those qualities prompted me to buy this book. It exceded my expectations.

The book is much more than a discourse on Lincoln and his admirals. It is a concise and precise compilation on the US Navy during the Civil War. It gives much attention to Lincoln's crucial interactions with the Secretary of the Navy and his assistant as well as the admirals and officers of the USN. The narrative also provides in-depth attention to other participants such as engineers and US Army generals. And, all of this information is supported with excellent descriptions of the tactics and equipment used during the conflict. Mr. Symonds' explanations of the invention and use of ironclads is especially interesting.

The writing style and organization of the book is decidedly on the same level as works by other major authors such as Goodwin's Team of Rivals. The quality of the research and the synthesis of complex issues make this book a must-have for anyone interested in Linclon and just about any aspect of the Civil War. In addition, it offers a wealth of new perspectives on the transition of African Americans from slavery to freedom--thanks in substantial part to the efforts of the US Navy.

In May, 1861, two months after assuming the presidency, Abraham Lincoln told his Secretary of the Navy, the crusty Gideon Welles, that "I know but little about ships". Over the next four years, Lincoln learned a great deal about ships, and about much more besides. In his highly acclaimed book, "Lincoln and his Admirals" (2008) Craig Symonds tells the little-known story of Lincoln's relationship to the Navy. Symonds is professor emeritus of history at Annapolis, and this book was the co-winner of the prestigious Lincoln Prize. Symonds has written extensively about both naval history and Civil War history, including works about Gettysburg, biographies of Confederate Generals Joseph Johnston and Patrick Cleburne, and a biography of Confederate Admiral Franklin Buchanan. But "Lincoln and his Admirals" may prove to be Symonds's most enduring work. It is a true accomplishment which manages the rare feat of saying something fresh and valuable about Lincoln and the Civil War.

Symonds's book is not a military history of the engagements of the Navy. Thus, some of the most famous naval actions of the Civil War, such as Farragut's victory at Mobile Bay, (and his capture of New Orleans for that matter), or the Navy warship "Kerseage's" capture of the CSA's raider "Alabama" are not described in detail. Even the on-the-seas description of the Union blockade is sparse. In general, Symonds describes naval engagements only to the extent they cast light on Lincoln's relationship to the Navy and of the Navy's political history during the war. The focus of the book is thus on Lincoln, on Secretary Welles and Assistant Secretary Gustavus Fox, and on their political relationship with the rest of Lincoln's cabinet, especially Secretary of State Seward, Secretary of War Stanton, and Secretary of the Treasury Chase. The command relationship, or lack of it, between the Army and the Navy is discussed throughout. Symonds gives close attention as well to the command structure of the Navy. At the outset of the Civil War, there were no Admirals in the service. The service developed as Lincoln and Welles searched for leaders in a way that had many parallels to Lincoln's painful search for able leaders of the Army.

With all the attention to the political growth of the Navy, Symonds's primary focus is on Lincoln's own growth as a leader. Symonds's portrait weaves together Lincoln's growing mastery of the Navy with broader political issues, especially those involving slavery and Emancipation. The book examines Lincoln's leadership in the sensitive areas of foreign affairs raised by the Civil War. Symonds has insights to offer into Lincoln's personal life, particularly with the death of his young son Willie early in his administration. Without sentimentalizing the matter, Symonds shows how Lincoln used his gift for storytelling and his sense of humor to break tension and to advance his political goals.

The book is organized by chapters covering each of the years 1861 - 1864, with a brief epilogue for 1865 and an important Introduction. The discussion early in the book of Fort Sumter and Lincoln's tentativeness at this point of his presidency is one of the most detailed and important of the book. Symonds also gives a thorough account of the early "Trent" affair, which threatened a war with Britain that the United States could ill afford, and of the political and legal issues involving the origins of the blockade. Much of the book describes the poor coordination and rivalry between the Army and the Navy and of how Lincoln had to work to pull the services together. Lincoln became a hands-on commander in order to implement the necessary coordination and to satisfy his own curiosity and interest in technology and in the instruments of war, especially as they involved river warfare and the development of ironclads. Symonds offers a full discussion of the Navy's role at Forts Henry and Donelson and at Vicksburg. He shows the importance of the Navy's coastal activities to the question of dealing with escaped slaves or "contrabands" and how this ultimately contributed to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Throughout the book, Symonds emphasizes how Lincoln grew into greatness. Lincoln emerges in Symonds's account as a somewhat passive, and reflective leader who tried to allow events to unfold in order to make an informed, balanced decision. Symonds accepts Lincoln's own characterization of his presidency: "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me." (Introduction, at xi) Lincoln also, for Symonds, was a principled but pragmatic leader. Lincoln allowed situations to develop and then made what he felt was the best decision under the circumstances without necessarily becoming "hamstrung by established doctrine." (Introduction, at xi.) Symonds also praises Lincoln's creativity and ingenuity with mechanical things (Lincoln was the only president to hold a patent), a factor sometimes overlooked in his leadership. In Symonds's account, Lincoln grows from an inexperienced, vacillating leader, to a president who gradually learns to master events and subordinates. Ultimately, when he finds Army and Navy leadership with which he is satisfied, Lincoln becomes willing to delegate and have professionals take control of the military aspects of the war.

This is a dense, difficult book. It covers some matters covered in most histories of the Civil War but treats them in a new way. It also addresses some matters that people knowledgeable about the conflict will find unfamiliar. The book is a study of the political role of the Navy during the war. But even more, it is a meditation on the evolving character of Lincoln's leadership.

