Customer Reviews

Rebels and Yankees: Naval Battles of the Civil War

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Chester G. Hearn is a pretty good author. Not the greatest, to be sure, but he writes his books knowledgably (see "Tracks in the Sea" for his greatest work, in my opinion). In "Naval Battles of the Civil War" he rounds out the series of "Rebels and Yankees" books by William C. Davis. Davis is a fantastic historian with excellent writing skills. Nonetheless, he is obviously biased when it comes to the naval aspect of the Civil War. In the "Rebels and Yankees" series there are several errors in the artistic representation of sailors as well as factual eroors in the pring itself. Davis considers the Navies of the Civil War to be inconsequential because they did not see as much combat as the Army, and thus does not put much effort into recording them.
Hearn, a naval historian, does a much better and much more thorough job than the usually adept Davis. There are a few small errors (a U.S. Marine button is erroneously declared a Naval officer's button), but "Naval Battles of the Civil War" is an otherwise fine and worthwhile book.

Chester G Hearn's lavish book gives us an insight to the often waylaid naval battles of the American civil war.

The large format gives a good spread of illustrations as well as written history. Some of today's naval technology were first tried out in this conflict albeit in very primitive form.

The Submarine was first used with tragic consequenses as well as the dawn of the ironclad vessel with the now famous Monitor verses Virginia battle.

Tactics are well explained and a good map reference is provided.

So much media attention is given to the land battles of the war and it is good to see a nice big well laid out book that anyone can read.

The other reviews miss what I found wonderful about this book, he finds the fascinating factors in each battle and tells the story so well, you wonder how so many other Civil War books missed the inherent drama in the naval battles. In particular the battle of Memphis, where two U.S. fleets, one run by the U.S. Navy, one under a civilian who built a set of rams (and made an Army colonel) working for the Department of War, converged literally in a battle of ramming against the Confederate fleet, without co-ordinating with each other. This book inspired me to get the game Ironclads and play out some of the battles. The remarkable collection of pictures was simply an extra.

This book is perfect for a school project. It contains many full color pictures of historic Civil War battles, equipment and
combat weaponry. There are memorable pictures of war-torn recruits. This rendition very much captures the history of the
period. Since there was no definitive resolution of the slavery question in the American Constitution, the question remained open to interpretation. The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Civil War resolved the question of slavery in favor of the Union.
The Hearns book depicts the Monitor, CSS Virginia, Merrimac and the USS New Hampshire in full view. Sample swords and guns of the
period are depicted for history buffs. Each state is listed with
the dates of admission and secession from the Union. This book will complement your personal library. The pictures contained
in the volume will assist in crafting any class project through
the middle and high school years. The volume depicts the cities and towns of the period, as well as waterways and major thoroughfares of the time. Pictorially, the engineering feats
of the period were considerable. The ironclad ships and weaponry
were quite advanced for the period. The book is worth the price of admission.