Booknotes III (May '15)

New Arrivals:

1. Lincoln's Trident: The West Gulf Blockading Squadron during the Civil War by Robert M. Browning Jr. (Univ of Ala Pr, 2015).

The long awaited third volume in Browning's blockade squadron series, Lincoln's Trident covers naval operations over a vast swath of Gulf coastline bounded on the west by the Rio Grande River and West Florida's Saint Andrews Bay to the east. In between are Matagorda Bay, Corpus Christi, Galveston, Sabine Pass, New Orleans, Mobile, Pensacola and many other event hotspots so there's a lot to cover.

2. Farragut and Family: The Making of an Elder Hero by Robert L. Caleo (Xlibris, 2015).

"This book tells how Farragut's hero-relatives [father George, adoptive father David Porter and brother David Dixon Porter] impacted him at successive stages in his growth and career. A kind of family album in text and illustration, the book begins with details of Farragut's Spanish and Irish ancestry. It concludes with a profile of his son, Loyall, his chosen biographer..."

3. The Battle of Ezra Church and the Struggle for Atlanta by Earl J. Hess (UNC Pr, 2015).

Another book from Earl Hess before I even get a chance to begin the previous one! This new study details the fierce July 28, 1864 battle fought west of Atlanta and is Ezra Church's first book length treatment. The fact that Ezra Church's also one of the least well covered Atlanta Campaign engagements in any format makes the publication of Hess's volume even more significant. Readers of the author's recent Kennesaw Mountain can expect similar style battle history from one of the field's very finest military historians.