War on the Waters
The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861–1865
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Narrated by:
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Joe Barrett
About this listen
Although previously undervalued for their strategic impact because they represented only a small percentage of total forces, the Union and Confederate navies were crucial to the outcome of the Civil War. In War on the Waters, James M. McPherson has crafted an enlightening, at times harrowing, and ultimately thrilling account of the war’s naval campaigns and their military leaders.
McPherson recounts how the Union navy’s blockade of the Confederate coast, leaky as a sieve in the war’s early months, became increasingly effective as it choked off vital imports and exports. Meanwhile, the Confederate navy, dwarfed by its giant adversary, demonstrated daring and military innovation. Commerce raiders sank Union ships and drove the American merchant marine from the high seas. Southern ironclads sent several Union warships to the bottom, naval mines sank many more, and the Confederates deployed the world’s first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. But in the end, it was the Union navy that won some of the war’s most important strategic victories - as an essential partner to the army on the ground at Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Mobile Bay, and Fort Fisher, and all by itself at Port Royal, Fort Henry, New Orleans, and Memphis.
James M. McPherson taught US history at Princeton University for 42 years and is the author of more than a dozen books on the Civil War era. His books have won a Pulitzer Prize and two Lincoln Prizes.
©2012 the University of North Carolina Press (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Roy Adkins, with his wife, Lesley, returns to the Napoleonic War in The War for All the Oceans, a gripping account of the naval struggle that lasted from 1798 to 1815, a period marked at the beginning by Napoleon's seizing power and at the end by the War of 1812. In this vivid and visceral account, Adkins draws on eyewitness records to portray not only the battles but also the details of a sailor's life: shipwrecks, press-gangs, prostitutes, spies, and prisoners of war.
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Good material, horrid narration
- By SC Visel on 01-03-08
By: Roy Adkins, and others
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Igniting the American Revolution
- 1773-1775
- By: Derek W. Beck
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Few Americans know that the Revolutionary War did not begin with the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, but over a year earlier, in April 1775. Now historian Derek Beck draws on previously unpublished documents to tell the full story of the war before American independence - from both sides. Spanning the years 1773 to 1776, this audiobook sweeps listeners from the Boston Tea Party to the halls of Parliament - where Ben Franklin was almost run out of England for pleading on behalf of the colonies.
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Learned so much!
- By tracey68 on 10-15-17
By: Derek W. Beck
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The Battle of New Orleans
- By: Robert V. Remini
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The Battle of New Orleans sets its scenes with an almost unbelievably colorful cast of characters - a happenstance coalition of militia-men, regulars, untrained frontiersmen, free blacks, Indians, townspeople, and of course, Jackson himself. His glorious, improbable victory will catapult a once-poor, uneducated orphan boy into the White House and forge the beginning of a true nation.
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Pronunciation please!
- By Paul Randolph on 05-06-19
By: Robert V. Remini
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Through the Perilous Fight
- Six Weeks That Saved the Nation
- By: Steve Vogel
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1814, the United States of America teetered on the brink of disaster. The war it had declared against Great Britain two years earlier appeared headed toward inglorious American defeat. In a fast-paced, character-driven narrative, Steve Vogel tells the story of this titanic struggle from the perspective of both sides. Like an epic novel, Through the Perilous Fight abounds with heroes, villains, and astounding feats of derring-do.
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History at its finest!
- By Anonymous User on 04-04-24
By: Steve Vogel
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Give Me a Fast Ship
- The Continental Navy and America's Revolution at Sea
- By: Tim McGrath
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 19 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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America in 1775 was on the verge of revolution - or, more likely, disastrous defeat. After the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, England's King George sent hundreds of ships westward to bottle up American harbors and prey on American shipping. Colonists had no force to defend their coastline and waterways until John Adams of Massachusetts proposed a bold solution: The Continental Congress should raise a navy. Meticulously researched and masterfully told, Give Me a Fast Ship is the definitive history of the American Navy during the Revolutionary War.
