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Monday, 18 April 2011

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Many readers will over the course of the sesquicentennial will expand, or in some cases start, a Civil War library. Perhaps historians may not have placed as much emphasis on the naval aspects of the war compared to the land campaigns, but the naval history of the war has a share of good, solid scholarship for readers.

One of my personal projects over the next few months is to fill out my Civil War Navy bibliography. I approach this first by defining the "shelves" or categories to file the volumes. For a start, let's go with the categories defined within the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies (which by the way, is a mandatory inclusion in ANY Civil War library, no excuses since it is available electronically):
  • Operations of the Cruisers - or as I like to call it, the "Blue Water Navy."
  • Blockading Operations - which separate neatly into three sub-sections based on the command infrastructure: North Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Gulf Coast (the Official Records further break out East and West Gulf Squadrons).
  • Eastern Theater Support Operations - mostly operations in direct support of the Army's activities in Virginia.
  • Western River Operations - centered, but certainly not exclusive to, the Mississippi River. I personally separate these out into two sub-categories: Upper Mississippi Valley and Lower Mississippi Valley.
  • Supply and Logistic support.
  • Administrative, departmental and diplomatic activities.
  • Biographies of key leaders and personnel.
  • Ship histories - considering technical and service aspects.
  • Ordnance and munitions - Yes, my personal favorite.
Of course on the "top shelf" I'd place a category for works looking at the Navy's role in the war from a broad overview perspective.

So what other "shelves" would you add? (or take away?)

What books would you like to see on those shelves? Any suggested reading?

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