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. 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.

His most recent book is War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies.

Commerce raiders sank Union ships and drove the American merchant marine from the high seas. MCPHERSON is the George Henry Davis 86 Professor of History. Meanwhile, the Confederate navy, dwarfed by its giant adversary, demonstrated daring and military innovation. James McPherson is the dean of American historians of the Civil War era, the gold standard of research precision, narrative style and graceful public. McPherson has crafted an enlightening, at times harrowing, and ultimately thrilling account of the war's naval campaigns and their military leaders. WAR ON THE WATERS THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE NAVIES, 1861-1865 by James M. 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. 17, 2012 Pulitzer and Lincoln Prize winner McPherson ( Abraham Lincoln, 2009, etc. McPherson has crafted an enlightening, at times harrowing, and ultimately thrilling account of the war's naval campaigns and their military leaders.

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.

War on the Waters by James M. McPherson