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I learned so much
- By William on 05-08-17
By: Tim McGrath
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Jefferson's War
- America's First War on Terror, 1801-1805
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: Patrick Cullen
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
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Two centuries ago, without congressional or public debate, a president who is thought of today as peaceable, Thomas Jefferson, launched America's first war on foreign soil, a war against terror. The enemy was Muslim; the war was waged unconventionally, with commandos, native troops, and encrypted intelligence, and launched from foreign bases.
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A Great Read
- By Donald on 06-19-05
By: Joseph Wheelan
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Iron Dawn
- The Monitor, the Merrimack, and the Civil War Sea Battle That Changed History
- By: Richard Snow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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No single sea battle has had more far-reaching consequences than the one fought in the harbor at Hampton Roads, Virginia, in March 1862. The Confederacy, with no fleet of its own, built an iron fort containing 10 heavy guns on the hull of a captured Union frigate named the Merrimack. The North got word of the project when it was already well along, and, in desperation, commissioned an eccentric inventor named John Ericsson to build the Monitor, an entirely revolutionary iron warship.
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Good book about an underreported area of the civil war
- By Brian on 11-09-16
By: Richard Snow
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Patriotic Fire
- Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans
- By: Winston Groom
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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This audio program has all the ingredients of a high-flying adventure story. Unbeknownst to the combatants, the War of 1812 has ended. But Andrew Jackson, a brave, charismatic American general, sick with dysentery and commanding a beleaguered garrison, leads a desperate struggle to hold on to New Orleans and to thwart the army that defeated Napoleon.
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A Great Book About A Fascinating Battle
- By David I. Williams on 05-12-13
By: Winston Groom
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Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates
- The Forgotten War That Changed American History
- By: Brian Kilmeade, Don Yaeger
- Narrated by: Brian Kilmeade
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America faced a crisis. The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa's Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new country could afford.
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Interesting history - terrible narrator
- By CJF on 12-08-15
By: Brian Kilmeade, and others
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Hubris
- The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century
- By: Alistair Horne
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Sir Alistair Horne has been a close observer of war and history for more than 50 years, and in this wise and masterly work he revisits six battles of the past century and examines the strategies, leadership, preparation, and geopolitical goals of aggressors and defenders to reveal the one trait that links them all: hubris.
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I Never Heard W ll Explained this Way!
- By John on 09-01-16
By: Alistair Horne
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Skip this! Get Catton's Stillness at Appomattox
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good book, fair sound
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Far beyond the scope of the battle
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Ambitious idea but falls short
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Apart from The Last of the Mohicans, most Americans know little of the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years' War, and yet it remains one of the most fascinating periods in our history. In January 2006, PBS will air The War That Made America, a four-part documentary about this epic conflict. Fred Anderson, the award-winning and critically acclaimed historian, has written the official tie-in to this exciting television event.
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On to Petersburg
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On to Petersburg follows the Union army's movement to the James River, the military response from the Confederates, and the initial assault on Petersburg, which Rhea suggests marked the true end of the Overland Campaign. Beginning his account in the immediate aftermath of Grant's three-day attack on Confederate troops at Cold Harbor, Rhea argues that the Union general's primary goal was not - as often supposed - to take Richmond, but rather to destroy Lee's army by closing off its retreat routes and disrupting its supply chain.
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Important to understanding the Overland Campaign
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In Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America, historian William Gienapp provides a remarkably concise, up-to-date, and vibrant biography of the most revered figure in United States history. While the heart of the book focuses on the Civil War, Gienapp begins with a finely etched portrait of Lincoln's early life, from pioneer farm boy to politician and lawyer in Springfield, to his stunning election as 16th president of the United States. Students will see how Lincoln grew during his years in office and much more.
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A great man we could use in the current political climate.
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Embattled Rebel
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History has not been kind to Jefferson Davis. Many Americans of his own time and in later generations considered him an incompetent leader, not to mention a traitor. Not so, argues James M. McPherson. In Embattled Rebel, McPherson shows us that Davis might have been on the wrong side of history, but that it is too easy to diminish him because of his cause’s failure. Gravely ill throughout much of the Civil War, Davis nevertheless shaped and articulated the principal policy of the Confederacy—the quest for independent nationhood—with clarity and force.
