Booknotes: United States Revenue and Coast Guard Cutters in Naval Warfare, 1790-1918

New Arrival:
• United States Revenue and Coast Guard Cutters in Naval Warfare, 1790–1918
by Thomas B. Ostrom (McFarland, 2018).

Thomas Ostrom's United States Revenue and Coast Guard Cutters in Naval Warfare, 1790-1918 "covers the history of the U.S. Coast Guard from 1790 under Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, when the Service was called the U.S. Revenue Marine, to World War I, during which the naval agency, then called the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, was combined with the U.S. Life-Saving Service to form the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915. The Coast Guard has historically served with or under the U.S. Navy in national defense missions. 

More from the description: The maritime conflicts in that time frame include a war with France; War of 1812-1815; clashes with pirates, slave ships, and the Seminole Indians; War with Mexico; the Civil War of 1861-1865; Spanish-American War (1898); and World War I (1914-1918). The Great War involved the USCG and USN in domestic and maritime missions across the Atlantic to Europe, merchant ship convoy escorts, and anti-submarine warfare. The naval period surveys the evolution of wooden hulled, wind powered sailing ships to fuel powered iron hulled vessels. The historical geography of the wars is illustrated with maps created by retired IBM engineer and military historian David H. Allen."

Desperately short of seaworthy ships and with no way to produce new ones in needed numbers, the Confederate Navy made U.S. revenue cutters a key target for capture and repurposing. Three chapters in the book cover the Civil War years. In around 35 pages, these sections discuss the opposing navies and the revenue cutter service during the Civil War. A historiographical assessment of the naval literature is also provided.