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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The Union Navy played an essential role in winning the Civil War. Its blockade of more than 3,000 miles of Southern coastline, joint operations with the Union army, and pursuit of Rebel commerce raiders helped secure the 1865 Union victory over the Confederacy. While the majority of Civil War histories focus on the personalities and battles of the Union Army, few explore Union naval operations and their importance. John W. Grattan's journal, Under the Blue Pennant, or Notes of a Naval Officer 1863-1865, helps to fill this historical void.
The Union Navy played an essential role in winning the Civil War. Its blockade of more than 3,000 miles of Southern coastline, joint operations with the Union army, and pursuit of Rebel commerce raiders helped secure the 1865 Union victory over the Confederacy. While the majority of Civil War histories focus on the personalities and battles of the Union Army, few explore Union naval operations and their importance. John W. Grattan's journal, Under the Blue Pennant, or Notes of a Naval Officer 1863-1865, helps to fill this historical void.
Grattan served for two years as clerk and aide to the squadron commander aboard the flagship of the largest Union naval command, the North Atlantic Blocking Squadron. Editor Robert J. Schneller presents Grattan's narrative essentially in its original form, adding a 50-page introduction and explanatory notes to provide important background information and place the narrative's events in historical context. The journal, written in unembellished Victorian prose, provides rare eyewitness observations of daily life at sea, the hopes and fears of inexperienced soldiers, and the military leaders that commanded them. Grattan's sketches provide glimpses of real war, and Schneller's illustrations and maps further bring to life an important episode in our nation's military history. --Bertina Loeffler Sedlack
From Kirkus Reviews
While researching another book, historian Schneller (A Quest for Glory: A Biography of Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren, not reviewed) discovered this never-before-published memoir of a young officers experience in the Union navy. Grattan was a young Brooklynite who served first in the army until1862, then was mustered outprobably for medical reasonsand enlisted in the navy in1863. Although his family origins are unclear, his writing and general literacy indicate that he was well educated and from a middle-class or higher background. Grattan was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading squadron and spent most of his naval career ``under the blue pennant,'' or serving on a flagship. The memoir he later wrote paints a unique portrait of life in the Union navy, offering fascinating glimpses of Federal blockading actions which aided (invaluably) the cause of Northern victory. Also of note is the depiction of relationships between the officers and men of the navy and their African-American stewards (serving in the only available role for blacks in the navy). Grattans writing is sharp and surprisingly unaffected by the flowery prose of typical Victorian memoirs; although it does wax repetitive, overall this is a surprisingly lively and modern read. The authors profuse details show a side of the war effort that few readers could have imagined, such as dinners that would sound more believable on the Titanic than on any US naval vessel. His descriptions of combat are more than believable, though sometimes woodenly penned. Schnellers foreword places Grattan in a context that illuminates the memoir. And his notes (fortunately incorporated into the text, not printed as endnotes) are informative and easily read by the nonhistorian. A welcome addition to our knowledge about the lives of men who served in the Civil War. (45 photos, 5 maps, not seen) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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