A Messmate Before A Shipmate, A Shipmate Before A Stranger, A Stranger Before A Dog, And A Dog Before A Soldier: Almost-Lost Episodes In The U.S. Navy’s Civil War, by Chuck Veit

This is the latest book I have gotten from the Naval Historical Institute to review, and it is a self-published work from an author who apparently wrote this book by accident by trying to correct gaps in the historial record as a navalist who is comfortable in explaining an area of history that has been far too often neglected by many people. I must admit to not knowing that much about the naval history of the American Civil War, except that I have studied some of the history of the Florida blockade lines and the work of the U.S. Navy in that forgotten theater of the American Civil War.

The book itself is a collection of essays about topics that are very obscure to the general reader. These battles include the first Battle of Shiloh, a forgotten attempt to sink the Virginia/Merrimack before the famous duel of the Minotor and the Merrimack, naval logistics missions and raids that have not been remembered, as well as an engagement between a U.S. Naval ship and some rebellious Japanese lords. The author as a whole points out the bias inherent in many of our primary texts because the U.S. Army had numerous advantages–larger numbers of soldiers, more political influence, faster communication as a result of the telegraph, and a greater audience for one’s point of view. By looking at the forgotten role of the U.S. Navy, this author is attempting to rectify a historical wrong.

Given that I am a fan of forgotten history, obscure topics, and underdogs, this looks like a very suitable book for me. I had some quibbles in the fact that the text on the back of the book refers to the Civil War as the War Between The States, which I view as pro-rebel and therefore unacceptable, it appears my concerns that this book would be a Southern apologetic have not been warrented from the poking around I have done so far. This book is second on my queue of books to read among the four books I got last week while I was away in Redmond, and I look forward to reading and reviewing it soon.