THE UNITED STATES' NAVY, 1861-65.•
Annular. Davm PORTER, who performed such conspicuous and useful services during its continuance, has done well to write a history of the part played by the Navy in the war against Secession and slavery. It is a tale that needed telling by some competent authority who could set down the authentic facts, describe the ceaselese toile, narrate the daring deeds, and record the invaluable help which the Jack-Tars of the Union rendered to the American nation. Such a work was needed, especially if the Admiral does not exaggerate when he says that the great mass of American readers are better acquainted with the incidents of the Naval War in 1812, than they are with those of what he calls the Civil War. But why did he place the story in so big and cumbrous a volume P Why did he not choose another form, and divide his narrative into several volumes P Surely in a more inviting shape his book would have been more widely read. A quarto containing more than eight hundred pages almost compels the reader to employ machinery in order to master its contents. Size and weight are great drawbacks except to giants, and even a Hercules would require a long course of athletic training before he could handle this book without fatigue. We are afraid that the Admiral credits the public to whom he appeals with the possession of abounding and tireless energy like his own.
Apart from its afflicting form, the book is a good book,—a solid contribution to the momentous story of the Secession War for which Americans should be grateful, especially if they have hitherto been comparatively ignorant of what their sailors did for them, a statement which astonishes an English reader. Here is the history of a Navy built up from the ground, growing gradually month after month, improvised mostly, yet including the application of novel and scientific inventions to ships which revolutionised the fleets of the world, and almost equally admirable adaptations of river-vessels to suit the new needs, maintaining the blockade of a coast-line exceeding a thousand miles in length, fighting and running past shore-batteries armed with the heaviest guns, steaming up shallow rivers and bayous, and pushing their way through wooded swamps, and in all places where it was a " little damp" affording that aid to the land forces without which they could not have achieved their per- manent successes. The creation or improvisation of the United States' Navy between 1861 and 1865, a piece of work which had to be done in haste, is a fresh proof of the vast reserve strength possessed by great and resolute nations. It is, however, fair to say, especially when their limited resources are taken into account, that the slave-owners, who, after all, were men of the same energetic strain, rivalled their more powerful antagonists in the building and adaptation of floating engines of war. They could not hope to succeed ; but their attempts, persisted in to the last, show that they lacked neither enterprise, nor invention, nor stubbornness. Admiral Porter, of course, is fair to his oppo- nents, and without a recognition of their merits the story of the huge struggle would be incomplete.
The romantic combat between the 'Merrimac' and the 'Monitor' appeals to the imagination, and will always live in the memory ; for it occurred at a critical moment, secured the command of the James River, and saved Washington, as well as the shipping in Chesapeake Bay. Yet, although without the dramatic fitness of that singular and exciting battle, the creation and use of the ironclads and "tin-clads," and mortar boats and rams, which gave the Federate the command of the Upper Mississippi, the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Missouri, and Arkansas—indeed, of what are collectively called the "Western Waters "—are hardly less interesting, and were scarcely less important. Without them, the campaigns on land would not have been possible in the circumstances ; and without them, the control of the Mississippi, which some have called the "backbone of the Confederation," could not have been secured by the Unionists. Admiral Porter is quite right in claiming credit for the Navy, but considering how much it did, the surprising thing is that any necessity should have arisen to demonstrate its validity. There are few things finer in naval annals than the exploits performed by the sailors who manned these ugly structures; and bearing in mind the odds in favour of the fixed over the floating battery, and the unhesitating manner in which the ships always attacked the land defences, the wonder is that so few vessels were sent to the bottom. The naval enterprises on the Mississippi form the most attrac- • The Natal History of the Civil War. By Admiral DavilD. Porter, U.S. Navy. London : Sampson Low and Co. tive and instructive reading in these pages. All the naval pro- ceedings in connection with the siege of Vicksburg ; Farragat's passage up the river, and capture of New Orleans ; the forcing of Mobile Bay ; the extraordinary career of the Navy in the Red River, and a hundred episodes daring the four years of strife, are told with care and sobriety, but also with animation. Perhaps the escape of the fleet, when apparently cut off by the fall of the Red River, is one of the most instructive as well as interesting narratives in the volume. The account of the abortive military expedition may also be studied as a fresh illustration, if one were needed, of the peril as well as folly which always attends the choice of a politician as a General. Although Mr. Nathaniel Banks found his greatest delight in the study of Scott's Tactics, he had no qualification whatever which entitled him to seek or assume a great command. But his ambition was to be thought a soldier, and as he, like Butler, had great political influence, his ambition was gratified at the expense of the common weal. When the caucus is strong enough to appoint Generals—having no sea-legs, they may not even try to nominate Admirals—we shall ran risks similar to those incurred by the United States, sometimes grave and always costly, between 1861 and 1865. " General " Butler at Big Bothell, Bermuda Hundred, and Fort Fisher, and "General" Banks in Louisiana, are examples of what even a caucus should avoid..
Admiral Porter justly dwells on the vital importance and efficiency of the blockade. The squadrons captured no fewer than 1,119 prizes, including 210 fast steamers, and burned, sank, drove ashore, or otherwise destroyed 355 more. Yet the per- sistency of the blockade-runners shows how profitable that species of enterprise was. "The naval battles that were fought,' writes the Admiral," were more exciting to the public than that. close, dreary blockade ; but we doubt very much if they were of any more value to the Union." Indeed, he asserts in another place that "the complete blockade of the whole coast," of all the naval triumphs, was one of the greatest. It did ruin the Confederacy by shutting out those supplies from Europe which the Union was free to obtain. But if the gallant Admiral desired to enlist public sympathy for the blockaders, he should have devoted just one little chapter to telling, in simple, sailor-like language, what blockading duty is like, and not have left it to the imagination of ignorant landsmen. The want of each a chapter is a defeat in the book.
That due reference is made to the Alabama,' and cruisers of her stamp, need hardly be said. The disputes growing out of their origin and behaviour are settled now ; bat the lesson remains. The Government of England. at that time did undoubtedly aid and abet the 'Alabama ;' but Admiral Porter, in dealing out his censures, should have remembered the bearing of the people of England, especially of the cotton operatives. No doubt nations must be held responsible for the acts and language of their Governments ; but a historian should also take a just account of all the facts, and not omit one so essential as that to which we have referred. On the whole, we may call this Naval History, which is written in an excellent spirit, a satisfactory record, though we could have wished that a little more of James's systematic method had been employed ; and we certainly should have preferred to receive the Admiral's valuable and interesting information in a. less unwieldy and bulky form.
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