Robin Friedman

With the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, a boatload of anything Lincoln books has deluged the history reader. Two books stand out in the crowd that make us realize how fortunate we were to have Abraham Lincoln as our Commander in Chief. The are " Tried by War " by James McPherson and "Lincoln and his Admirals " by Craig Symonds.
Having read Symonds earlier " Decison at Sea " I purchased his latest work and was not disappointed. My original view of Lincoln and water had been his flatboat adventures and the famous river trip to City Point and Richmond near the end of the War. But there was much more I had not uncovered. From the very first page, Symonds sets forth the newly elected Command in Chief's early lessons in Naval operations with the failed efforts to resupply Fort Sumter, commencing only a few days after taking office.
Symonds then leads the reader through a series of Presidential involvements in Naval operations for the remainder of the Civil War. We see Lincoln as the occasional arbiter of Army / Navy feuds, coordinator of joint military operations and peacemaker between the egos, jealousies and biases of his cabinet ( Wells, Fox, Seward, Blair and Stanton ). A fine read well worth the time and money. The book will bring an even greater appreciation of Lincoln's trials and tribulations not only as President but as " Admiral in Chief " to the reader..

Nearly a century and a half has passed since the death of Abraham Lincoln and in that time a vast ocean of literature has been written about him. Nearly every conceivable topic associated with Lincoln's life, presidency and death has been covered from nearly every conceivable angle. It is hard to imagine that there could be anything new left to say. And yet, as 2009 is the 200th anniversary of his birth, a flood of new books have recently filled the biography and Civil War sections of bookstores across the country. Just when you think nothing new can possibly be said about our sixteenth president, Craig Symonds' "Lincoln and His Admirals" manages to do just that, by looking at Lincoln in his role as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Navy.

Winner of the Lincoln Prize in conjunction with James McPherson's "Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief," Symonds' book serves more than adequately as a companion to McPherson's. Indeed, where Dr. McPherson covers the well plowed ground of Lincoln's relationships with his generals, Symonds breaks the seldom cultivated soil of Lincoln's relationship with the U.S. Navy and its admirals.

Beginning quite literally with Lincoln's first day on the job, Symonds navigates the choppy waters of Lincoln's decision to resupply and not to re-enforce Fort Sumter in intricate detail, giving the pros and cons of the each option.

The blockade of the Confederate States, a key component of the Anaconda Plan (the war strategy developed by Winfield Scott and adopted by Lincoln), affected the areas of international diplomacy and trade. Symonds deftly navigates his reader through the tricky diplomatic channels, explaining that a blockade of enemy ports is internationally recognized as an act of war between two nations, yet the Lincoln administration did not recognize the legitimacy of the Confederate government. If any other nation recognized the sovereignty of the Confederate government it would undermine the Union War effort. Frequently the departments of War, State and Navy found themselves at odds with each other, warring between themselves as to which department had jurisdiction. And just as frequently the President found himself mediating conflicts between his secretaries, Stanton, Seward and Welles. Symonds also does a great job relating Lincoln's shrewd handling of the "Trent Affair" and other seemingly miniscule diplomatic faux pas which had they been handled less delicately, may have led war with England and Confederate independence.

In more than a few instances strategy dictated that the Army and Navy work together. Because no other person embodied the ability to command both the Army and the Navy, therefore the task of coordinating these "joint operations" fell upon Lincoln, who took the helm and steered the conjunctive efforts of the rival departments. The coordination between the army and navy was most successful in the capture of New Orleans and later Vicksburg, but less effective in the fall of Fort Fisher, and the disaster of the Red River Campaign.

Lincoln's problems finding a reliable general who will fight and win are well documented; less so are his problems with his naval commanders. Ambitious officers who wanted promotions, fame and glory had their equal in the navy as well as in the army. The navy also had its share of less aggressive commanders. Just as Lincoln had to replace McClellan as the commander of the Army of the Potomac for his inaction, so did he with admirals DuPont & Goldsborough. Symonds does a good job of detailing Lincoln's search for the naval equivalent of Ulysses S. Grant. Symonds includes many informative biographical sketches of naval officers, detailing their strengths and weaknesses, who have been overshadowed by their army equivalents and whom have nearly been lost to history.

Craig Symonds retired after thirty years of teaching at the U.S. Naval Academy at which he is now Professor Emeritus. During his teaching career he won both the Naval Academy's "Excellence In Teaching" award (1988) as well is it's "Excellence in Research" award (1998). He has previously written ten books, including "Decision At Sea: Five Naval Battles That Shaped American History," which won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Prize in 2006. With his latest book, "Lincoln and His Admirals," not only has he garnered another well deserved award, The Lincoln Prize, but has also managed to shed a new light on an often neglected topic of Civil War scholarship.

Lincoln is one of my favorite persons to read about, and I consider this book to be well written, and very informative. It is a side of his presidency that I knew very little about. I would recommend it.

This book provides a view of Abraham Lincoln's presidential leadership skills from the standpoint of Civil War naval affairs. It is not a history of the ships or average sailors of the period.

Professor Symonds relates how President Lincoln grew as a military leader during the war while handling the diverse crew of naval leaders that had stayed with the Union when the South first bolted. The Cabinet infighting between Welles, Seward, Chase etc. is nicely drawn, as are descriptions of foreign relations frictions brought about by actions at sea.

I liked that the author peppered his narrative with President Lincoln's small stories, often used by that great man to make serious points.