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Interesting
- By Jean on 10-18-14
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Iron Dawn
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- By: Richard Snow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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No single sea battle has had more far-reaching consequences than the one fought in the harbor at Hampton Roads, Virginia, in March 1862. The Confederacy, with no fleet of its own, built an iron fort containing 10 heavy guns on the hull of a captured Union frigate named the Merrimack. The North got word of the project when it was already well along, and, in desperation, commissioned an eccentric inventor named John Ericsson to build the Monitor, an entirely revolutionary iron warship.
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Good book about an underreported area of the civil war
- By Brian on 11-09-16
By: Richard Snow
What listeners say about War on the Waters
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kindle Customer
- 01-07-21
Good coverage of a fascinating topic.
Nicely done history that puts together work that's seen piecemeal in other books. Full of tales of daring and intrigue. Good narration.
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- David J Roetman
- 06-18-21
Detailed and interesting
The American Civil War is known for its massive land battles. The war at sea and most interestingly to me the war on the rivers was largely unknown to me. Good stuff.
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- John
- 04-30-21
From Offshore, This War Looks Completely Different
Whether the fault of historians or--much more likely--my own misperceptions, Civil War naval operations have always seemed a sideshow to me, with even the capture of New Orleans overshadowed by the “real” war on dry land. As James McPherson makes clear, people at the time saw things very differently. News of New Orleans sent our otherwise sober-sided ambassador to Britain dancing about his office.
It’s easy to see why the navy’s role in victory is so overlooked; after all, there were no commodores at Appomattox. Be that as it may, McPherson’s narrative, uninterrupted by maneuvers on land (except when they correlate with naval operations), makes it clear just how much the sailors did to bring Appomattox about. Between hard fighting and tedious blockade duty, they managed to hand in a record of more successes than failures--in sharp contrast to the army, at least in the eastern Theater--and were a year ahead of the soldiers in the recruitment of freed slaves, whose services as pilots and gunners were highly prized and praised.
On both sides, there’s an entirely different cast of characters to meet, too; McPherson does a fine job of bringing each, with their particular fortes and failings, into sharper focus. While not the only book ever written about the naval side of the Civil War, this certainly has to be one of the most engaging and intelligent. Joe Barrett, whom I’ve known as a reader of fiction, hands in his usual excellent performance. True, his voicing of certain figures may, at times, seem a little over-the-top, but his air of comfortable affability makes you feel as if you and he are in this thing together.
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4 people found this helpful
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- mike
- 02-01-21
I learned a lot
Most of my history books covered the naval side of the civil war with
“The North blockaded the South and captured control of the Mississippi river”...the end.
This book filled in a lot of information and was interesting at the same time.
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- Cameron U
- 01-04-23
Very informative
If you don’t know about the naval warfare during the Civil War and you think you know something about Civil War history, you don’t. I highly recommend this book. It has added an important layer to my understanding are the different elements That led to the union victory in the Civil War.
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- Paul S.
- 06-26-21
Good overview
A very nice history of the naval battles during the Civil War. The book needed more tech history of the ship and devices but good attention to the battles and personalities of this conflict
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- Malcolm B. Brown
- 10-03-22
A good listen
Important counter-balance to the focus on the land war aspects of the American civil war. A bit narrowly focused on the civil war; some background on the American navy prior to 1860 (e.g., why no admirals prior to the civil war?) and some discussion of the fate of the innovations of the civil war navies after 1865 (e.g., torpedoes and ironclads) would have been welcome added dimensions.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-05-23
Very easy to listen but very educational
Excellent perspective on a VERY overlooked part of the war. I’ve read dozens of civil war books over the decades but this one educated me
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- Rob C
- 04-13-16
Good study on naval civil war influence
This a great, somewhat concise study in the navy's influence on tw civil war, the maritime technology that came out of the conflict, and the responsiveness of each side to the complications of a country fighting itself: mainly becoming a naval war largely on the rivers instead of the seas. I intend on reading(listening) to another of McPherson's books.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 04-24-23
Excellent
Enjoyed listening. Very informative on an important area that is often or looked when discussing the Civil War.
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